Mr Pedantic, you are correct that the word "ass" is rarely used in British English as slang for the buttocks. However the English version "***" is in common use and has been for centuries I believe. Why the American and English spellings are

Personally, I think of lodging as longer term - eg renting a house or flat for six months or longer. Accomodation would be short term - eg staying in a hotel or somewhere where you know you're only going to be for a short period. I don't know

I agree Mr Micawber, although I'd say "took my words for a joke" has a slightly different meaning to "considered my words a joke". The first implies the listeners assumed I (as the speaker) intended my words to be a joke, whereas the second

In American English is it usual to use the word "and" when talking of numbers just greater than 100? For example, in British English "110" would be "One hundred and ten", but you often hear it as "One hundred ten" in American English. I'm sure

You often hear these days that Estuary English is "taking over" in the UK. I think this is overplayed. We have a few very visible TV personalities at the moment who speak EE - Jonathon Ross, Jamie Oliver, Robert Elms etc, and it seems to be a

CalifJim, your comments on pronunciation of British vowels, particularly point number 3 in your list, refer only to RP, or at least English as spoken in the south east of England (and amongst the few upper classes people left throughout England)

Thankyou Clive! I didn't know this. I've been writing it incorrectly all my life! It does seem a little inconsistent though. Surely it would make sense to use the apostrophe universally to imply possesion, whatever or whoever the "possessor"

I read in an archived thread recently that it is incorrect to use an apostrophe with the third-person neuter pronoun (ie "it") to imply possesion. In other words, you shouldn't say - of a cat for example: "It's fur is shiny and black" Is

I must confess the 24 hour clock thing irritates me too. When visiting Hotels in various European cities, and reading the hotel information, you'll often see times (eg Dinner hours) in 24 hour format in all languages except English, where it's

I'm new to all this - but fascinated by different forms of English. So apologies if this has been covered before, but I've always been curious as to why the British use "have" where the US uses "did". Let me illustrate with an example: