Welcome back to the Learn English podcast, the podcast teaching English in context, so you can learn naturally.
My name is Dr. C, and I am a TESL -certified English teacher.
I teach English online to students who are learning it as a second language.
I created this podcast with the goal of it becoming a resource for you to help you with your fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge of American culture.
In today's episode, I want to focus on the vocabulary and American culture aspect because I want to discuss regional word differences.
If you did not know, there are differences in different regions of the United States when it comes to English.
When you look at a map of the United States, the United States is a very large country in terms of size.
The words that you will hear in different areas of the United States will be different even though they are describing the same thing.
The vocabulary that you will hear in the East Coast will be different from what you hear in the South, which will be different from the middle of the United States, or the West Coast, where I live.
I want to focus on these things, the most common things that have multiple words to describe them, depending on what region of the United States you are in.
I hope that you find it informative, and I hope you learn a little bit about the regional dialect differences here in the United States.
So with that, let's begin.
To start with, we are going to begin with how you would address a group of people.
If you are addressing a group of people, it can change depending on where you are in the United States.
With one person, it's easy because it is just you, but if it's a group of people, especially in an informal setting, it can be different things.
So I'm going to start with the one that I use here on the West Coast and in California, the way that you would address a group of people would be to say, you guys.
You guys is not gender -specific.
So I know the word guys usually refers to males, but if you have a group of people, even if it's mixed gender or even just females, you will still hear this being said.
I, as a teacher, have definitely said this phrase, and I have said it to a group of females before in the past.
You just hear it is very common to say you guys when addressing a group of people.
Now, another very common way comes from the South, and that is y 'all.
Now, it sounds a little bit weird for me to say this personally because I never say this phrase.
Again, it is much more from the South, and it is a way of saying you all.
So all of you people that I am currently talking to becomes y 'all.
Y 'all and you guys are definitely the most common ones, the most common way of addressing a group of people in the United States, but there are some very specific regional differences.
In Philadelphia, especially South Philly, South Philadelphia, you'll hear yunes, or yunes guys.
That is very odd to me.
I personally have not come across anybody ever saying that, but in that particular part of that city, you will hear that.
Our next thing on our list, our next regional difference has to do with what you put your items in when you go to the store.
For me, I personally call this the shopping cart.
I think that is the most common way of calling this item, and you see it on websites, for example, adding something to the shopping cart, but not everyone calls it that.
It also has some regional differences where it can be called a carriage, or a buggy.
The term carriage is used in the Northeast, especially in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Both of those states are located in the Northeast, and tend to use this term carriage.
If you are in the Midwest, which are states that are not exactly on the West Coast, more towards the middle of the country, or in the South, you might hear the term buggy.
I personally, again, have not heard these terms used before, but these are some of the regional differences that you will hear.
I have heard the term trolley, which I believe is a British term.
If you've been to England, or if you know, if you can please tell me in the comments.
I believe the shopping cart is called a trolley.
I've heard people who are British use that term before, and I've read it before online.
And again, I've never used that term.
I only call it shopping cart, but again, some of the regional differences.
The third item on our list are the insects that glow, the insects that light up and fly around the night skies during the summer.
Where I am from, I've never actually seen these types of bugs.
I've seen them on TV and in movies, and I've read about them in books, but I've never actually seen them.
I can say that I've heard them called fireflies, and I believe that is the most common term in the United States.
However, there are some differences.
I've heard people from the South call them glow bugs or glow worms.
Glow worms is a little bit odd to me because in my mind, a worm doesn't fly, but those are some of the terms that you might hear.
You might also hear fire bug or June bug, light bug.
All of these terms are, again, describing these insects that light up and fly around.
Again, for me, a June bug is a different thing.
A June bug is more of a beetle that's brown and definitely does not light up, but depending on where you are in the United States, you might hear these terms.
Our next item has to do with food, and it has to do with a bread loaf.
Now, when you look at a loaf of bread, there is the middle part of the bread, and then there is the very extreme outer edges.
The last slice of bread, the very outer edge of the bread, has multiple names.
According to a dialect survey by the University of Wisconsin -Madison, the most common term for that is the heel.
Now, I will personally say that I have never heard this term, and I did not know that I was in the minority of Americans and calling that end part of the bread the ends.
So the most common is heel, where I am from in California, I have only ever heard ends of the bread, which apparently is not as common, and is more associated with New England.
So I don't know why I've only ever heard the ends of the bread, but New England, the Midwest, and the Southeast are where people call that last slice the ends.
Crust is another variation, so some people will call it crust, and that is people who are from the northern part of the United States.
Personally, for me, crust is anything that's on the outside, so even when you have a middle slice of bread, that outer edge of the bread is crust, crust is not just the very end, but that's for me, and my personal regionalism is in dialect of English.
Another word that you'll hear is the butt of the bread, and that's associated with the east coast and the Great Lakes region.
So the Great Lakes region is where the Great Lakes of the United States are located, that is right next to the Canadian border.
And those are the states that are Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, for example.
Our next item has to do with water, and it is the device that dispenses water that you can drink.
Where I am located, and what I would say is one of the most common terms, is a drinking fountain.
So you go to this fountain, you get water that you can drink, so we call it a drinking fountain.
If you look at a map of where people call it this, it tends to be on the west coast of the United States.
However, the majority of the country actually tends to call it a water fountain.
The east coast and the south is where you'll hear this term, and it's by far the more common term.
People will also call it just a fountain.
For me personally, where I am located, a fountain is different.
