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.

I didn't realise that Americans never say "Can't be arsed/can't be bothered". They think it's hilarious and British/Australians say it all the time.

I'm a member of a Facebook group based in the bible belt, despite me being very British, and I've found they understand British English perfectly well. For instance, one of them posted an article about Eric Pickles (!) and I remarked that he's a 'talking bollock most famous for eating all the pies' and everybody got the meaning.

I asked once why there so few black atheists and got a reply "well, I'm a black atheist and mostly keep it under my hat" which I thought was very English, even though she's from North West Florida and has never been to Britain. Apparently she got less grief when she came out as gay than when she declared she was an atheist.

I think 'keep it under your hat' might actually be an American idiom which we nicked!

Really? Blimey Charlie!

Two things that haven't come up yet (and I think I've read the whole thread):
'momentarily' - UK meaning, FOR a moment, US meaning, IN a moment. 'The aircraft will be arriving at the gate momentarily' makes me want to scream...

And kitty-corner. I was given directions to somewhere - could not understand kitty-corner. Now I know what it means (diagonally opposite), but no idea why...

I found it took a while before I realised I could care less for I couldn't cate less was not a spelling error!

My English DB and SIL found it quite hilarious when my tall, strapping American DH announced he was "going Downtown" i.e. walking to the humble high st of their Kent village.

Americans do not pronounce 't's in many words. DH wanted to call our second DD Verity (as it was such an English sounding name to him) but every American we knew pronounced it Verridee so that just didn't work for me!

Oh yes, I had forgotten momentarily!

Presently is another one: US = right now, UK = soon

I found it took a while before I realised I could care less for I couldn't cate less was not a spelling error!

That one is just plain illogical.

I remember the first time we went to Florida and my DS who was then 4 was adamant that it was Pludo not Pluto. He just wouldn't believe us!

In the Southern US "presently" is used to mean soon as in the UK.

I don't think it unreasonable that Americans sometimes mistake British accents for Australian or New Zealand. These accents are derived from British accents and the distinctions are hard to pick up if you are not used to hearing the accents on a regular basis.

Of course American accents are also ultimately derived from British speech, but much farther back in time. Which is why we still say "gotten."

I always think that if I'd ended up in America I'd still speak the same way but my old school friends (on fb) write traveled, realize, line up, they say sneakers, tomayto, baysil. It's no wonder some Americans never learn the British English way to say things.

Of course Americans have car boots. We call them Swap meets.

LA Swap meets.

When we were in america we said gasoline, movies, tomayto, baysil, orEGGano, budder etc. Nobody would have known what we meant otherwise & anyway it was fun!

Ahhh cool, I didn't know about swap meets! Except that I go to an expat brunch every 2 weeks and my friend remarked that we should rename it "swap meet" because people are always buying/selling stuff.

I find I'm picking up more American words because I'm around US English speakers. I keep telling DS things are gross etc.

No snakes on a plane, but I had to get someone to "snake the drain" when it was blocked.

Gardening- yard work
Rubbish- debris
Wardrobe- closet
Cooker-range
Cutlery - flatware
What do you have in your yard? Sod!

We say gardening in the South. And we call the cooker a stove, but know what people mean when they say range. Rubbish is more likely called garbage.

Good points, Scone. I was in Virginia. I forgot about garbage. Sometimes it was difficult to remember the appropriate word. I spoke English as a foreign language! Only kidding, but I often had to formulate what I said before it came out of my mouth.

Is there a difference between garbage & trash?

helzapoppin I sympathize. I went from Georgia to Scotland in the days before there was a lot of familiarity in the UK with US English. I began to amend my vocabulary in a hurry. And after a year, I came home sounding a bit like a cross between Scarlett O'Hara and Miss Jean Brodie.

No real difference between garbage and trash where I live, except that garbage would probably be used more where food waste is present.

I think it's interesting how 'fortnight' is seen as so quaint and archaic, but Americans quite happily use other English words that haven't been used in the UK for the last three hundred years, like 'Highway' and 'Fall' (as in Autumn).