There are a multitude of differences between North American English and British English. Not only are the accents worlds apart but the spelling is different and so is much of the vocabulary. Whether abroad in the UK, Canada, or the US this lexicon could come in handy when browsing the supermarket or scanning a menu. Take a look at the categories on the right or just have a scroll through!

For the purpose of this lexicon Canadian and American English are lumped together as they are very similar. Canada, however, has many more linguistic similarities to the UK, thanks to its Commonwealth background.

Breakfast

Traditional UK breakfast dishes:

• Full English Breakfast: Eggs, toast, grilled tomatoes, beans, black pudding, mushrooms, hashbrowns, etc.
• Eggs and soldiers: Toast sliced into stripes and served with a soft boiled egg so you can dip the toast!

Cooking

• Oven temperature in the UK is in Celsius while in the US and Canada it’s in Fahrenheit.
• The UK goes by the metric system, although many imperial terms are still used. Canada uses a mix of both systems, metric and imperial. The US uses what is called the United States customary units, similar to the imperial system except for some slight differences.

Dessert

Drinks

• A ‘flat white’ is a popular coffee beverage in the UK. It’s a double shot of espresso with steamed milk. It originated in Australia and New Zealand.

Vegetables

Miscellaneous

• In the UK ‘tea’ can also refer to dinner time.
• A popular condiment in Britain and Canada is HP sauce, the most popular brand of brown sauce. It’s made of malt vinegar, tomato, dates and spices.
• In the north of Britain some refer to lunch time as dinner.
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  British Sunday Roast via Wikimedia Commons

  ‘Toads in a hole’ is a British term for sausages (bangers) in yorkshire pudding.
• Yorkshire pudding is a British dish made of milk, butter and flour. Topped with gravy, it’s an important part of the traditional British Sunday roast.
• The traditional British Sunday Roast consists of roasted meat, potato (roasted or mashed), Yorkshire pudding, vegetables, and gravy. A Sunday roast is also very popular in Canada.

Post a comment if you’ve encountered strange lingo that hasn’t already been included in the lexicon!