Search results for 'tag:British English tag:Expressions' matching tags 'British English' and 'Expressions'

Re: Camp as knickers

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:21:07 GMT

I'd just like to add that 'knickers' is still frequently used in British English to refer to what Americans usually term 'panties' (i.e. women's underwear). It also appears in the British slang expression "Okay, don't get your knickers in a twist!" meaning "Don't get upset over something trivial".

Re: Leave it on the floor...

yizhivika — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:13:06 GMT

Hi Madhulk,

It is quite possible that both "Hold nothing back" and "Leave it all on the floor" mean exactly the same thing here. They can evidently both mean "Give it everything you've got!", and perhaps the hoodlum/gangster is simply using the second of the two expressions for emphasis.

That said, it's also possible that "Leave it all on the floor!" does mean what I suggested it does in my first post above. Whatever, in either case, it's a figurative expression, not a literal one.

To be honest, the expression "Leave it all on the floor", as used here, is such a rarity in English speech as to be not worth worrying about (I have never heard it used in British English, and maybe it's just an American thing).

In fact, you are much more likely to find the expression used in its purely literal sense in English.

For example:

Q: "Where shall I put all this shopping?"
A: "Leave it all on the floor for now!"

Hope that helps! ;-)

A head for figures?

Stenka25 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:10:54 GMT

StartFragment>

In 'figure' article in a dicitonary, 'a head for figures' come up two times and

6 figures [plural] British English :the activity of adding, multiplying etc numbers [= arithmetic]

â¢ a natural ability with figures

8 a person in a painting or a model of a person:

â¢ the figure in the background

â¢ A Head for Figures

I want to know what 'a head for figures' means?

It seems like the meaning of the expression can be 'be good at arithmetic' in meaning six. But in meaning eight I cannot figure out what the 'a head for figures' refers to. Does it still mean 'be good at arithmetic'?

Thanks in advance.

A head for figures?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:07:39 GMT

StartFragment>

In 'figure' article in a dicitonary, 'a head for figures' come up two times and

6 figures [plural] British English :the activity of adding, multiplying etc numbers [= arithmetic]

â¢ a natural ability with figures

8 a person in a painting or a model of a person:

â¢ the figure in the background

â¢ A Head for Figures

I want to know what 'a head for figures' means?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Stigmatised Standard

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:34:00 GMT

<Hmm, in the other thread, you wanted to hear a definition of a standard from someone, even if you know a real standard doesn't actually exist. And here you are asking why some things are often stigmatized, but others rarely are. So I don't understand what it is that you are trying to find out, or trying to explain.>

It's quite simple really. If a person states that a certain expression in in correct in "standard spoken British English" he should be able to give a clear defintion.

Then, being surprised that few people here critcise standard English users, I ask why that is. Is this "LINGUISTICS FORUM" based only on standard English linguistics?

Re: Standard spoken English

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:00:04 GMT

Something to chew on:

THE NOTION OF STANDARD SPOKEN GRAMMAR

The term âstandard grammarâ is most typically associated with written language,
and is usually considered to be characteristic of the recurrent usage of adult,
educated native speakers of a language. Standard grammar ideally reveals no
particular regional bias. Thus âStandard British Englishâ grammar consists of items
and forms that are found in the written usage of adult educated native speakers
from Wales, Scotland and England and those Northern Irish users who consider
themselves part of the British English speech community.

The typical sources of evidence for standard usage are literary texts, quality
journalism, academic and professional writing, etc. Standard grammar is given the
status of the official record of educated usage by being written down in grammar
books and taught in schools and universities.

Spoken transcripts often have frequent occurrences of items and structures
considered incorrect according to the norms of standard written English. However,
many such forms are frequently and routinely used by adult, educated native speakers.

Examples of such structures are split infinitives (e.g. We decided to immediately sell it),
double negation (e.g. He wonât be late I donât think, as compared to I donât think he will
be late), singular nouns after plural measurement expressions (e.g. Heâs about six foot
tall), the use of contracted forms such as gonna (going to), wanna (want to), and so on.

Standard spoken English grammar will therefore be different from standard
written English grammar in many respects if we consider âstandardâ to be a
description of the recurrent spoken usage of adult native speakers. What may be
considered ânon-standardâ in writing may well be âstandardâ in speech.
Speech and writing are not independent. Although some forms of spoken
grammar do not appear in writing (unless in written dialogues), there is
considerable overlap and there is an increasing range of forms appearing in
informal written texts which previously were only considered acceptable in
speech. In 120 the presence of typically spoken grammatical forms contexts as emails and internet chat-room exchanges is discussed.

From: The Cambridge Grammar of English (GCE)

Re: If I'm used only to Standard English, might I have trouble understanding dialects?

Mr Wordy — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:26:35 GMT

There are some differences in vocabulary and idiom across the British Isles, and you might encounter some regional words and expressions that you're not familiar with. But the core vocabulary and grammar are not hugely different, and you might find that a bigger problem is pronunciation. If you're only familiar with the sort of English spoken by middle class people from the south of England, and you go into a pub in a rough part of Glasgow, say, then you might not even realise that the people there are speaking English at all.

The native speakers I (as a native speaker myself) have most difficulty with are young urban working class people. In this case, vocabulary (lots of "yoof slang" I've never heard of) and pronunciation both cause problems. I might overhear, say, a group of youths chatting in a London suburb and only catch about 50% of it.

There's no need to try to speak regional dialects of British English yourself (unless you're particularly interested in doing so, of course). If you speak something approximating to "standard" British English then you should be able to make yourself understood anywhere in the British Isles.

Re: excited of /with

Anonymous — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:53:28 GMT

I think that there might be regional/dialect variations in usage here. According to the version of British English that I speak:

"excited about" is the usual expression.

"excited with" sounds somewhat unnatural.

"excited of" is wrong.

Another possibility is "excited by", but this has slightly different connotations, including a greater sense of immediacy/intimacy, and does not seem so appropriate when talking about a project.

Re: CONSUME GAS

Monalisatuan — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:55:30 GMT

Hi Mr Anonymous again !

Perhaps , there is a slight difference between British English and American English and you are using the latter.In USA you don't use this or that expression , but in UK they do use it. So that 's the problem we , Asian students , are facing .Sometimes we don't know whether a sentence written or said by us is correct or not . Someone in this forum says it is odd , but dictionary says ok . Who should we believe ? A world- famous Dictionary like Longman can't be wrong . It is being used by many advanced level university students the world over and the persons who answer in this forum can't be wrong .either because they are native speakers .I think it's best for us , the leaners , to learn both ways , British and American .

Best wishes

Re: CONSUME GAS

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:05:26 GMT

Hi Monlisautan,

I remember âLongmanâ from way, way back in elementary school in my motherland. For beginners, Longman was all people know before it had the name âOxfordâ attached to it. Today, the first few pages of lessons still ring in my head. It read like this:

A man
A pan
A man and a pan
A pan and a man

I never remember what came of the lessons after that and I thought never learn English again, simply it was too difficult and the teacher wasnât very good at it anyway, I thought. Who would have thought I would have such passion with English 30 years later in the US. I never had one day use any Longman reference for that fact that British English wonât do me any good in the US. In many instances, English expressions would sound like a thumb tag in the American ears, not they are wrong in the Brit. Ears, itâs just not commonly used and therefore make them sound strange. Getting back to Dictionaries, I always prefer Miriam Webster and American Heritage.