ello' guv'nor! Put the crap in the trunk!

[Taak Farst]

You may have guessed. This is a thread to discuss english and american similarities and major differences. Mostly how they act and how they speak. I can imagine quite a humurous thread coming on here

 

e.g. Americans say trunk - we say boot. good old language!

 

DISCUSS.

 

P.S Nothing to do with this, but how many hours in front/behind is america from us - atm its 22:35 in england

[Inyri]

There are no major differences between the two dialects. It's simply some vocabulary and grammatical differences. I consider those minor.

[El Sitherino]

G'day mate, how about we throw another shrimp on the barby?

[Astor]

Aside from the Americans dropping U from words like flavour and colour, and taking the lazy way out in spelling - (donut, for instance) we're pretty much the same I think.

 

If only we could persuade them to pronounce our place names properly...

[Inyri]

We're not lazy, we're efficient. Now INTERNET PEOPLE are lazy. >.>

 

P.S Nothing to do with this, but how many hours in front/behind is america from us - atm its 22:35 in england

You don't know whether the US is ahead of you or behind you? o.O

[Taak Farst]

There are no major differences between the two dialects. It's simply some vocabulary and grammatical differences. I consider those minor.

 

Hmm...maybe ur rite. but still - cud be a good discussion

[Inyri]

Hmm...maybe ur rite. but still - cud be a good discussion

This is a wonderful example of that INTERNET PEOPLE dialect I was referring to.

 

I believe a 'cud' is something cows chew.

[Jeff]

ITT interweb speak vs irl

[Inyri]

Ironic how you used interweb speak to label 'in real life' speak!

[Astor]

Of more interest, from a linguistic point of view is the diversity of the American dialect itself... ranging from the Dakotas all the way down to the Lone Star state...

 

And the nationalities that built their country - Irish immigrants, French in the south (Louisiana) Mexicans, etc, makes it an interesting study.

 

After all, we're just an Island... the US is almost a Continent... (excluding Canada, and Mexico, of course).

[Taak Farst]

This is a wonderful example of that INTERNET PEOPLE dialect I was referring to.

 

I believe a 'cud' is something cows chew.

 

LMFAO! thats awesome inyri...just bloody awesome

[Inyri]

the US is almost a Continent... (excluding Canada, and Mexico, of course).

Cuz they don't count, right?

 

Speaking to folks from across the pond leaves little to no difficulty. Biggest problem I ever had with a UK resident was realizing when he said 'biscuit' he meant 'cookie.' >.>

 

If it hasn't been noticed yet, I also adopt the English grammatical rule of placing punctuation inside quotation marks because I think the American rule of putting it outside neither is intelligent nor makes any sense.

 

"Whatever," he said with "orange pineapple wit". WHY WOULD YOU PUT IT OUTSIDE?! Urg.

 

First person who can describe 'orange pineapple wit' gets a cookie. Er, biscuit?

[Astor]

Cuz they don't count, right?

 

Of course they do, but Canadians sound pretty similar to Americans, just a bit slower, and with a slightly different pronunciation of certain words 'Aboot' comes to mind. (no offence intended to any Canadians, of course).

 

Speaking to folks from across the pond leaves little to no difficulty. Biggest problem I ever had with a UK resident was realizing when he said 'biscuit' he meant 'cookie.' >.>

 

I love the saying 'Across the Pond'.

 

You mean he meant Biscuit?

 

if it hasn't been noticed yet, I also adopt the English grammatical rule of placing punctuation inside quotation marks because I think the American rule of putting it outside neither is intelligent nor makes any sense.

 

"Whatever," he said with "orange pineapple wit". WHY WOULD YOU PUT IT OUTSIDE?! Urg.

 

First person who can describe 'orange pineapple wit' gets a cookie. Er, biscuit?

 

I don't get the reference, but the American rule is pretty silly. Although of course, it's also confusing when we talk about money, because of the two different scales - for instance, an English million is more than an American one. At least, I think that's how it goes.

[SW01]

*Belfast accent*: Yous shud try speakin' Norn Iron like

 

Roughly translated - you should attempt to converse with someone over here...you think the difference between English and American dialect is bad...

