Creole

American English to British English Dictionary

A - E

A and P

A and W

Alcoholics Anonymous

American Airlines

AC, A.C. or A/C

Access

Agent

Adopt-a-Highway

Alaskan Pollock

Alumni

Anasazi

Antenna

Area Code

Athlete

Audubon

Auto, Automobile

Bathroom

Bathroom Tissue

Beltway

Big Dipper

Bigfoot

Billion

Biscuit

Bleachers

Brights

Brownout

Buffalo Wings

[Many thanks to John Hayes (jnhayes@austin360.com) for contributing this entry.]

Burrito

A burrito consists of an edible soft flour tortilla "envelope" wrapped around and totally enclosing its contents of minced beef, lettuce, cheese, refried beans, sauce, sour cream, etc.

One burrito forms a reasonably substantial snack; two would form a good meal.

A breakfast burrito is a light snack, with a contents of diced cheese, egg, etc.

Business Route (or BR)

Normally, California.

Occasionally, and particularly in Internet domain names, Canada.

Call Collect

Candy

Cajuns

Car Pool

The use of a single car by a group of commuters. Signs are sometimes seen on highways indicating phone numbers to ring to participate in car pool schemes, also called ride sharing.

In busy cities some lanes on freeways, marked with an outline diamond shape, are restricted for use by rapid transit (i.e. buses) and/or car pools. Also, car pools are sometimes exempt from tolls at bridges, tunnels, etc. In this sense, a car pool is a car with at least a certain specified number of passengers, and need not be part of an actual official car pool or ride sharing scheme.

Century 21

Chamber of Commerce

A Chamber of Commerce in the USA or Canada is almost identical to a V V V in the Netherlands.

Checkers

Cheeseburger

Checked Baggage

Chinook

Chips

City Manager

Class Action

Closed Captioned (CC)

Civilian Conservation Corps

Colorado (the state).

Company.

Co-Worker

Coach

Cobbler

Colonial Period

Combo

In most fast food restaurants the combo's are intended as complete meals (excluding a dessert) for a single person. In Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken some combo's are designed for consumption by a party of people.

Comfort Station

Commonwealth

Condo

Concession

Consolidator

Construction

Continental Divide

Convenience Store

Cookie

Cooperative Bank

Counter-clockwise

Credit Union

The word has different meanings in other regions, for example in Latin America and in the West Indies.

Crossover

Crosswalk

Dates

We would also suggest that you carefully check which date format is required on the immigration and customs forms that you have to fill in on the plane before landing in the USA.

Canadians normally use the British date format, dd/mm/yy (day/month/year).

Daylight Saving Time

Decaff

Diaper

Divided Highway

Efficiencies

El Niño

Since the second "n" in "Niño" has a tilde (~) over it, the correct pronunciation is "El Ninyo".

Electrical Storm

Elevator

Enchilada

I'm not certain, but an enchilada appears to be very similar to a burrito, but with different contents and flavour. Or, according to a different source, the difference is that a burrito has the tortilla folded so as to make an envelope which completely encloses its contents, whereas an enchilada has the tortilla wrapped around the contents so as to make a cylinder with much the same shape as cannelloni.

Erector Set

EZ, E-Z