Saying 'Quite nice' isn't nice at all: 4 American workers who live in the UK share the most misunderstood US phrases

• Knowing the right thing to say to colleagues can be hard even in your native country.
• Americans who've moved to the UK share the phrases that have caused miscommunication while abroad.

Even though Americans and Britons speak the same language, there are certain phrases and words that Americans use when living and working in the UK that don't translate.

Insider spoke with four Americans who moved to the UK about instances in which their colleagues had been confused, amused, or even annoyed by uniquely US idioms that just don't make sense in a British workplace. From jobs in finance to medicine, transatlantic misunderstandings prevailed.

Sports analogies can't be trusted, and mistakes could be costly

Michael Barton, a personal-finance advisor and senior writer for Wallet Savvy, moved to the UK seven years ago from Denver to be closer to family and friends.

"There are some basics I was prepared to deal with," Barton said, "like 'lift' instead of 'elevator,' but it's truly in the idioms and cultural references that I often get tripped up."

He remembers confidently declaring in a meeting that a project he and his team had been working on was a "home run."

"Someone couldn't resist chiming in, 'So it's a cricket boundary, is it?'" the 45-year-old said. "They all laughed except for me. I just felt like something passed by me and I couldn't quite catch it."

While a "home run" in the US refers to a successful result, the baseball analogy didn't land with a UK audience that was unfamiliar with the sport.

Barton said that mistakes weren't always trivial, "especially in sectors like finance, where details matter, a simple misunderstanding could be costly."

Conversely, he's had to pick up British slang to succeed in the financial sector.

"I once had an initial blanked-out-face moment when I heard something was '5,000 quid,'" he said.

"All in all, these slips are very fun, but if you're unsure about what's being said, ask," he added. "If you're the one talking, offer a quick explanation of your colloquialisms."

Some American sayings have dark histories, so be aware of explaining them to Brits

Sharon Klahr Coey, a writer and editor, moved to London from New York City nearly 20 years ago and still mistakenly uses American phrases at work.

She was surprised that some of the phrases she used in America weren't understood there. When she had to explain their origins, she realized how "horrible and insensitive" they were, she said.

"I commented once about 'drinking the Kool-Aid,' which is an expression used to denote abject obedience, often in the workplace, in really believing in the product or culture even if it's a bit dubious," the 53-year-old said.

"It went over my British coworkers' heads," she added. "As I explained it comes from the Jonestown massacre, where members of the cult drank poisoned Flavor Aid — similar to the powdered drink Kool-Aid that exists now — and died, it occurred to me this shouldn't be a funny, off-handed comment."

She also remembered using the phrase "going postal," used in America to describe feeling really angry at work.

"When having to explain it, the horror of this flip comment hit me as well as them," she said. "In the mid-80s, there were a spate of US postal workers having enough and mass murdering people in the post office with shotguns."

'Pants' is not an appropriate word for the workplace

On a lighter note, she remembers complimenting a coworker on her cute pants. Klahr Coey was talking about her peer's trousers, but the coworker thought she was complimenting her underwear.

"She gasped and reached her hand around to her back to make sure her trousers hadn't fallen down exposing her underwear," Klahr Coey said.

In most cases, she said misunderstandings hadn't proved a problem, adding that she'd learned to "make life easier" and speak in a way people at work understood.

Be specific with your vocabulary about types of calls and meetings

Jennifer Cairns, who works for the advocacy group Lady Rebel Club, has lived in Northern Ireland for 25 years. She listed several phrases that still slipped out at work, including "shoot the breeze," "discombobulated," and "pissed" — angry, not drunk. Her colleagues often respond with a stare of confusion.

She also learned that when she said she would "call for" a team member, they expected her to show up in person for a meeting.

"In the US, it means 'I will phone you,'" she said. "I learned that the hard way when I didn't show up for a meeting many years ago. Now I say we can video chat, Zoom, or I'll ring you verses using the word 'call.'"

'Quite nice' can be understood as an insult

Andrew Telfer and his wife moved to Scotland from the US in 2019 to be closer to family. When he started working within the National Health Service, the culture gap became evident in the language he used with colleagues.

Telfer said he would write his numerical dates month, day, and year, but in the UK, the day comes first. He now just says and writes any dates using the full date.

"But the biggest issues come not from specific words but different connotations," the 39-year-old founder of the fitness startup WildStrong said. "For example, in America, 'quite nice' can be a modifier that implies something is very nice. Whereas in UK English, saying something is quite nice could imply that it's underwhelming or not good enough.

"I once got in trouble for calling somebody's gift 'quite nice,' which I meant as a hearty compliment but was interpreted as an insult."

Telfer added: "I find that most people are good-natured about misunderstandings."