UK-US Vocabulary Snapshot Tables

Here's the thing — you don't always want the full lesson. Sometimes you just need to check whether it's pavement [US: sidewalk] before you hit send. So here it is: the common UK/US pairs, theme by theme, each one pointing home to where it's actually taught. Nothing new is claimed here — this is a finder, not a lecture.

How to read the middle column. Three plain labels, plus one flag:

• different word, same thing — two names for one thing; a straight swap.
• different sense — the same word (or the same shape) points at something different on each side.
• register nuance — both sides know the word; formality or habit tips the choice.
• ⚠ false friend — looks familiar, means something else. Mind these especially.

Every label links home to the article that teaches it — mostly P8, with P9 for register and P10 for the usage traps.

Transport

Housing & home

Education

Food & shopping

Clothing

Everyday

The false friends, gathered

If you read nothing else, read these. They don't just swap a word — they swap the meaning, and that's where the accidental comedy (or worse) lives.

Read on at home

• P8 · Spelling, Morphology & Word Choice — the owning article for UK/US vocabulary, confusables, and the spelling systems (-our/-or, -re/-er, -ise/-ize).
• P9 · Style, Formality & Register — how these near-equivalents land in different situations.
• P10 · Common Errors & Usage Problems — the false friends and usage traps in full.
• Master UK/US Index — the complete cross-Atlantic map for the whole library.