Why/How is British English different from American English?

[jerrymahoney]

My favorite as it provides a chance to chat with young Thai girls is to explain at a food shop when they ask "Take away ?" I say that is how Brits say it. I am an American, we say Take Out.

Edited April 29 by jerrymahoney

[GammaGlobulin]

27 minutes ago, simon43 said:

I was brought up by my academic parents to speak RP - Received Pronunciation English, or perhaps some may call it 'Oxford English'.  Nowadays, you could never get a job in broadcasting if you speak RP, it must be Mancunian, Scouse etc etc.  

 

Happily for me, my accent has proven very popular with my students.  Just added some more young Chinese students who want to learn to speak 'proper English' !

 

There is NOTHING wrong with the Irish accent when spoken like this, and so...

Let's show this "proper English" accent the respect that it deserves!...

 

 

I could listen to the gentleman speak for days and never tire.

 

 

[bluejets]

Obviously the Op has never tried to decipher the babblings of a Filipino who has been taught English by an American.

Give it time, they'll catch up eventually on some call centre somewhere.

[GammaGlobulin]

23 minutes ago, bluejets said:

Obviously the Op has never tried to decipher the babblings of a Filipino who has been taught English by an American.

Give it time, they'll catch up eventually on some call centre somewhere.

 

Call Centres represent one of the most effective strategies for improving the English-language skills of young people in any developing country.

 

 

Edited April 29 by GammaGlobulin

[Expat68]

There are not many people who actually speak true English. I think I read sometime ago that Oxford and Cambridge are the perfect English language.

[Red Forever]

There is no such language as American English.

There is the English language and then there are mistakes.......

[Smokin Joe]

9 minutes ago, Red Forever said:

There is no such language as American English.

There is the English language and then there are mistakes.......

 

Actually you should be grateful that we allow the language to continue to be called "English". We could have renamed it to "American" long ago.

 

 

[Presnock]

try to keep up with all the different accents by the Americans too!  

[Victor Laszlo]

Y'all have a nice day now...

[Expat68]

18 minutes ago, Smokin Joe said:

 

Actually you should be grateful that we allow the language to continue to be called "English". We could have renamed it to "American" long ago.

 

 

International is what it really is called nowadays 

[novacova]

If someone is under the delusion that their language/dialect/idioms is more superior to others then obviously they haven’t gotten out much in their life. Being able to speak to others from a different region must be difficult for some with an impediment of prejudices.

[babylonbrothers]

US pronunciation of English is odd. They turn 'premier' into a 2 syllable word and they can't say 'mirror' to save their lives! The one that gets  me and you hear it all the time because the cops use it, is they try to sound the silent 'H' in the middle of the word 'vehicle', and consequently it comes out all mangled up!  These are only a few!

[Gandtee]

22 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

What drives me mad is the way Peterson continually drops in the 'bloody' word, since it is obviously just an affectation for him, and used, presumably, to try to make himself sound more...."learned".

 

As Peterson states, "Evil Bloody Well Exists".

(Well, in my opinion, that's all bloody-well for him to say. But, for sure, I do not personally believe in Good and Evil, not by a bloody longshot!)

 

 

This guy is not even British, for bloody sake!

 

No Brit would say' For bloody' sake. He or she would say 'For god, or, for Christ sake. And the writer does not understand 'She let her hair down.  And certainly not pants. Pants for the Brits are men's underwear. I'm going to relax and have a fag. A cigarette, that is.

[ChrisKC]

Ha ha!! America and England

 

Two countries separated by a common language!

 

If anybody wants to have a fantastic experience of the English language, I can thoroughly recommend the audio book (nearly eleven hours long) "The Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson, available on YouTube and which I downloaded for free.

 

You will be captivated in the first two minutes!

[HappyExpat57]

Watch Jodie Foster's movie "Nell" to REALLY understand how to speak.

[charleskerins]

23 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Dear Men of Honor,

 

Or, when an American Man of Honor refers to himself as such, why not just say:  I am an honorable man?  Why make things so florid and stilted?

 

I am an Anglophile, and so there is no need to ask me whether or not British English is far superior to American English.

And, this is not the point of this Topic,

Moreover, the question of which, American English or British English, is superior is pointless, because...

Such a judgement is merely a matter of taste.

In English, they have more taste, obviously.

Still, let's, temporarily, not quibble about it, and just assume, wrong as we may be, that...

American Society is as genteel as English Society.

 

The far more interesting pursuit is to find and discuss the many ways that English English and American English are the same, or are different.

 

Here is an example of why American English is superior:

 

British Example:

 

a. She let her hair down. 

b. She let her pants down.

 

American Example:

 

a. She let her hair down.

b. He took her pants down.

 

You see?

American English is both superior and far more interesting.

 

Of course....

There are many more examples of differences.

