ENGLISH Vocabulary Differences US vs UK vs Australia vs New Zealand vs South Africa

So sad that South Africa didn’t say “Shap” to the thumbs up. That’s what we mostly call it in South Africa

Australia and New Zealand are like the 2 best friends who never leave each other in the group

As an Aussie I love how New Zealand, Australia and South Africa are on the same side because I feel all the accents are similar lol

As a South African person that moved to Australia these videos always unlock a new memory or a new word I have forgotten over the years that’s Afrikaans. 🇿🇦🇦🇺

Terms vary regionally in the US. You could honestly do this with folks from different states and get similar diversity.

I'm a Kiwi but lived in Aussie for 6 years, the ones that always stood out to me were Icey Pole instead of Ice block, Pluto Pups instead of Hotdogs and Dooner instead of Duvet. Also all the coffee flavored Milk! So many different brands and types. This was Perth, great place.

I’m a Queenslander and I’ve always called them togs. My Victorian friends call them cossie or bathers. Boardies is also what I call the loose pants made out of quick drying material. Swimmers sometimes gets used too, but mainly togs.

South African English slang word for corn on the cob is typically mielie (or mealie if respelled in a more universal English-compliant form), otherwise its plain old corn. We also have something called 'mieliemeel', in slang among English speakers we'd call this mielie meal. The word itself comes from the Portuguese word 'milho'

Australia depending on the state and age group can vary a fair bit some times. Swim wear when talking about it genericly and not gender specific is also just called swimmers. Pants is also a generic term for clothing on the legs but trousers is used also to specify long pants that generally aren't denim because those would just be called jeans.

The South African guy forgot to mention, "Ja, nee". Its a phrase only South Africans can understand and there is no single agreed upon definition at all but we all know exactly what you mean when you say it to someone else. We also tend to assimilate Aussie and New Zealand slang into local dialect. This is due to the close sporting ties we have with both countries and as such there is a lot of mingling going on and naturally some terms or slang words get adopted.

In New Zealand, I just call all of the swimming outfits togs, doesn't matter if it is male or female swimming outfits, it is all just togs. We also do say sweet as quite a bit

I love South-African words for stuff, it's so unique and fun to use.

This makes me realize how different American slang is between the west coast and east coast.

Generalizing American terms can be difficult. Growing up in the south we never called sneakers sneakers. We called them tennis shoes. But I have noticed it’s changing faster. Not that many people say Mickey Ds as much anymore and sneakers is becoming a much more used word around the US. I think a lot of has to do with social media. Accents and slang are becoming a little more unified. When I was growing up, southern accents were really strong and diverse depending on the region. Now when I go home, you don’t hear nearly as much twang in teenagers.

My fellow South Africans can we gather here and laugh because we know why the broer doesn't like to be called "saffas" abroad 😭😭😭

The term "Sneakers" came from when Japanese military first started to put rubber on the bottom of their boots to help them sneak into camps to kill unsuspecting soldiers in trenches, as their boots no longer made that clomp heavy sound when rubber was applied. They "tacked" it onto their boots and would "sneak" in to camps. So that's where Sneakers and Takkies come from. Trainers are used since most people train in them for comfort, grip, and control, so that's how "Trainers" came about, to help them train in them better.

I'm from New Zealand but I love the South African words

I was so looking forward to seeing a bit that went: “Pickup truck.” “Yeah, pickup.” “We’d say ute.” “Yeah, we also say ute.” “It’s a bakkie.” Because the discussion on that would’ve been good.

Y’all need to add another American that’s southern to each of these, because our terms are completely different, it would be hilarious😂

Like if your New Zealand