From our Twitter conversation a long time ago! Some of the notes in here seem pretty far from my experiences growing up (and still living) in the Northeast US. I've lived in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, each which do have their own differences too! I've documented the inconsistencies I found below. 👍

Culture

• Primary School / Secondary School: This tends to be a generational thing in my experience, many people of the baby boomer generation say Primary/Secondary and not Elementary/Middle.

Food

• I predominantly hear "ID'ed", not "Carded".

Household

• Merry-go-round / Carousel are used interchangeably.

Jobs

• Photocopy / Xerox are used interchangeably.

Outside

• Toilet/WC / Restroom: A note about your note. :) I think I always hear "Bathroom".
• Underground / Tube / Metro -> Subway: This depends heavily on the city:
  • Boston: The T
  • NYC: Subway
  • Washington DC: Metro
• I've never used the term "Frontage road", only "Service road".
• I've never used "Pylon" (and would associate that with a support structure of some kind), I've always used "Traffic cone" or simply "Cone".
• "Almost no freeway in the US has service stations. You're expected to pull off into one of the towns you're driving through." is very untrue. Most of the interstates on the East coast (down to at least Virginia, I've never driven south past that) have service stations every 15 - 30 miles. I usually call them "rest stops".

Phrases

A bunch of the American phrases I've never actually heard someone say, but I'm familiar with them:

• Bought the farm
• For the birds
• Jonesing
• Monday morning quarterback