interactive database, containing the words phrases that learners of English around the world typically all know and use. Our evidence was based partly on a SO-million-word collection of learners' writing from Cambridge i English exams, but we also looked at the vocabulary taught in best-selling British and American English course books. So, what did we find out? Well, for a start, there are some words that are still exclusively British or American, even though people from both countries understand them. British people have biscuits with their cup of tea or coffee, but Americans have cookies. We have cookies too in Britain, but they are a certain type of biscuit, such aschocolaie chip cookies, where the original recipe is American. A British person goes on holiday, whereas an American lakes a vacation; you visit a city centre in Britain but go downtown in the US; British people join a queueto wait for something, but Americans wait in line. A few words have different meanings across the two varieties of English, which could cause some embarrassment: Americans who are wearingpanrs definitely have their legs covered, but if a British person is dressed only in pants, they are in their underwear! And if you need to fill up your car with fuel, you can ask for, in the US, but you need to buy petrol in Britain, as 'gas' is not a liquid in British English. Phrasal verbs (verbs with two or more words like take of or live up to) are nroa of difference. and there are slightly fewer of them in the