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!

  • @otp@sh.itjust.works
    2•6 months ago

    Interesting. I’ve used candy to refer to non-chocolate sweets. Sweets refers to sweet candy, and chocolate.

    On that note, for a long time, I’d thought “candy bar” was called as such because they tend to not contain any actual chocolate.

    • Th4tGuyII
      3•6 months ago

      How people refer between different types of sweets varies even within Britain, nevermind other countries… but at least in my experience chocolate sweets get referred to as chocolates, and non-chocolate sweets as just sweets (though I have heard the terms sugar sweets and confectioneries thrown about for those too)

        • Devi
          2•6 months ago

          Sweets are a specific thing. Sweet is the flavour that you’re thinking of, but if someone is using sweet as a noun, they’re never referring to chocolate.