 

I love using the traditional British spelling 'gaol' for 'jail' - really just to annoy tutors!

[Inyri]

LMFAO! thats awesome inyri...just bloody awesome

I was just pointing out how you made a thread about language and then proceeded to slaughter it.

[tk102]

the US is almost a Continent... (excluding Canada, and Mexico, of course).

Of course we exclude them. And Latin America and South America too. Ya know, cuz we're the Americans.

 

an English million is more than an American one

I thought that was billion: a thousand million (U.S.) vs. a million million (U.K.). Though you'd think U.K. would call a trillion a billion billions but instead it's a million billions.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

1:20:00

[Pavlos]

Aside from the Americans dropping U from words like flavour and colour, and taking the lazy way out in spelling - (donut, for instance) we're pretty much the same I think.

I've learnt to be less prescriptive over the past year (especially after being ordered to buy a copy of Fowler's by a friend studying linguistics). Because we're British we naturally assume that our way of spelling is right... because it's British and Britain's just great. Everyone else is rubbish. After all, they didn't go to Eton or Manchester Grammar. Everyone does it. I do it all the time without realising...

 

When you set that aside and look at things from the more scientific descriptivist point of view then there are all sorts of oddities. We removed the 'u' in 'governour' without American influence. I don't see many people writing 'governour' these days because that's just weird. We've scrapped ligatures from UK English: who writes 'encyclopædia' rather than 'encyclopaedia'? And yet -- in the face of all this simplification -- we've decided to rebel against the 18th/19th century movement to simplify all past-tense verb endings to 'ed'. To use the word 'built' years ago was considered to be old-fashioned but to say 'builded' -- something which makes more sense -- just makes people stare at you in wide-eyed shock, often mouthing the words "a handbag?!"

 

Anyway!

 

English - American

Tap = Faucet

Biscuit = Cookie

Jam = Jelly

Jelly = Jello

Boot = Trunk

Radio 4 = ???

"Have you got" preferred = "Do you have" preferred

Rubber = Eraser

'write to me' = 'write me' (this is actually something that really annoys me: this means 'write the word "me"' rather than "send me a letter" which requires a dative)

axe = ax

09/10/08 = 10/09/08

article not specified ("he's in hospital") = an almost obsessive use of the definite article ("he's in the hospital")

"Something for the weekend, sir?" = "Would you like a condom?" >_<

 

 

 

 

 

 

Education = Saluting the flag and memorising the dates of massacres

*runs*

 

I thought that was billion: a thousand million (U.S.) vs. a million million (U.K.). Though you'd think U.K. would call a trillion a billion billions but instead it's a million billions.

We threw this out ages ago. A billion used to be a million millions but we've since adopted the American method (which, frankly, makes much more sense).

 

Edit: jaymac wins for posting Eddie Izzard. I present you with the internet, sir.

 

Edit 2: Don't allow me to talk about language, it's very dangerous and makes me type a lot >_<.

[Inyri]

Oh Pavlos, jam and jelly are not the same. >.>

[Pavlos]

Oh Pavlos, jam and jelly are not the same. >.>

They're not?

[Jeff]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, doesn't jam have fruit bits in it while jelly does not?

 

Besides that, nice post Pavlos.

[El Sitherino]

We spell it axe here in the US as well...

[Pavlos]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, doesn't jam have fruit bits in it while jelly does not?

TECHNICALITIES!

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

Jam = Jelly

Jelly = Jello

 

Edit: jaymac wins for posting Eddie Izzard. I present you with the internet, sir.

 

ty

[Pavlos]

See, that's jelly to me.

 

Clicky

 

Although both terms exist in North America, the UK and Australia; in the USA most jams are often popularly referred to as "jelly" in a generic way. Meanwhile in the UK, Canada, and Australia the two terms are more strictly differentiated, although the term jam is more popularly used in Australia and South Africa as a generic term. To further confuse the issue, the term jelly is also used in the UK and Australia to refer to a gelatin dessert, whereas in North America the brand name Jell-O is used as a generic term for gelatin desserts and is strictly differentiated from clear fruit preserves.

 

But it is Wiki so...

 

On 'ax': I was always under the impression that both 'ax' and 'axe' were accetable in the States and the latter was less common.