 

And, anytime I dream about letting her hair down, just before taking her pants down, 

I am reminded of the first few times, when I was young, reading D.H. Lawrence's book,

Lady Chatterley's Lover, a book I highly recommend for young mothers to read to their boys,...

Before bed,...Instead of ...

Fanny Crosby: The Girl Who Couldn't See But Helped The World To Sing (Inspiring children's Christian biography of one of the world’s most famous hymn ... to gift kids 4-7) (Do Great Things for God).

 

In the book, Lady Chatterley's Lover, we read about many interesting things, and we find many interesting examples of How/Why British English differs from American English.

 

Surely the Irish readers on this Forum, being the Farang whose English Skills are peerlessly next to none, will have many examples of differences that make British English more interesting and sometiems more descriptive compared with American English.

 

In closing, I will say that book covers are fun to look at, and I loved to look at book covers when books were books, and not bytes.

 

Here are the covers of the two books mentioned above...

 

The Fanny Book:

 

 

And, The Chatterley Book:

(before the days of the chattering classes)

 

 

 

Regards,

Gamma

 

Note:  I like this cover, too.....

 

 

 

 

So unfortunately, here in Thailand, I have no space or climate-controlled environment...

To keep my First Editions.

 

 

=============

Lastly:

 

This man, this "shaman" has referred to himself.....  A Man of Honor, and not an honorable man....but why, I wonder....

 

 

 

 

 

Are you okay?

[brianburi]

I can always tell our American friends on here as they like to use the word 'gotten' in posts.

A decently educated Brit would never use that word.

My old English teacher would have a fit.  I am a 1960's educated secondary modern school boy as well.......

[Tazmo]

English is a bastardized language made up with words from Latin, Sanskrit; Greek etc etc originating from the different races that originally emigrated, invaded and occupied both countries. Accents, pronunciations, interpretation and some spelling are different! Slangs and colloquial expressions are everywhere!

E.G Duke is pronounced as Duuk, but Duchess is pronounced as Duchess!

wicked means bad, naughty, but also used to mean great’

Black means bad, black listed; black magic ; etc etc. A former African President said he didn’t care as long as he used white toilet paper!

 

[Grumpy one]

22 hours ago, Yagoda said:

Most of my Friends overseas are Brits mostly Mancunians. So anything I understand about British English comes from them.

 

My big problem with the Mancs is that they mumble with their heads down and a little turned away from you. They tell me thats a head butt  (Glasgow kiss) defense. The dudes from London all sound like BBC presenters, my Manc friends tell me thats because they learned to speak English from a guy named Jimmy Saville. Plus, they remind me that lots of folks in London arent really human, like "Gooners" and "Hammers" and that there is an area in London called Millwall where all the bestial degenerates they forgot to ship to Australia have reproduced.

 

I have always had a problem understanding the Welsh dudes, especially when drunk. My friends say thats because they learn to talk with sheep guiding them into manhood. And then there are Geordies? is it, and supposedly they are retarded.

 

I have trouble with Scots too, I have to use subtitles when watching Trainspotting. My friends tell me Jocks havent been truly civilized yet.

 

And then Liverpool. I listen to some of them on footy shows and I get lost. My Manc friend told me thats because they arent speaking English but instead, a language known as Scouse, which is a seperate language born in Council Houses. He said Liverpool is not really a part of England, for example they have their own holidays like Giro Day.

 

I get ragged to death of course, if I say I have to take a p**s, they say, where ya taking it.

It's good to see you are not racist.

You hate all of the UK equally 

[herfiehandbag]

There is no such thing as "American English";  there is English, and then there are mistakes...

[brianthainess]

23 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Dear Men of Honor,

 

Or, when an American Man of Honor refers to himself as such, why not just say:  I am an honorable man?  Why make things so florid and stilted?

 

I am an Anglophile, and so there is no need to ask me whether or not British English is far superior to American English.

And, this is not the point of this Topic,

Moreover, the question of which, American English or British English, is superior is pointless, because...

Such a judgement is merely a matter of taste.

In English, they have more taste, obviously.

Still, let's, temporarily, not quibble about it, and just assume, wrong as we may be, that...

American Society is as genteel as English Society.

 

The far more interesting pursuit is to find and discuss the many ways that English English and American English are the same, or are different.

 

Here is an example of why American English is superior:

 

British Example:

 

a. She let her hair down. 

b. She let her pants down.

 

American Example:

 

a. She let her hair down.

b. He took her pants down.

 

You see?

American English is both superior and far more interesting.

 

Of course....

There are many more examples of differences.

 

And, anytime I dream about letting her hair down, just before taking her pants down, 

I am reminded of the first few times, when I was young, reading D.H. Lawrence's book,

Lady Chatterley's Lover, a book I highly recommend for young mothers to read to their boys,...

Before bed,...Instead of ...

