Do Americans understand British English?

[knickernicker]

I can't think that there is any American phrase, word or accent that I wouldn't understand, but I wonder if an American would understand everything I say.
I remember sitting for a meal with some people from Boston and being acutely aware of needing to edit what I said to remove any British idiom. It was an odd feeling as when watching American films I forget they're a different nationality.

This thread is about language and all my life (I'm 53) the round things which periodically fall off car wheels I've never heard called anything other than 'hub caps'. I had a whole set stolen off a car in about 1990 and I'm pretty sure all discussions re their replacement used this term. Thereafter 'alloy wheels' ... honestly never heard 'wheel trim' before this.

I think we cross-posted, but I am mostly of Scottish descent, and have a Scottish surname, so I usually say Scottish American.

PJ, I have never heard of nave plates in my life!!! You can take precision too far, you know!

My dad had Ford Prefects (2 different ones), a Mk 1 Ford Cortina & an Austin 1300. They all had 'hubcaps' - the thing you removed in order to access the wheel nuts if you had a flat tyre (or tire, for the Americans )

Yes, whatever they are, we call them hubcaps in the US. I had some stolen once too, from a beat-up wreck of a car. Not sure why they bothered.

I'm 63, Errol. They are definitely called wheel trims now.

Maybe it's because I'm a pedant....

So we used to have hubcaps but now we don't... (I'm sure the fallen-off ones are old though, so still hubcaps ). Other car nomenclature of course also varies - front end headwear 'hood/bonnet' - back end 'trunk/boot' ...think there's other differences too. What's the equivalent of a 'car boot sale' I wonder?

where you see the little cat's face, that's where real hub cap (the cap on the wheel hub where the grease for the wheel bearing) is, although the cat's face is an ornamental cover, it is the right size.

Almost nobody knows about wheel bearings, so they think the hub cap is the chrome saucer-like thing on a Ford Cortina

Possibly in the days of artillery wheels the true hub cap was an ornamental item and the name stuck.

This wheel does not have trims, so you can see through it.

Car boot sale is a flea market.

I don't think they have them - people have their own 'garage sales' or 'yard sales' (like in Toy Story 2)

Re cars/parts - I posted a few earlier. Hood & trunk were in there

PJ, I think if 99% of the driving population call a 'nave plate' a 'hubcap', then however ignorant a specialist thinks that 99% is, hubcap is the term to use so that we all know where we are

Community garage sales are popular. You sell your junk to your neighbors, and then go house to house and buy your neighbors' junk.

yes

Poussins aren't quite the same as Cornish hens - Cornish hens are about twice the size (and the age), closer to our spring chickens.

Also, odd question I know, one American friend didn't understand what we meant when we said we were going to the Coach and Four. Do you not have stereotypical 'pub names' the same?

They don't have pubs, as such, at all (remember many of ours are 100s of years old - most of America is barely 100!) & certainly not with traditional names like British pubs (I think they tend to be known by eg the owner's name)

Oh, of course. I remember finding it strange, because if I went somewhere and people said "We're going to The Feathers/Green Dragon/Cross Keys" I'd probably recognise it as a 'pub-type' name, even if it wasn't one I was familiar with.

What would be the equivalent? "We're off to Joe's"?

Yes, off to Joe's, as in Joe's Bar and Grill. Most cities (and some towns)of any size have at least one Irish or Scottish themed pub-like establishment, often named after the owner, eg O'Brien's or MacKenzie's.

I do wonder sometimes if some Americans like being purposefully obtuse pretending not to understand simple words and phrases. I can understand them not getting regional words like bevvie or reem (not that I like to imagine anyone using stupid words like those in the UK or abroad!) or slang like 2 and 8, rosie or descriptions like chav, wide boy or whatever and even to an extent when we do have different words like crisps/chips, jello/jam/jelly, football/soccer, though again I think that confusion should be limited as I know what they mean when they say football but when it's the same word pronounced differently or a saying that is fairly explanatory I think so of them just like playing dumb so they can pretend to get it then say "Oh you mean vitamins/aluminium!"

What annoys me more is when they think I'm Australian or South African. I have a very, very English accent!! It's not even regional, it's public school London well spoken English, seriously it's not like I have a broad Geordie or Cornish accent FFS! They understand Kate Winslet and old pouty lips from Pirates and Duchess (forget her name!) so they should understand me!

Reading through this thread there's not an American phrase I've not understood and I really find it difficult to believe that Americans can't understand us. Like fag, I knew 20 years ago what Americans call a fag, and when I lived there I still called cigarettes fags and they knew what I meant, probably because I had one in my hand or was reaching for my packet. But seriously they've seen the Guy Richie films, they've seen Jason Statham and Jude Law and Ray Winston, they've heard them say fag and knew what it meant surely!

Car Boot Sales are a very British phenomenon. They don't have anything quite the same anywhere else.

In most of Europe there are flea markets which are the most similar thing, but you don't sell directly out of your car boot, you set up your table/tent and sell from there almost like a normal market, except everything is second hand (and in some cases stolen!) Smaller flea markets are more like a jumble sale. In Germany where I live the kindergartens will very often hold flea markets so the parents donate old clothes/toys etc and then other parents and people from the community come and buy them, a bit like an NCT sale since the items are usually child-related, not always though.

In the US people hold their own garage sales or yard sales but I don't know beyond that.

When I stayed with Canadian friends they found the term car boot hilarious.
While at a theme park in Florida my DH went on a ride and said to a young girl "Is this the front of the queue?" She looked him up and down in disgust and said "I'm sorry I don't speak your language!"

To be honest I have had people misunderstand my accent as Australian- and they were Londoners and my colleagues. So it isn't an 'American' thing, more a stupid thing .

I was absolutely appalled .

The US is such a huge place that they aren't exposed to the regional variations in dialect that we are. We can travel forty miles and hear speech patterns totally different to our own. There is also an assumption that everybody spends their time watching films with British actors in. The problem is that a lot of British actors working in the US use RP or similar so they really aren't exposed to regional accents.

I can't believe that people wouldn't understand queue! that is very hard to believe! 'I don't speak your language'. How did he keep a straight face!!

When I was in America nobody knew I was Irish. Odd. I think if you don't 'ham it up' they just don't recognise it.

We have car boot sales here. I've got some good bric a brac there. We not only have car boot sales here but they are fortnightly to boot

Americans stand in line. They don't queue. Or that is what I have been told.

I think he was a bit bemused Haglady.
Until I went to Canada I didn't realise how much I said "right then" and "sorted". They picked up on it straight away.
They loved the phrase "bottled it" though!

Americans find it very hard to understand me but funnily not my husband although we come from the same city. (Midlands - non Brummie) We've been mistaken for New Zealanders, Aussies and South Africans. I'm not surprised as they wouldn't have been exposed to our accent at all except for Clive Owen in Bourne film. That's the only time our city's accent has been portrayed in a film as far as I know.

Oh no, actually the queue thing is true. They use line instead of queue and some of them have literally never come across the word. One of my friends taught English in China for a few words and ended up having a really long argument with someone because she had written "queue up" and the other person (American) refused to believe that it was a real word or that it could be used as a verb