Search results for 'tag:Accents tag:Prepositions' matching tags 'Accents' and 'Prepositions'

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Marvin A. — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 06:41:22 GMT

Wow, what a lot of nonesense.

Is American English simply lazy English with disregard for the fundamentals of the language, or is it a valid simplification of an overly complex and irregular language?

Huh? What are you talking about?

I was hoping nobody would ask, but since you did, I much prefer the attitude of the British. They have enough respect for the language to use correct spelling

How is modern British spelling more "correct"? Who determines correct spelling anyway? The differences in spelling between the US and the UK are mostly due to there being multiple forms that were considered "correct" at the time: such as "color" and "colour".

(The British have) clear enunciation

Oh they do, do they? Are you referring to RP, which is spoken by about 4% of the population, or are you referring to Glaswegian?

(And the British have the) correct use of prepositions and general grammar (and Americans don't)

Huh?

It is not my intention to offend users of American English, users of the imperial system of measurement or anyone else who cares little for international standards.

By your logic, the imperial system should be the correct one. After all, it was invented in Britain. They simply "dumbed down" their system (as you like to say), and switched to the metric system.

I know literacy levels in most western countries are declining rapidly. Could this be a contributing factor?

What does literacy have to do with it?

they use American enunciation

There are several dialects of North American English.

(The "American enunciation", grammar, etc.) all these also have been standardized

Um, no. There is no standardized pronunciation in North American English.

British is regarded as classical English?

"Classical English"? Modern British dialects, particularily RP, have diverged more from the English that both RP and General American are derived from. The non-rhoticity is one thing.

When one considers that the countries on the following list and a multitude of other nations have deep historical if not current connections with Britain and British English, I think it is quite likely that the use of Bitish English is far more widespread and popular than one might think at first glance.

Canada

Um. Canada does not speak "British English".

Oh, by the way, British English is taught in Australian schools, and I think it would be fair to say that Australians take great pride in the preservation of 'proper' (the Queen's) English

Australians speak *Australian English* not British English. They are not "taught" British English. Their spelling system is closer to the British standard though. As for Australians speaking the Queen's English, nothing could be father from the truth, in fact most non-Australians think that most forms of Australian English sound very much like Cockney.

Interesting that Australians take much pride in using British English - that actually would support the thesis that it'll hardly happen that the British English will be replaced by the American English, what do you think?

Um. They don't use British English... But they're of course not going to adopt an American accent. That would be like thinking that people from Berlin would adopt a Swiss German accent.

As nationalities continually interact around the word, shouldn't there be ONE set standard for both measurement and English? Emagine if you gave a spelling test to students from different English speaking countries. Q. What would be the correct spelling for the word "COLOR/COLOUR" ? (for example) Who would pass the test and who would fail?

Um. Both were used in the past as acceptable variants.

As nationalities continually interact around the word, shouldn't there be ONE set standard for both measurement and English?

No. English is a pluricentric language.

American English now is mostly ebonics lol

Rubbish

In a nutshell American and British English are but two dialects of ENGLISH.

They are not two "dialects". There's really no such thing as "American English" or "British English". There are many dialects of English in North America, as well as many dialects in the Britain.

I don't think I would consider British English "Classic English". British English and American English were assumable one in the same 200 years ago.

Exactly. But remeber, even at that time there was not just one form of English. There were many dialects.

I started this thread in 2003, and I have to admit I now feel a little silly about it.
Thanks to the input in this thread (and others) I realise my stupidity at having been so outspoken.

Good.

U.S. has a very diverse population. The pressure, naturally, is to simplify English so everyone, including the non-native speakers, can understand each other.

Rubbish. How has it become simpler?

They should learn to write properly, that is, English, proper English

Write properly? What is this "correct spelling" anyway?

So you're quite likely to hear a rising 'Australian' intonation in plain statements, for example â which to some BrE ears makes every statement sound like a question.

That's also found in North American English. It's associated with California English and Valley girls for the most part. It has very little to do with Australian influence.

Re: how to pronounce 'sp', 'st' and 'sk' in the middle of the word?

Kooyeen — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:34:55 GMT

Hi, this is interesting, it reminds me of something I read in a book for improving pronunciation (the famous "American Accent Training"). The title of the paragraph is "Spoon or Sboon?"

She (the author) say: "Say spoon. Now say sboon. Hear how they sound the same?" This is similar to your p/b problem. Anyway, I disagree, spoon and sboon sound similar to me, but not the same, and people say spoon, not sboon. She go on saying: "Hear how they sound the same? This is why I'd like you to always convert the preposition to to duh when you are speaking, no matter what comes before it (voiced or unvoiced sound)." I have to disagree again. I don't think to becomes duh after unvoiced consonants. Examples: "Way duh go!" (ok, vowel sound), "I need duh know that" (ok, voiced consonant), "To be or nod duh be" (I don't think so, I think it's simply "To be or not to be"). In the book, however, she explicitly write in the phonetic transcription "T'bee r nah d'bee".

In the end, that paragraph was one the ones I didn't pay too much attention to. But maybe she's right, and I'm just a bad sutdent not willing to listen to teachers

Re: preposition OF

Kooyeen — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:58:43 GMT

Hi ICU,
I think it's usually pronounced uh-v, any other pronunciation would be strange, IMO. I'm not sure, but maybe I once heard something like off, that is, with an f instead of a v. Maybe I heard it in some audio file, searching some archive for pronunciation samples. If ever I heard it, I guess it was some kind of British accent or even a foreign accent.

