"Motor car", attested from 1895, is the usual formal term in British English. "Autocar", a variant likewise attested from 1895 and literally meaning "self-propelled car", is now considered archaic.
Americans say a variety of words and can use either depending upon the region and their preferences, yet the most common to be heard is car. “Automobile” is lengthier and considered kind of verbose for many to most situations, yet is sometimes used.
In British English, the terms "4x4" (pronounced "four-by-four"), "jeep", four wheel drive, or "off-road vehicle" are generally used instead of "sport utility vehicle".
Strangely, it's called a garage. Garage is a French word. But in England it's pronounced like “GA-ridj”. Americans pronounce it the French way, “ga-râzh”.
There are many slang terms used to describe such cars, such as jalopy, beater, clunker, hooptie, old banger (most commonly used in the UK), but the most popular being junk car.
A flat tire (British English: flat tyre) is a deflated pneumatic tire, which can cause the rim of the wheel to ride on the tire tread or the ground potentially resulting in loss of control of the vehicle or irreparable damage to the tire.
In the US, the commonly accepted pronunciation of Hyundai rhymes with “Sunday”—you'll notice that this is how it's said in American advertisements. With that said, in the UK, it's often pronounced “high-UN-dye.”Of course, Hyundai is a Korean company, and in Korea the pronunciation is closer to “HYUN-day.”
Yes, all the Tuk Tuks we import are approved and certified for use on UK roads by the Driver and Vehicle Services Agency (usually called by the much snappier DVSA), which enables us to get the Tuk Tuks registered and licensed prior to sale.
In American English, Latin American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese, the term sedan is used (accented as sedán in Spanish). In British English, a car of this configuration is called a saloon (/səˈlun/).
In Britain, what Americans refer to as “biscuits” are known as “scones.” British biscuits are actually what Americans call “cookies.” The term “biscuits” in the United Kingdom typically refers to sweet, crumbly, and sometimes buttery bakes treats, distinct from the soft, bread-like biscuits found in the United States.
It's no surprise the part of the car covering the delicate mechanicals from the elements is named after headwear – and the split between the US version (hood) and the British one (bonnet) shows more similarity in thought than it does difference in name.
In Birmingham, the Cockney slang term jam jar is often used to refer to a car. When parking in a vehicle carpark, you might hear locals mention it while discussing parking fees in pounds.
The reason the British say lorry and Americans say truck, is because each word is part of their terminology. Since the early 20th century, lorry and truck have both described the HGVs that are essential to our society.
The name 'diaper' entered the English language used in the USA and Canada. In Britain, the word 'nappy', short for baby napkin, became more popular and replaced it.
In Britain an umbrella is informally known as a 'brolly'. The word comes from the second and third syllable of 'umbrella'. Less common these days, but once in vogue was the word 'gamp' - named for Mrs Sarah Gamp, a character in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit, who carried a large umbrella.
The front window of the car is named the windscreen in the UK, while in the USA, they've tweaked it just slightly to read windshield. Both 'screen' and 'shield' suggest protection and so are still quite similar in their meaning, linguistically.
You use holiday (or holidays) in British English and vacation in North American English to describe the regular periods of time when you are not at work or school, or time that you spend travelling or resting away from home: I get four weeks' holiday/vacation a year.
As a Yorkshireman I can add that the use of 'us' instead of 'me' avoids sounding too demanding. Contrast “Give it to me! ' with 'Give it to us! ' In a game of football and the second request is more inclusive than the first - though secretly that's what the speaker really means.
