“Translate British” proposes online translations from British to American slang.

All writers (and anybody who has ever travelled to Great Britain) know that the differences between British and American English go way beyond the accent.

Vocabulary, idioms and grammatical structures all differ to some extent. And slang differs…a great deal.

A shy little site I ran into today purports to “Translate British Slang Words Into American!”

It opens with an eye-catcher: “bung some words here ye barmy bloke and we will translate them to yank in a chivvy.”

You’d probably understand that phrase nearly as well if it were written in Spanish or French!

The translation? “throw some words here you idiotic guy and we will translate them to american [sic] in a hurry” (Apparently in such a hurry that capital letters were forgotten in the process.)

The site may not be meticulous, but it is fun, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Its “about” page explains “Translate British is a humourous [note British spelling] parody of a translator like those at Babelfish or Google. It takes british [sic] specific words and translates them into their American equivalent.”

The site also contains a British-American slang dictionary.

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.