Does the rest of the English speaking world generally understand what an American means when they say "soccer", or does it help to clarify by adding "football"?

drcouzelis@lemmy.zip to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 105 points –

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!

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And English... I've heard them use soccer as well on many occasions

Yeah, soccer is actually an English term that they created to refer to association football, as opposed to rugby football or the hundreds of other forms of football.

If an Englishman uses 'soccer' he's almost certainly from the upper class.

As “soccer” was played by the elite (such as the Oxford lad who is said to have coined “soccer”), it soon spread to the working classes, and became “football”.