What's the difference between Hire and rent?

What's the difference between Hire and rent? Could anybody tell me?
My teacher said that "Hire" is used for a long time rent, and rent is only a short time (like a day), I wonder what "House for rent" would be?
Could anybody help me? :cry:

The are some things, like houses, that only go with 'rent', and others, like people, that only go with 'hire'. The are other things, like cars, where it doesn't matter much which verb you use.
The time distinction is, I think, not very clear- we do rent videos, which is short term, but we can also hire a piece of machinery for a day.

"Hire" is used differently in AmE. We only hire people, not things. In BrE, they (as Tdol mentioned) can hire machinery or a car, to name a few examples. That sort of activity is always referred to as "renting" in AmE.

Examples:
They hired five more assembly line workers at the Ford plant.
My car is being repaired, so I had to rent one for the week.
Instead of promoting staff from inside the company, they hired a new person for that management position.
My living room carpet is a mess, so I rented one of those industrial steam cleaners for a day.


:-)

So, eventually, it's doesn't different so much in Britian?

With cars, no, but with many other things, it does, like houses and people. ;-)