It is well known and documented that English as it is spoken in the UK is different from English as it is spoken in the US.
The most well-known is of course spelling. Americans get rid of a largish number of redundant letters, thus eliding the
'u' in colour and honour and such like (fortunately leaving
it in in hour). Americans tend to drop double letters in past tenses
and elsewhere. Hence 'kidnaped' and 'traveled' but also 'marvelous' . Linguistic differences extend to pronunciation, but being a Mallu I cannot pronounce properly anyway and am ill equipped to discourse on this.
Now, since I have had a chance to spend time in both the UK and the US(which is the purpose of this piece, to tell u that I am widely travelled) I noticed some other differences not so widely documented.
There was an instance when I said I had made a hash of things (not uncommon for me) and I had to translate that into 'made a mess of things'. Words that we use in reasonable frequency like 'erstwhile' and 'envisage' are unknown to the average American.
There were similar problems in the UK as well. Words which we would think are pretty much universal are met with raised eyebrows. An example is sneakers, which are called trainers in the UK (as in jeans and trainers). Not only do the English not use these 'Americanisms' they resent their usage by others. It is now habit for us Indians to use bucks to refer to the rupee, woe betide u if u do so in the UK. The slang word for the local currenvy is 'quid' (and always in the singular). Which of course meant that I used bucks and sneakers at every possible opportunity.
In one case the difference in usage nearly led to a contretemps. The word 'fanny' means one's backside in the US and is acceptable even in polite society- as in 'fanny pack' for a pouch that one straps around one's waist and is supported on the posterior. Unfortunately this same word means the female private parts in the UK and it was only the fact that the people I was with knew of my "American antecedents", that I got away with using it.
The word 'crib' frequently used by us to mean complain or moan means something entirely different in the UK. There it means to copy as in an exam (our 'cog bit' or 'cheat sheet' becomes a 'crib sheet'). It also extends in meaning to plagiarise. I had problems with this more than once. Oddly enough this word does not mean 'complain' in the US either. Wonder where we picked up the usage, it is almost universal in India, isn't it?
And lastly on an unrelated note, sea-food lovers have crab (in singular) if you have crabs, it means u have lice infestation in the wrong place! (Yecchh!)