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Chips, Crisps and French Fries: Understanding the Differences in American and British English

It was once joked that Americans and British are divided by a common language. The Pilgrim Fathers, those few centuries ago, crossed the Atlantic and started a new country and a new culture, and over that time those two versions of English have diverged somewhat. When Americans and British people meet, they usually presume that having a common language will be enough; that they will understand each other, however, from my own experience I don’t think this is necessarily the case; there can be and are, confusions. For example, I know someone who went on holiday to California and ordered for her family, ‘a burger and chips.’ What she got; is what British people would call ‘a burger and crisps’ – meaning a burger accompanied by very thin crispy and crunchy pieces of deep fried potato; she did not get a burger and fries – which is of course what she meant to order (‘chips’ in Britain are the same as ‘fries’ in the USA - and that is what she would have ordered if only she had known better. This is the kind of misunderstanding that I would like to eliminate for you through the simple process of you reading and remembering what is in this book. Whether you are an American on their way to Britain on business or on holiday, or a British person going in the opposite direction, or a speaker of English as a foreign language, I think this book can help prevent quite a lot of confusion for you and make you trip better and smoother. I hope so, after all the British and Americans are really cousins at the end of the day, and it would be great if we could understand each other a little better, wouldn’t it?Read more

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