Does the rest of the English speaking world generally understand what an American means when they say "soccer", or does it help to clarify by adding "football"? - eviltoast

If I’m talking to an English speaker from outside of the US, is there any confusion if I say “soccer”?

For example, when I was in college a friend asked for a “torch”. I was confused for quite some time, because I didn’t know it was another word for “flashlight”. Does the same thing happen with the word “soccer”? Should I clarify by saying, “…or football”?

Thank you!

  • morphballganon@lemmy.world
    23·
    11 months ago

    I disagree, because in American english, the object you’re talking about has a word (flashlight), and it is expected that people use the accepted words if they want to be understood.

    How would you like if someone was asking you for a pair of scissors but they called them a knife, and got incredulous when you handed them a knife? You’d expect them to call them scissors, not a knife.