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!

  • Ilflish
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    6 months ago

    There’s more problems that occur when you talk about American Football as just football solely because people will attempt to follow along before getting blindsided by something that doesn’t make sense. At least when Americans talk about Soccer, everyone knows what’s going on. Seems like there’s often miscommunication that people are getting annoyed Americans refer to Football as soccer and not that your refer to American Football as football. Makes sense when you talk to people in your own country.

    This isn’t American Centric. Whenever I’ve talked to people about Gaelic Football, it’s discussed as Gaelic football, not football.