A fountain is a water feature, something for decoration.
So for example, something you would find in front of hotels in Las Vegas, or in the plazas of New York, or in someone's yard, not something that you would drink out of.
The least common way of calling this is a bubbler, which I have heard before, and I believe is what they call it in Australia.
If I'm wrong, please let me know, tell me in the comments.
But I believe I've heard that it's called a bubbler in Australia.
I did not know that there were areas of the United States that call this as well.
However, Wisconsin and Rhode Island is where you will find this.
Our next food item is a drink, and that drink is the thing that has carbonation in it, the thing that you open up the bottle or you pop the top of the can and you hear the fizzing.
You have those carbonated bubbles going from the top, from the bottom to the top of the drink.
This is a very debated topic about what these drinks are called.
There's even a website, which is popversus soda .com.
I will leave a link in the description if you're interested in checking it out.
But there are very distinct regional differences with this term.
Now where I am in California, and on the northeast coast around New Jersey and New York, what these drinks are called is soda.
So if someone asks you if you would like a soda, or if someone asks for a soda, what they're referring to are these drinks.
It could be any soda, any drinks such as a Coca -Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, 7 -Up, Dr.
Pepper, Fanta, etc.
We just call that general category of drinks soda.
That is not what they call it in the northern part of the United States.
So if you look at a map of the United States, if you kind of cut it in half going lengthwise and you look at the northern part of that map.
People in those states tend to call it pop.
So if they're asking you for a drink, a carbonated drink, they're going to ask you for a pop instead of a soda.
That is different from what they call it in the south.
Now this third term for me personally is very confusing.
But in the south, they call these drinks Coke.
What this term comes from of course is Coca -Cola.
The abbreviated way, the shortened way of saying Coca -Cola is to call it Coke.
And they use this term to refer to any drink.
That's very confusing for me because where I am located, if you ask someone for a Coke, you are specifically asking for Coca -Cola, you're not asking for Pepsi or 7 -Up or any other drink, you're specifically referring to Coca -Cola.
However, if you're in the south, people will ask you if you want a Coke or they'll ask for a Coke and they could be referring to any of these drinks.
They could be referring really to any brand.
Someone might hand you a Sprite when you asked for a Coke and it's not what you thought you were asking for, at least in my opinion.
However, of course, people from the south understand this and they use this term Coke.
And you can definitely see how these are very different terms depending on where you are located.
Our last food item is a sandwich, a specific type of sandwich that comes on a bread roll that is cut in half and tends to be a longer sandwich when you look at it.
Most people and the most common term for this in the United States is a sub.
So for example, Subway gets its name from this because they serve this type of sandwich and people tend to call them sub sandwiches and so that's why they call it Subway.
Other areas of the United States might call it something different.
So for example, in Philadelphia, Philadelphia calls these hoagies.
That is a term you're almost exclusively here if you go to Philadelphia or if you're in Philadelphia, hoagie is what they call this particular type of sandwich.
In some parts of New York, they're also here a hero.
Hero is what they'll refer to this sandwich as.
Our next regional difference has to do with driving and the circular intersections that people drive through.
I will say that these are not very common, at least where I am in California.
I know they're more common on the east coast and especially in Europe and other countries.
They're just not very common where I am.
I have only driven through three of these in my entire life and I will be very honest and admit that they terrify me.
I have no clue how to drive through them and I get very scared because I don't know what I'm doing.
So I do not like these, but the name for these where I am located are called traffic circles in California and in some parts of the east coast and in Texas.
These will get called traffic circles because they are circular in nature and because they have to do with driving and with traffic.
If you look at a map of the United States in the middle part of the United States, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, those states tend to call these roundabouts.
Again, because they're circular, they're round and you're driving around them, they get called roundabouts.
You might also hear this term in some parts of the south, maybe in Florida.
Another term that you'll hear, but this is up towards the northeast around Maine, you'll hear these called rotaries.
Rotary is definitely the least common term, the most region -specific term existing up in the northeast of the United States.
But again, another term for this concept.
And our last item is a clothing item.
The things that you wear on your feet.
In most of the United States, these are called tennis shoes having to do with the fact that people who play tennis tend to wear them tennis shoes.
Another term for them are called sneakers.
If you're up in the northeast of the country or the south of Florida, you might hear the term sneaker.
Tennis shoes is apparently more common in California, but personally, I use the term sneakers.
I think it has to do with the culture around people who buy a lot of these shoes, especially Nikes.
People tend to go a little bit crazy for shoes and people who collect them are called sneaker heads.
Because of that, I think I've heard that term a lot, and I tend to call them sneakers.
But again, tennis shoes, sneakers, the most common.
Now you might also hear gym shoes, less common, but in some instances, people might refer to them as gym shoes.
I've also heard that in the United Kingdom, they're called trainers.
I personally had never heard of that term until I talked to someone who lived in Britain.
If I'm wrong on that again, I'm not an expert on other countries.
But if I'm wrong on that, let me know.
Or if you've ever heard that term, let me know.
But that is one that I have heard trainers that comes from Britain.
I've never heard that in the United States, definitely tennis shoes or sneakers, the more common ones here.
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I hope you learned a little bit about these regional differences.
If you live in a different country that speaks English, and they have a different word for anything that was on this list, please let me know.
I would love to know more about them.
As I said, I've only heard a few terms such as trainers or bubblers that are used in other countries.
But I would love to learn more about these differences in the English language and in these different dialects.
I personally find it fascinating.
So leave a comment if you have come across any of these variations.
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