The battle between British and American English

As an American that grew up in an ex British colony (Kenya), and went to British schools, I’m very glad that my American stepfather had the foresight to correct me on my use of the word rubber otherwise I would’ve had a very embarrassing experience at the American high school the first time I needed an eraser.

My Dad said that any one who couldn’t spell any English word more than two ways had no imagination.

I don't think Rob considered how many words could make him blush when deciding to make a podcast with Jess, the author of Words From Hell. They have very different reactions to "naughty" words, but that's one of the things that make the podcast great. Two very knowledgeable people bouncing off each other and sharing what they know, wonderful!

Chips are fat and fries are skinny...in Australia. Wedges are triangular in cross section.

As an American who used to live in the UK it took me a long time to accept the treatment of collective nouns as plural. All my English teachers had drilled into us that collective nouns were singular, thus "the team WAS...," "the choir IS...," etc. Thus when I heard the BBC, no less, saying "the team WERE...," and "the choir ARE..." it was so jarring. After a decade there, however, I had become so used to it, and indeed had wrapped it into my own speech patterns, that when I moved back I had to reteach myself the grammar rule of my childhood.

I forgot to add one more thing. It's really fun when Jess stumps Rob, or Rob stumps Jess. Delightful interactions. What a treasure these two are!

I like how Jess verbed “verb” into a verb ❤

Regarding "gaol", quite common here in Australia. I'm a British expat and I bump into it a fair bit - we have quite the mixture of "americanisms" and "britishisms" here, along with Australianisms

I really love this series of conversations between you two. And the blushing is utterly adorkable.

Having lived in UK and US, I learned these: 1. detour vs diversion 2. Speed bump vs speed hump 3. Watch your step vs mind the gap 4. Sneakers vs trainers

This youtube channel is by far the most enjoyable that I view at the present time. 👏👏👏👏

I belong to a Car Club that has worldwide membership. This international makeup was glaringly obvious at one of the membership meetings that I attended during a show. At this meeting there were representatives from England, Australia and the most verbose participant from the United States was very noticeably from Tennessee and at some point it occurred to me that all of these members were speaking the same language but it was highly probable that none of them fully understood what the others were saying. As to the comment about the US being made up of a population of thieves and outlaws - that, as I remember is the precise explanation of how Australia came into existence. The U.S. would be more correctly described as having been settled for the combination of religious freedoms and expanded entrepreneurial opportunities, an undeniable fact that can be seen in how often rules and laws are set up to protect commerce. As much as I have liked and enjoyed "Rob Words" this new collaboration has been fascinating. Thank you for combining fun and education.

In France we call french fries "frites" (fried), a short way for "patates frites" (fried potatoes), and they are actually a well known speciality from Belgium (and North of France). Rob has got the good pronunciation for all french words: aubergine, courgette, niche, clique and lingerie (plus a very stylish english from England accent 😊). We are using the word "biscuit" (said in the french way) that means baked twice, as a generic term. And the racoon is a "raton laveur", a washing big rat. Thank you so much Jess and Rob! So enjoyable!

The double "L" in "traveller" and similar words seems to have been dropped in America in just the last 30 or 40 years. I'm approaching 70 and I am almost certain that I learned it as "travel, travelled, traveller."

Here's a fun, confusing one: floor, as in the floor of a building. They mean the same in both AE and BE, until you start counting them.

Comedian George Carlin queried, "Why are they called apartments when they're all stuck together?"

But many of the words Americans use from the Dutch are from a specific group of Dutch settlers in the US, the ones who settled in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, which became New York when the British acquired it in the wake of one of the several Anglo Dutch wars in the 17th century, and Charles II conferred the proprietorship of the new British colony on his brother, the Duke of York. And the Dutch influence remained much longer in New York than many Americans might think. Martin Van Buren, America’s 7th president in the 19th century spoke Dutch as his mother tongue, and retained a Dutch accent all his life. Oh and while Americans will often eat biscuits with a savoury meat based gravy, they will as often eat them, like scones, with jam or honey.

My favourite pronunciation difference that I still have vibrant discussions with my daughter about is; the military commissioned rank below a captain. I insist on leftenant (sic) for British forces but lieutenant for American ones (in which I include Star Fleet)

I just heard Jess refer to a raccoon as a ‘trash panda’. In Australia, the white ibis is called a ‘bin chicken’ ubiquitously, because they congregate in human areas and trash dive in roadside garbage bins. Most people don’t know the bird is an ibis. It’s just a ‘bin chicken’. We don’t have raccoons here in Sydney.

As usual, an absolutely fabulous episode. I love these lessons. For many years, 25. To be exact, I have been mentoring Chinese engineers in colloquial, slang and American English. I have shared both this channel and Rob words with them. This has always been a fascinating area for me ! And I'm not even an English linguistics or literature major. I'm a classical guitarist who has been fascinated with language since elementary school. Thanks again for a great episode!