Are you all right?

"Are you all right?" That's how people greet each other here...it's still pretty funny to me.  If some one were to greet me with those words in the States, I would think...."do I not look alright? Do I look like something is wrong?"  But here, it's the equivalent of "how are you?"  I'm still not able to say it the english way.

I'll never forget a conversation that we had with a family that we met at church.  They invited us over for coffee and we were talking about how we were lucky that we moved to England and not some other country where we don't know the language..."Avery at least speaks English."  Our friend said..."well eventually he will."  And we all just laughed.  There are definitely some language differences...so much so that I say that we speak "American" not "English."  Here's a list of a few that I've encountered.

"Sort it Out" = "figure it out" in American.
Going out for "coffee" = Going out for "tea" usually, coffee if you prefer
"Tea" = Dinner
"Dinner" = Lunch
"Pudding" = Dessert, not matter what the kind, cookies, cakes, custard, icecream
"Sweets" = Candy, most children have never heard of candy
"Cheers" = Thanks
Doing something "in anger" = Doing something excessively or repeatedly
"Trousers" = pants
"Pants" = underwear....THIS IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW
"Trainers" = sneakers
"Car Park" = parking lot
"Torch" = flashlight...love that one...it's like before batteries were invented!
"Dual Carriageway" = 4-lane highway, though we don't see too many carriages anymore
"Quid" = like a "buck" but for the British pound
"Half Five" = 5:30 and the same goes for the other half hours of the day
"Hire" = rent
"Garden" = yard
"bangers" = sausage, we've heard that they are called this because sausages used to have too much fat in them so when you would cook them they would explode!
"surgery" = doctors office
"petrol" = gas
"squash" = concentrated juice
"lorrie" = 18-wheeler truck
"boot" = the trunk of your car
"bonnet" = the hood of your car
"wind screen" = windshield of your car
"trolley" = shopping cart

So now you've all had a little "English" lesson!