American and British Vocabularies (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

American and British Vocabularies
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Lemanensis
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Message 73 of 76

01 October 2008 at 1:00pm | IP Logged

Samual wrote:

I'm British and i never have any trouble with American vocabs, but Americans sometimes have trouble understanding me. Could this be the fact that British people see so many American films/tv shows or that Americans are generally less internationalized (is that a word?) than Europeans

I think a bit of both

Very likely.

However, once I was in New York and wanted to by what I called 'sportswear' /clothes for sport/ and asked where I could find it in a department store. I was sent up to the third floor. No sportswear there. So I asked again. The woman cast her arm around and said 'all this here' - it was the leisurewear section... I apparently should have asked for athletics apparel or something similar.
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joshy
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Message 74 of 76

01 October 2008 at 5:47pm | IP Logged

I dont know if this has been mentioned or not but in regards to Prison and Jail.

It has always been my understanding that Jail is where you go for a short term stay, like overnight, gives me the impression of a holding cell at the police station.

Whereas Prison is the more permanent compound where people are sentanced to serve out a longer term.

So in my experiance those are not interchangable.

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JW
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Message 75 of 76

01 October 2008 at 5:54pm | IP Logged

joshy wrote:

I agree. Jail has a smaller and shorter connotation while Prison is longer and larger. E.g., "A Night in the County Jail" vs. "Five Years in State Prison."
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