Which everyday words are different in Ireland: petrol station, boot, bonnet and the queue?
Cars carry most of the differences. A gas station is a petrol station, the trunk is the boot, the hood is the bonnet, and a car with a stick shift is just a manual. You join a queue rather than stand in line. A lift is an elevator, a chemist is the pharmacy, and a return ticket is the round trip. On a menu, chips are fries and crisps are chips, a biscuit is a cookie and a jumper is a sweater you pull over your head; trainers are sneakers. Half eight means half past eight, not half to eight, and it trips up American visitors every day of the week. None of it causes real confusion in practice: the context carries the meaning, and most visitors find the words have crept into their own speech by the second week.
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