Pounds and dollars
| Pounds | In US dollars | US dollars | In pounds |
|---|
At £1 = US$1.33, a quick rule is to add a third to any price in pounds: £30 is about $40. Prices on shelves and menus already include 20% VAT, so there is nothing to add at the till, but many restaurants put a 10–12.5% service charge on the bill. A pound is 100 pence ("p"), and Brits call it a quid. When a card machine offers to charge you in dollars, choose pounds. See money, cards and tipping.
Temperature
| °C | °F | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| 0°C | 32°F | Freezing. A frosty winter night; lasting snow is rare in London. |
| 8°C | 46°F | A typical winter high in London. Damp, gray and colder than it sounds. |
| 15°C | 59°F | A spring or fall day. Bring a layer and a rain jacket. |
| 19°C | 66°F | An average summer high in Edinburgh. |
| 24°C | 75°F | An average July or August high in London. |
| 30°C | 86°F | A heatwave. Most summers now bring a few days this hot. |
| 38.5°C | 101.3°F | A fever, if a pharmacist or a doctor asks. |
| 180°C | 356°F | A moderate oven, if you're cooking in a rental. Older gas ovens may be marked "gas mark 4" instead. |
British forecasts give temperatures in Celsius, though you'll still hear a heatwave described in Fahrenheit. On hills and coasts, wind and rain matter as much as the number: it is always colder on a summit than in the valley below, so pack a warm layer even in summer. See when to go for weather by region.
Distance, weight and stones
| Speed sign | Where you'll see it |
|---|---|
| 20 mph | The default in most towns and villages in Wales since 2023, and in many zones in English and Scottish towns |
| 30 mph | The usual limit in towns and villages with streetlights, unless signed otherwise |
| 60 mph | Single carriageways: ordinary two-lane country roads, often narrow and winding |
| 70 mph | Dual carriageways (divided highways) and motorways |
Good news for drivers: the UK uses miles and miles per hour, like home, so the speedometer and the signs need no math. A white circle with a black diagonal stripe means the national speed limit applies: 60 mph on single carriageways, 70 on dual carriageways and motorways. Distances on walking routes, Ordnance Survey maps and mountain heights are metric: Ben Nevis is 1,345 meters (4,413 feet). See driving in the UK.
Different from home
Brits give body weight in stones and pounds: "about 12 stone" is 168 lb. Shops and recipes use grams and kilograms, height is still usually given in feet and inches, and pub beer comes in pints. Many people mix all three systems without noticing.
Fuel, liters and pints
The fuel price uses the rate from the currency converter above. A US gallon is 3.785 liters.
| You'll see | Size | In US terms |
|---|---|---|
| A pint (of beer, cider or milk) | 568 ml, 20 imperial fl oz | About 1.2 US pints; a US pint is 473 ml (16 US fl oz) |
| A half (half a pint) | 284 ml | About 9.6 US fl oz |
| A glass of wine | 125 ml, 175 ml or 250 ml | About 4, 6 or 8.5 US fl oz; a "large" glass is a third of a bottle |
| A single measure of spirits | 25 ml, or 35 ml in some bars | A little under 1 US fl oz; a US shot is about 1.5 fl oz |
| A gallon in UK fuel-economy figures | 4.546 liters (imperial) | About 20% bigger than a US gallon, so 50 mpg UK is about 42 mpg US |
Fuel is sold by the liter: at the late-October 2026 average of about £1.74 a liter for petrol, that works out to about $8.75 a US gallon. Petrol (gas) nozzles are usually green and diesel nozzles usually black, the reverse of what some Americans expect, so check the label on the fuel cap of your hire car. Supermarket stations are usually the cheapest and motorway services the dearest. The pint is the reason a British beer looks generous: it holds about a fifth more than a US pint. See pubs and drink.
Clothing and shoe sizes
UK sizes differ from US sizes for women's clothing and for shoes. The tables below follow the conversions most retailers use, but sizing varies by brand and cut, so check the store's own chart or try things on. Many labels in British stores show UK, EU and US sizes side by side.
| Women's clothing, US | UK |
|---|---|
| 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 8 |
| 6 | 10 |
| 8 | 12 |
| 10 | 14 |
| 12 | 16 |
| 14 | 18 |
| Women's shoes, US | UK | Men's shoes, US | UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 4 | 8 | 7–7.5 |
| 7 | 5 | 9 | 8–8.5 |
| 8 | 6 | 10 | 9–9.5 |
| 9 | 7 | 11 | 10–10.5 |
| 10 | 8 | 12 | 11–11.5 |
The short rule: women's clothing is the US size plus 4 (a US 8 is a UK 12); women's shoes are about two sizes smaller in UK numbers; men's shoes are half to one size smaller, depending on the brand. Men's shirts by collar size and trousers by waist and leg in inches match US sizes. Watch the vocabulary: in Britain "pants" are underwear and "trousers" are pants. See British English for Americans.
Time zones and calling home
Uses today's offsets. All four nations of the UK share one time zone: GMT in winter, British Summer Time (GMT+1) from late March to late October.
Watch out
The UK and the US change their clocks on different dates, so for a few weeks a year the usual gap shrinks by an hour. Britain moves its clocks on the last Sunday of March and of October; the US moves on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. New York is normally five hours behind London, but only four from October 25 to 31, 2026, from March 14 to 27, 2027, and from October 31 to November 6, 2027. Check meeting times and flight connections in those weeks. Arizona and Hawaii don't change their clocks, so their gap to London changes twice a year.
To call a US number from a UK phone, dial 00 1 or +1, then the area code and number. The UK's country code is +44; drop the leading 0 of a UK number after it (020 for London becomes +44 20). The emergency number is 999, and 112 works too. Many US phone plans include the UK, and eSIMs are cheap; see phones, plugs and apps.
Plugs and voltage
British sockets take the Type G plug, with three chunky rectangular pins, and supply 230 volts at 50 Hz, about twice the US voltage. Most sockets have their own on/off switch: if your charger does nothing, flip it on. Phone, tablet, camera and laptop chargers marked 100–240 V need only a plug adapter. Hair dryers, straighteners and other heating gadgets made for 120 V will overheat or burn out, so leave them at home and use the hotel's. More in phones, plugs and apps.
Dates, numbers and floors
| You'll see | It means |
|---|---|
| 07/04/2027 | April 7, 2027. Britain writes the day first, so 07/04 is never July 4. |
| 14:30 | 2:30 p.m. Train and bus timetables, tickets and many venues use the 24-hour clock. |
| £12.50, 50p | Twelve pounds fifty, and fifty pence. Prices include VAT. |
| G or 0 in the elevator | The ground floor. The "first floor" is the one above, what Americans call the second floor. |
| 11 st 6 lb | 160 lb, or about 72.6 kg. Body weight in stones and pounds. |
| 500 g, 1 kg | About 1.1 lb and 2.2 lb. Shops and recipes use grams and kilograms. |
| 4 pints of milk | 2.27 liters, about a fifth more than a US half gallon. |
| A quid, a fiver, a tenner | £1, a £5 note and a £10 note. |