Re: British vs. American English

frenchfry — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 19:22:57 GMT

Sorry, this will probably be a really long post. My mission? To dispell false notions about American English

First, we do NOT say "drug" as the past tense of "drag." It's dragged! There are only three kinds of Americans who would say this: Young children who have not yet mastered the grammatical nuances of English, lazy teenagers, or uneducated adults. We do say "burned" as the past tense of burn, but when we are describing something, it is correct to say burnt, not burned ("I hate burnt toast."). That is not to say that some Americans do not say burned...

We do not hold that it is correct to say, "I didn't phone the doctor yet." Of course, we'd say "call", not "phone", but that's another story. A few people do say the aforementioned phrase, but an AmE teacher would probably tell you that that is incorrect.

No one under the age of thirty-five would say "I've got a really nice car." They would say "I have a really nice car," or, "I own a really nice car." We do say "has gotten" rather than "has got."

Americans say poTAYto, and Canadians say poTAHto. I guess that's how it got into the song

French fries, or chips, whatever you call them, are not called "freedom fries" (Although since Brits aren't supposed to like the French, maybe it would make you more fond of us ignorant Americans better if we did call them that. I suppose a few rednecks from a certain Southern state (we won't mention which one) suggested that they be called freedom fries, but... Oh, and I have nothing against Southerners--I'm related to them, after all

I guess we change the spelling because it is more convenient. "Color" is takes less effort to spell than "colour" and serves the same purpose. "Colour" looks like it wants to fall down the page anyway...Well, never mind that. I have to admit, though--there's something charming about "gray" being spelled "grey." Much less generic. That's the word for AmE spelling--generic!

I didn't know British people used the word "suck"--lol!

In general, Americans do not make the word "school" into two syllables. They do say "scho-ol" in the South, though. They tend to draw out words and add diphthongs so that one-syllable words are made into two-syllable words. I'm afraid we all reverse, leave out, and add syllables many times, however (i.e. "nucular"--ahhh!). The Philadelphia-area accent is absolutely disgusting in that respect--I can say that cuz I am Philadelphian. Someone needs to come over here and teach Americans how to read

Unfortunately, the AmE that you hear on TV really is standard for some American, somewhere (although there is extra profanity on TV. However, the English you hear on TV isn't always considered correct, just widely used. We really are lazy in our speech--we'll say something incorrectly just because it is easier to do so. Then there are the people who have to talk the wrong way to avoid being mugged by their peers (moi?). Some of the slang used on TV is used in urban areas, and not usually outside of cities and the TV--for instance, "bling-bling" or "fa-shizzle."

America has a ton of English dialects (though those are slowly dying) and accents. I personally think that our accents are more intelligible than most British accents (although I'm biased), but British accents of any kind definitely sound prettier (with the possible exception of Cockney--does the Cockney accent really sound like it does in My Fair Lady?). Then there are the American accents I have a hard time understanding.

Now for my (probably idiotic-sounding) questions. Is "bloody" considered to be BrE profanity, or just a somewhat impolite word (like suck)? Also, is asking for a ride asking for something...unmentionble in BrE? I think we ask for a ride when you'd ask for a lift...

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Re: British vs. American English