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Motoring section
AA - The Automobile Association. Similar to your AAA these guys come to your car when you breakdown. Unlike the AAA, they carry a workshop with them and fix the car at the side of the street if they can, or carry your car anywhere in the country if they can't. Saved my life a few times. Not to be confused with Alcoholics Anonymous who will come to your car and counsel you on your drinking problem. Make sure you ring the right AA!
Aerial - Antenna. An aerial is on a car, an antenna would be found on insects and aliens from outer space.
Amber - Not only do our traffic lights go in a different sequence to yours but we don't have yellow! Well actually we do but we always call it amber. The sequence is red, red and amber (together), green. Then green, amber, red. Yours go from red straight to green.
Articulated lorry - This is a trailer truck. Nothing to do with being well-spoken of course! Usually shortened to artic.
Banger - An old car. Your first car is usually an old banger. Not to be confused with a kind of sausage!
Belisha beacon - These are the orange flashing globes at each side of a zebra crossing.
Bonnet - Your car's hood. Also an old fashioned hat.
Boot - Your car's trunk. In England, elephants have trunks, not cars!
Bulb - When your indicator stops working you probably need a new bulb. Don't ask for a lamp.
Bump start - When you buy your first car as a student in the UK, one of the first lessons you learn is how to bump start it. When the battery is flat you get a couple of strong mates to push you along the street, with the key in the ON position, second gear engaged and your foot on the clutch. When you reach enough speed you take your foot off the clutch, your mates hit their faces on the back of the car and with luck - the car starts! Don't try this in America, it doesn't work with automatics! If you do have a manual car it would be popping the clutch.
Bus station - The place where the busses start from on their journey. You might call it a terminal.
Cab - In London you will hear taxis referred to as cabs. The London black cab is not only famous for being very distinctive but also the first cab to take wheelchairs through the doors.
Cabriolet - Convertible. As in - why do blondes prefer cabriolets?. Obvious really - more legroom!
Call - I remember the announcer at Bristol railway station telling us that the train at platform 10 would call at Nailsea, Backwell, Weston-super-Mare, Highbridge, Bridgwater and Taunton. It would call at the stations, not stop at them.
Car - Your auto. Whilst you also say "car", you won't find Auto in use much in Britain.
Car park - Parking lot. Normally uncovered.
Cat's eyes - In the middle of British roads there are little white reflectors. They are made of glass and are designed just like the eyes of a cat. They are mounted in a rubber housing and inserted into a hole in the road surface. When a car drives over them, they are pushed into the hole and when they pop back up - they are cleaned! Clever huh? Road reflectors are the nearest thing you have in the US. The guy who invented them actually came across a cat facing him on a dark night. Lucky it wasn't facing the other way - or he might have invented the pencil sharpener!!
Cattle class - A rather unflattering, but not inaccurate, description of coach class air travel!
Central reservation - Not where you call for airline tickets or where Indians live. This is the bit of grass or kerbing between the carriageways on a dual carriageway or motorway. Median in American.
Chunnel - The famous channel tunnel is called the chunnel. If you visit London it is well worth taking the 3 hour train ride from Waterloo, right into the heart of Paris.
Coach - We differentiate between a coach and a bus. A bus is usually the sort that you pay as you enter and the routes are not generally that long. They drive through the towns and villages of the UK. A coach normally goes from city to city, more like US greyhounds. They have fewer or no stops at all and you would buy a ticket in advance and have to go to the terminal to get on one.
Crash - Same as a pile-up but involving fewer vehicles. Also called a wreck in the US.
Cul-de-sac - Dead end to you. The American expression "dead end" is a bit more to the point really. Cul-de-sac comes from the French.
De-mister - De-froster in American. Most cars have them on the back window. Some have them on the front too. Very useful during your first date when you borrow your Dad's car! Most Texans would never have a use for either!
Diversion - Detour in America.
Double decker - This is a bus. One that has an upstairs and a downstairs. They were abundant when I was using them as a kid but nowadays most of them seem to have ended up as tourist buses around New York and other large US cities. Sometimes with the roof removed. They also have "Genuine London Bus" in huge letters down the side for some reason.
Double yellow lines - The double yellow lines are the no parking zone. Well I suppose you could park there but the chances are the car won't be there when you return. The traffic wardens are pretty hot on cars parked on double yellows. By the way - you can generally park on single yellow lines after 6pm and at weekends unless it says otherwise on a nearby lamp-post.
Drink driving - This particular pastime is illegal in both countries. You call it drunk driving.
Drunk in charge - In the same way that you have DWI and DUI offences for "driving while intoxicated" and for "driving under the influence", we just have "drunk in charge" (never shortened to DIC for obvious reasons!). All three are best avoided in both countries occifer!
Dual carriageway - Divided highway. All have a 70mph speed limit unless indicated (posted) otherwise.
Due care and attention - This is the name of a motoring offence that covers many driving sins. I got my first ticket on the M4 at about midnight for driving without due care and attention. I was actually driving in the middle lane of the motorway, when I should have been in the inside lane.
Economy - When we travel in an aeroplane in the cheap seats we are travelling economy. You would be travelling coach. To us - that's a sort of bus, more suited to the roads than 37,000 feet!
Estate car - An elongated version of a normal saloon car. Many cars have an estate version. In American the nearest thing is a station wagon.
Excess - Deductible. The amount you pay before your car insurance does. Insurance is one of the few things that is much cheaper in the UK than the USA. My car insurance cost me between 2-4 times as much in Texas as it did in England.
Fire engine - What you would call a fire truck.
Flyover - No - not what happens in Starsky and Hutch, when they drive too fast in San Francisco over bumps - this is an overpass.
Fog lights - This one took me two years to realise. In America fog lights are white and are at the front of the car, low down. In England they are very intense red and are on the back of the car, so that in real fog, the car behind you can see you. This is important if you are importing a US car to the UK as you have to get this fixed.
Ford - If you see a sign saying "ford ahead" in England, it is not warning you that an American car is blocking a country lane. It is actually telling you there is a low water crossing ahead.
Gallon - This would be 1.25 gallons to you. Ours are 25% bigger than yours. Well actually, since your ounces and our ounces are also slightly different, it reduces the true difference to more like 20%.
Gas - A substance used to cook with and to heat homes. Cars do not run on gas, they use petrol.
Gearstick - The stick shift. Most cars in England come with a gearstick. If you learn to drive in one without a gearstick you may not drive one that does until you take the test in that sort too! I thought Texans must have thought I looked like a witch when they asked me if I drove a stick!! What a strange question.
Give way - Yield. At a roundabout you give way to the right. In Texas, apparently, yielding is optional, more dependent on the size of the vehicles involved.
Glove box - This is the little cubby hole in the front of the car where you keep sweet wrappers, parking tickets and old chewing gum. A glove compartment to you.
Hard shoulder - The paved lane that runs along the side of British motorways. You may not drive on it, only stop there for emergencies. Or when a jolly nice officer of the law zooms up behind you and asks you to!
Re: British Slang
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