When traveling abroad, things will often get “lost in translation” when talking with a local.

But what happens when the local is an English speaker like you? Is there a name for that?

There are some obvious differences between American English and British English. But there are some differences that you don’t realize until you’ve said something and everyone at the table proceeds to laugh at you.

Yeah, you guessed it — that happened to me.

I was at the university library with a group of people I was working on a presentation with. The presentation required us to dress up: not full-on suits, but nice pants with button-up shirts for the guys, and skirts for the girls.

We were talking about this when I suddenly realized I didn’t have any pants to wear for the presentation.

“Hey, guys… I just realized I don’t have any dress pants.”

And then there was silence. Eyes open wide, mouths agape.

Then laughter. Lots of laughter.

Not only does the phrase “dress pants” mean nothing here, the term “pants” doesn’t mean what it does in America.

Let me break it down for you: In the United Kingdom, “pants” means “underwear” and “trousers” means “pants” in British English.

So to the people sitting at the table with me, what I described is a piece of underwear that is a dress. And that it’s something I wear.

Because I share a common language with most of the people, living in London has lulled me into a somewhat-false sense of security. A sense that I’m basically at home and that all of my Americanisms will make perfect sense here. It took getting laughed at by a table of Brits to shake me of that belief.

There are some linguistic traits that I may pick up living here, but I can guarantee this: pants will always be pants. And trousers will always make me laugh.