Slang II (British English and American English)

Despite the differences in vocabulary and pronunciation, American and British people tend to understand each other without major difficulties. I do remember getting a few raised eyebrows when I inadvertently spoke of 'rented flats' or 'pissed blokes' to my American friends who were not familiar with the British dialect (In Am. English these would be 'rented apartment' and 'drunk guy'). Yet, these misunderstandings don't seem to be paralyzing. What about slang? How much do they understand of the other nation's slang? From this video it seems that not too much. Ellen invited Hugh Laurie to her show and they had a slang knowledge contest. The expressions they present are not very widely used and the 'contestants' seem to be having good fun trying to find out their meanings. If you are not a native speaker of English this script may help you a lot but I suggest that you listen to the video first to see how much of it you can understand without the text.





Now check your slang knowledge with this simple quiz based on the video:

British and American slang quiz » Free Online Quizzes

And if you are still here you surely deserve another video where Hugh Laurie has an 'unspoilt' British accent, a funny surname and hidden tapdancing abilities.