Re: American Slang!!

Grammar Geek — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 21:53:57 GMT

Yes, accent aside, it's hard to imagine not understanding a British English speaker. (Some of those folks from the Scottish highlands can be a bit tough for me to make out, accent-wise, and I expect a deep Cajun accent would be hard for a Brit to make out.) Someone who didn't realize she was reading a British text might think the spelling a little weird and there are some prepositions "missing" to our ears. But the figures of speech might catch us by surprise.

Re: Question with preposition at the end

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:22:53 GMT

Let me start by saying that english is not my first language. Anyway, I was reading this joke the other day:

*********
A girl from Georgia and a girl from the west coast were seated side by side on an airplane.
The girl from Georgia, being friendly and all, said, "So, where ya from?"
The west coast girl said, "From a place where they know better than to use a preposition at the end of a sentence."
The girl from Georgia sat quietly for a few moments and then in her Sweetest Southern Accent replied:
"So, where ya from, ***?"
**********

I liked it a lot but then I started to look on the internet for this "no preposition at the end of a sentence" rule. Why? Because I would like to know how can I ask "Where are you from?" without placing the preposition at the end... Any solutions?
Thank you.

Re: Native-speaker intuition.

Cool Breeze — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 12:15:57 GMT

Englishuser wrote:
I couldn't agree more: English idioms and spellings tend to be difficult even for many a native speaker! I would also like to add that the size of the English lexion makes learning English relatively difficult.

Just out of curiosity: What exactly do you try to sound like on your trips overseas?

Englishuser

Hi Englishuser

Yes, the English lexicon is larger than that of most languages. However, since many common words have numerous meanings, learning the basic vocabulary is quite easy. For example, this is what one can say if one knows the prepositions and the verb to get:

I get letters from him. It's getting late. You're getting on my nerves. Let's get off the bus. Get out of here! I don't get on with him. What are you getting at? He doesn't get about much anymore due to his sickness. He got over his illness. And so on. In many languages one needs a different word for each of these meanings.

Many years ago I read a study which said that an English blue-collar worker uses about 500 different words when he speaks. German has a smaller lexicon than English, but a German worker needs 800 words because in German one word doesn't have as many meanings as in English. I don't really know if these figures are accurate but my logic tells me there may be some truth in them.

As to your question what I try to sound like when I am overseas, I am not quite sure I know the answer. If I am in the USA, sounding American won't be a hindrance, so I suppose I don't try to avoid sounding American, at least not consciously. I guess I usually sound more or less Finnish or Scandinavian when I speak English. A retired opera singer has told me I have an exceptionally acute ear for music and rhythm, which explains my ability to imitate some accents. I can mimic a BBC newscaster if I have to, but it doesn't come very naturally to me. I have to force myself to it, so I never use that 'accent'.

Cheers

Why is this?

Believer — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 13:11:43 GMT

I saw this explanation from the Collins/Cobuild dictionary. P/S tell me why the underlined word get only stressed the letters "NA," not the whole word "banana."

Sentence stress is an accent on certain words w/in a sentence. Function words, such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs are not stressed.

ex) I WANT a baNAna

The CAR is MOVING.

Re: How to improve an advanced speaker?

Germlishspeaker — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:57:06 GMT

lol!

Yeah, I know what you're saying. I've been told my accent, both spoken and written, sounded "sexy", whatever it means...

Of course, there are differences in the way of thinking. The perception of time is one example, the use of prepositions another.

I am afraid the only way for an advanced speaker to excel is to hope for the best. Unless you haven't got a friend (native speaker) who's willing to give a hand by telling you right when the mistake happened.

Easier said than done.

Re: Difference between American and British English

M. Hus — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 15:17:43 GMT

There are differences in accent, grammar and words. British accent needs no explanation if you've ever heard it. It is SO different from American.

The main grammatical difference is Perfect Tenses.

The Americans would say I just had a breakfast and Did you ever go to Spain. The British would stick to I've just had a breakfast and Have you ever been to Spain. There are some minor differences in preposition use and strucure of sentences as well, but are really not important.

There are lists of words used differently in USA and UK. Some are just spelt differently, others have different meaning (rubber would be understood as an eraser in USA but as condom in UK). Go Google for details.

By the way, the double negation is ungrammatical in English, but not necessarily in other languages. In my native Slovenian, we don't just use the double negation but even the tripple and more. (Nihce nikoli nicesar ne ve -- English word by word translation would be: Nobody never not knows nothing.

Re: Preposition usage

rommie — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 16:34:06 GMT

Ending a sentence in a preposition is quite acceptable in both written and spoken English these days. In very formal text, one would avoid it.

Consider, however, the alternative. The formal wording of this sentence would have to be:

You will recall that, in German, it is similar to the sound that you would get if you were to add an "e" after the vowel over which it is positioned.

Decide for yourself which version you like best. My biggest problem with this sentence is not the prepositional ending, however, it is the final "it". It is not entirely clear what is the antecedent of this pronoun. (I assume it's the accent over the vowel, but I had to think about it to figure that out).

Rommie