US English?

} Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". So what the heck do they } speak in America? Would it be "the president's English"?

Here in America, where some two-thirds of the native speakers reside, it's just English. A modifier is only needed for minority varieties.

} I remember a while ago, one of the US presidents visiting a school. He bent } down, before the cameras, and told a schoolboy he had made a spelling } mistake: "You forgot the 'e' in 'potatoe'".
I suggest that you do not remember that at all. He wasn't a US President, he didn't bend down, and he made fewer mistakes than you have.

} Someone over the Atlantic should buy a dictionary!

That's pretty funny. Stick around and see if you can contribute something here.

R. J. Valentine

Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". So what the heck do they speak in America? Would it be "the president's English"?

GOD FORBID!

Gary G. Taylor * Rialto, CA
gary at donavan dot org / http:// geetee dot donavan dot org "The two most abundant things in the universe
are hydrogen and stupidity." Harlan Ellison

} Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". So what the heck do they } speak in America? ... America, where some two-thirds of the native speakers reside, it's just English. A modifier is only needed for minority varieties.

Not quite true. When speaking of major varieties such as varieties identified with a particular country we use modifiers: "American English," "Canadian English," "British English," and "Australian English," for example. What the OP called "the Queen's English" that is how it is usually capitalized is probably best described as "Standard British English with Received Pronunciation." In America, no particular accent is identified as a standard accent, much less the standard accent the belief in an accent called "General American" appears to have been an error. So our standard variety of English would simply be identified as "Standard American English," no accent specified.

} I remember a while ago, one of the US presidents visiting a school. Hebent } down, before the cameras, ... that at all. He wasn't a US President, he didn't bend down, and he made fewer mistakes than you have.

And he it was Vice President Dan Quayle was holding a card in his hand on which was printed what was intended to be the correct spelling, and which in fact had an erroneous spelling. I believe that many of us would have reacted just as he did under the same circumstances.

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

In our last episode,
,
the lovely and talented John Smith
broadcast on alt.usage.english:

Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". So what the heck do they speak in America? Would it be "the president's English"?

Heaven forbid.

Lars Eighner finger for geek code (Email Removed) http://www.io.com/~eighner / "The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it." Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person

} Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". So what the heck do they } speak in America? ... over the Atlantic should buy a dictionary! That's pretty funny. Stick around and see if you can contribute something here.

The stupid expression "the Queen's English" does have one moderately useful function: it indicates a version of English which most British speakers don't use, don't need to use, and shouldn't be made to feel they must imitate.
Mike.

} Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". ... just English. A modifier is only needed for minority varieties.

What the OP called "the Queen's English" that is how it is usually capitalized is probably best described as "Standard British English with Received Pronunciation."

I haven't heard 'Queen's English' used as a descriptor of pronunciation. I know the term as a synonym for 'correct (ie grammatically correct) English'. So when a schoolkid of my generation made an error like 'We was sitting down' the teacher might say 'We speak the Queen's English here'.

John Dean
Oxford

Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". So what the heck do they speak in America? Would it ... down, before the cameras, and told a schoolboy he had made a spelling mistake: "You forgot the 'e' in 'potatoe'".

He didn't bend down, he tripped over the stump of a cherry tree.
John Dean
Oxford

Here in the UK we speak "the queen's English". So what the heck do they speak in America? Would it be "the president's English"?

Just "English". Or "good English". Although it is pretty much only used negatively: "That's not good English."
Whereas you have probably been on one or t'other end of this exchange:

"What abominable language! Don't you know the Queen's English?"

"Well, of course she is. Otherwise she couldn't be Queen."

Gary Williams