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Comment by sam_goody | Hacker News Reader

I was at an anniversary of a English / American couple twenty tears ago, and a speaker gave a brilliant but mind bending speech, in which he told simultaneously two different stories, depending on the dialect. It began with:

"Well, I had a flat, see? So I took a lift..."

(He hitched a ride after puncturing his car's tire, or he took the elevator from his apartment..)

That's all I remember. It continued with something in his boot (a car's trunk / footwear), and then.. who knows?

I've searched for something similar, since I have neither the vocabulary nor the talent to create something like that. Anyone here knows of something similar?

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"Took a lift" is a stretch for American English. We'd say "got a lift" for getting a car ride. If someone said that phrase to me I'd assume they're speaking British English and adjust my comprehension accordingly.

These days I'd probably interpret it as "took a Lyft".

"Well, I had a flat" And flat could be interpreted as flatrate.

We've been inundated with British television and media (and even British-sounding actors in American productions!) to the point that the apartment interpretation was the only one I understood without reading further.

Isn't lift a serviceable synonym for car jack or anything else that elevates a car?

Yeah we, Brits, wouldn’t “take a lift” in a car either. We’d “get a lift” or “got a lift with so and so”.

If we were using a lift as in elevator we’d “get in a lift”.

Probably the least understood: Pants. There is a line from a Doctor Who episode, "My house full of soldiers and I'm in my pants." That joke doesn't make sense in America.

I was watching QI a couple years ago. One of the guests was a Canadian actor who had been working in the UK for years and still she still had not realized the different uses of the word.

I don’t get it.

UK english: pants == underwear

US english: pants == trousers

"Pants" can also mean that something is ridiculous. There was story a while ago about a Chinese building that looked like a pair of trousers. "The building is pants" means that the building is silly, not just that it looks like pants.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-20526220

It's more like rubbish/bad/not very good.

This. "Pants" as an adjective is a synonym for "rubbish".

I think they mean they don't get the joke even knowing the correct interpretation. (I'm British so read it as underwear naturally, and also don't get it.)

I don't think it's meant to be a joke with a punchline, more like an absurdly comical Dr. Who-esque situation. "You think you had a bad day? Well, I..."

Suppose the speaker is female.

In the Harry Potter books, when Harry is watching a flashback scene where Snape is being bullied, the last line ('Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?') - is the same in the US and UK versions of the books.

That scene is meant to make the reader feel very uneasy (and it makes Harry quite depressed). But in the UK English edition, despite using the same words, the scene is far worse.

Definitely. I hadn't noticed that.

When I read that book I understood as American English.

A few scenes in which it's important to note that someone is "in their trainers".

American English, this is nearly meaningless noise. Possibly some sort of orthodontic apparatus?

Trainers == "Sneakers", casual athletic shoes.

But the funny thing is that the act of “pantsing someone” is actually the same in both dialects.

In American English, you’re taking off their pants to expose them in their underwear.

In British English, you’re taking off their trousers to expose them in their pants.

This is just one of many weird, weird, hilarious things about the similarities and differences between the two dialects.

>UK english: pants == underwear

>US english: pants == trousers

To further complicate matters, Russian borrowed "trousers" with the meaning "underwear"

That's hilarious.

Yeah that line from Dr Who is complete pants[1].

1. Turns out there’s another British slang meaning for pants.

I was once a confused and amused British child when the policeman in The Simpsons said his handcuffs were 'in [his] other pants'.

(I rather vividly recall acting out the discovery of one's pants not containing handcuffs, and changing into some with toy handcuffs hanging out...)

I was on my way to my flat when I got flat,so he gave me a lift all the way to the lift.

It was his TYRE that had a puncture, not his "tire", you insensitive clod!

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