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"?

Not a native English speaker, but my hunch is, soccer will almost certainly be understood. Also it will identify you as American.

English people understand the limitations Americans have to live under when it comes to language

Edit: jesus you make little high brow joke and all the idiots gets butthurt.

No, we understand. In fact, if anything it's easier if you say soccer! If someone with an American accent says 'football' I normally assume they mean gridiron, so sayings soccer is actually a little clearer.

Of course, in different parts of the world, 'football' might mean rugby (either union or league), Gaelic football or Aussie rules football. So, the potential for confusion is pretty wide!

It's ok, we know you guys are weird.

Most won't be confused at all. They might be surprised but pretty simple logic would result in a fast realisation of what you actually mean. I am surprised though, that you, as an English speaking person couldn't figure out that a torch might refer to a flash light.

In Australia we have Soccer, Aussie rules football (AFL), Rugby Union (Union) and Rugby league (Usually referred to as "League" or "NRL") all of them also known as "Football"

I have a pretty deep burning hatred for people who insist on correcting people when they say Soccer. It honestly just makes you look like a twat "yOu mEaN wHaT tHe rEsT oF thE WoRld CalLs foOTbALl!?!" Like you fucking understood well enough to know this was your moment to open your cockholster and needlessly add that little tidbit like anyone else was confused.

From now on I’m calling it Foot Football. That other game is Hand Football.

I'm an American who lived in England for a couple of years. Due to American media the majority of everyone understood what I meant when I said things like soccer, trunk or hood of a car, fries, etc. Words with different meanings between the two could get confusing like biscuit, chips, or pissed.

Since soccer doesn't have another meaning I never ran into someone who didn't know what I was talking about. However, when saying football in an American accent some thought I was referring to American Football by default.

I can only remember one instant where someone did not know what I was talking about. That was when I asked someone at work where the dumpster was and I got a blank stare. I explained, the big metal thing outside for trash and they were like, "oh the skip"

While it will absolutely out you as a US American, we will understand - same as when you say "Candy" and similar common Americanisms

Edit: Also, while mostly used to refer to flashlights as you guys call them, torch can also refer to other non-lantern light-emitting instruments

Everyone understands, most gringe.

As a non-native English speaker I fully understand what it means and will happily correct it to football for you :P

It is just football all over the world, in contrast to American "football".

Ah yes no worries, we even heard about them Soccer moms here in Europe.

It's soccer here in Australia too. Like the US, we have our own local football code too.

Australia and nz say soccer too

I’ve been kind of wondering that as well. A few months ago, I was in a call with a colleague in UK and we were chatting about our kids’ playing the same sport . Then his kid wandered into the picture and asked what “soccer” was and we had to translate American English to UK English

I've heard gridiron. Just not "gridiron football" together.

It's only Americans that have this problem. Our TV and movies have been exported all over the world for decades.

I found Monty Python early in my life and it touched off a life long love of British TV and learned the lingo. ☺

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.