Hello one and all. I have long been a fan and lover of Harry Potter and fanfiction, though there has been something that has long been frustrating the life out of me in regards to the majority of Harry Potter fanfics. As a brit, I often notice that you use American terminologies and phrases in regards to different things such as school years, term names, every day objects and make references to things that only occurs on your side of the pond (such as repeating year's ) It is truly jarring to be reading a perfectly good fic, when out of the blue, harry refers to something as trash, And while I do understand that the majority of you are from over the pond and are not aware of these differences, but a sign of a good writer is to be fully aware of the setting (in this case the UK ) and adapt the dialogue and terminology to what people within that setting would use.

I am indeed well aware of some of you are not aware of the terminology and systems we have in place over here in the UK so I've compiled a small list of things that often pop up in Harry Potter fanfiction and offer a translation for it in British terminology (you don't have to pay attention to what I've said and continue writing how you please, regardless of what this increasingly condescending sounding twat says. ) Regardless, lets get to it.

Terminology

Trash/garbage = rubbish

Season = series

Grade = Year

Mail = post

Candy = sweet

Soccer = football

Jail = prison

Daycare = nursery

Cops = police

Fall =autumn

Cupcakes = buns

Gas = petrol/diesel depending in what car you are using

Algebra = maths

Now onto schooling:

Here in the UK, we have 4 levels of education:

Primary ( Years 1 – 6)

Secondary (years 7 – 12)

College/Six form (year 13 – 14)

University

Our tests are standardised across the UK (with the exception of university level) and it is rare for teachers to set their own assignments (again, with the exception of university level)

We are graded from a U (which is a fail) to an E (which is barely a pass ) to a A* which is the highest grade a student can get

have no such thing as pre school (unless you are super rich ) and repeating a year is an extremely rare occurrence and only done in exceptional circumstances.

We refer to term times by their seasons. September to December is known as Autumn term, January to April is known as spring and May to July is known as summer term. All of them have a weeks break in the centre and we get 2 weeks off at Christmas and 2 weeks off at Easter.

Minor things:

The age of consent in the UK since 1880ies has been 16

Coming of age and being legally allowed to drink and smoke is 18

Legally allowed to drive is 17

No we do not all speak with a jolly posh accent

Nor a cockney one

We use pounds (aka Quid) and pence over here

British insults and curses

Wanker, tosser, git, twat, bollocks, f*cking Knob, knob head,

And that's it for now. I might update this at some point to include more, but for now its enough.

Goodbye and goodnight