Fanny Crosby: The Girl Who Couldn't See But Helped The World To Sing (Inspiring children's Christian biography of one of the world’s most famous hymn ... to gift kids 4-7) (Do Great Things for God).

 

In the book, Lady Chatterley's Lover, we read about many interesting things, and we find many interesting examples of How/Why British English differs from American English.

 

Surely the Irish readers on this Forum, being the Farang whose English Skills are peerlessly next to none, will have many examples of differences that make British English more interesting and sometiems more descriptive compared with American English.

 

In closing, I will say that book covers are fun to look at, and I loved to look at book covers when books were books, and not bytes.

 

Here are the covers of the two books mentioned above...

 

The Fanny Book:

 

 

And, The Chatterley Book:

(before the days of the chattering classes)

 

 

 

Regards,

Gamma

 

Note:  I like this cover, too.....

 

 

 

 

So unfortunately, here in Thailand, I have no space or climate-controlled environment...

To keep my First Editions.

 

 

=============

Lastly:

 

This man, this "shaman" has referred to himself.....  A Man of Honor, and not an honorable man....but why, I wonder....

 

 

 

 

 

Why does every American have a Fanny ?

[Lacessit]

My pet peeve is the way Americans pronounce and spell aluminium. Lazy.

 

Following that logic, elements such as sodium should be pronounced sodum.

 

 

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Call Centres represent one of the most effective strategies for improving the English-language skills of young people in any developing country.

 

 

Call centres are being taken over by AI.

 

Today, I had a phone call from Australia asking me to participate in a survey. Age, size of my mortgage etc. etc.

 

After a couple of attempts to explain I was in Thailand, and the questions were irrelevant. I twigged I was talking to a robot.

[Ben Zioner]

22 hours ago, Yagoda said:

Most of my Friends overseas are Brits mostly Mancunians. So anything I understand about British English comes from them.

 

My big problem with the Mancs is that they mumble with their heads down and a little turned away from you. They tell me thats a head butt  (Glasgow kiss) defense. The dudes from London all sound like BBC presenters, my Manc friends tell me thats because they learned to speak English from a guy named Jimmy Saville. Plus, they remind me that lots of folks in London arent really human, like "Gooners" and "Hammers" and that there is an area in London called Millwall where all the bestial degenerates they forgot to ship to Australia have reproduced.

 

I have always had a problem understanding the Welsh dudes, especially when drunk. My friends say thats because they learn to talk with sheep guiding them into manhood. And then there are Geordies? is it, and supposedly they are retarded.

 

I have trouble with Scots too, I have to use subtitles when watching Trainspotting. My friends tell me Jocks havent been truly civilized yet.

 

And then Liverpool. I listen to some of them on footy shows and I get lost. My Manc friend told me thats because they arent speaking English but instead, a language known as Scouse, which is a seperate language born in Council Houses. He said Liverpool is not really a part of England, for example they have their own holidays like Giro Day.

 

I get ragged to death of course, if I say I have to take a p**s, they say, where ya taking it.

Yagoda fo Potty.

[rwill]

Biscuit.

 

American:

 

English:

[Yagoda]

22 minutes ago, Grumpy one said:

It's good to see you are not racist.

You hate all of the UK equally 

Not true I love Mancunians, they say they are the only really British people anyway.

 

[Yagoda]

1 minute ago, rwill said:

Biscuit.

 

American:

 

English:

Dont make fun of British food, Im about to source an almost real Slappy here in Cambodia. Gods gift to cuisine

[goldenbrwn1]

53 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

. I'm going to relax and have a fag. A cigarette, that is.

Can I bum a fag off you mate?  That one goes down a treat in the US 😂 

[Callmeishmael]

40 minutes ago, brianburi said:

I can always tell our American friends on here as they like to use the word 'gotten' in posts.

A decently educated Brit would never use that word.

My old English teacher would have a fit.  I am a 1960's educated secondary modern school boy as well.......

That is an interesting example of how American and British have become so different from each other.  If you go back several hundred years the past tense in English was -en rather than -ed.  While English speakers adopted -ed for most words, a few retained the older -en form.  In the 1600s, when my English ancestors moved from England to the Plymouth Bay Colony (now Massachusetts) all English speakers used gotten as the past tense of got.  Sometime in the past 400 years the British dropped the -en while the Americans kept the original version of that word.

 

 

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, babylonbrothers said:

US pronunciation of English is odd. They turn 'premier' into a 2 syllable word and they can't say 'mirror' to save their lives! The one that gets  me and you hear it all the time because the cops use it, is they try to sound the silent 'H' in the middle of the word 'vehicle', and consequently it comes out all mangled up!  These are only a few!

I cringe every time I hear them say Ve hear icle and Other words;

Route-Rout, Pasta-Parsta, Lasagna- Larsanya ....He was a Bum so I kicked his Fanny... Torch-Flashlight...Petrol-Gas

Edited April 30 by brianthainess