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RheaZen

Grammar, Spelling, and Fonts

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I personally have no idea how to spell donut.

Doughnought?

Donut?

Doughnut?

.__.

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There are different ways, although the spellings that seem to be most common are "donut" and "doughnut".

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...Does British English have slang? Of course, right?

 

Plenty. Anything specific you wanted to know about?

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Would "American English" and "British English" be considered dialects, then?

 

(I'm not exactly sure what a dialect is, really).

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...Does British English have slang? Of course, right?

I was sitting on the apples and pears, talking on my dog and bone when I realised that I hadn't put on my Charlie Prescot so I looked through the Kevin and there it was, right out in the frog and toad! :o

 

MATEY.

 

Cockney slang. Epic stuff ;D

 

Something I used to get told off for when I was little was saying "Tooken" instead of "Taken" or "Took". Whenever I said it my Dad would make a bird noise. It wasn't until I was 10 that I realised why he made that noise.

Edited by Sparkeycat

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Would "American English" and "British English" be considered dialects, then?

 

(I'm not exactly sure what a dialect is, really).

There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a single language. For example, Standard American English, Standard Indian English, Standard Australian English, and Standard Philippine English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language.

 

In other words - English is the original, American English may be said to be a dialect of it.

 

A dialect is where there are differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar to those in the standard (mother) language. An accent is where there are differences only in pronunciation and use of slang.

 

Interestingly the differences between American and English are on about the same scale as the differences between Serbian and Croatian, which are treated by linguists from that reigion as seperate languages. It seems it may only be the common political goals of our two countries that is keeping American as a dialect and not a language in it's own right. I'd bet a penny to a pound that if (God forbid) American and the UK were ever to go to war with each other again we'd see the language spoken in the US being referred to as 'American' pretty quickly.

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I was sitting on the apples and pears, talking on my dog and bone when I realised that I hadn't put on my Charlie Prescot so I looked through the Kevin and there it was, right out in the frog and toad! ohmy.gif

I have no friggin' clue as to what you just said. Except the part about the telly-phone.

 

Thanks, Tiki. Makes sense.

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That'd be "I was sitting on the stairs (apples & pears), talking on my telephone (dog & bone) when I realised I hadn't put on my wescot (waistcoat, Charlie Prescott) so I looked through the winder (window Kevin & Linda) and there it was, right out in the road (frog & toad)!"

 

Not all of that is in regular use across the UK wink.gif

 

Other ones you may/may not know are:

 

fag = cigarette

hard graft = hard work

naff = particularly unstylish

twittern = narrow path

chav = uncouth, brash, generally sub-working class

 

 

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Haha, spot on, Tikindi :D

Something that amuses me in the difference between American English and British English is that some perfectly normal British words can be mistaken for rude ones in America.

 

Brit: *Walks into a shop* I'd like some fags (cigarettes) and a rubber (eraser), please.

American shopkeeper: D:

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I think I knew a girl who used to call the trunk of a car, the boot. Is that in use in the UK?

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Haha, spot on, Tikindi biggrin.gif

Something that amuses me in the difference between American English and British English is that some perfectly normal British words can be mistaken for rude ones in America.

 

Brit: *Walks into a shop* I'd like some fags (cigarettes) and a rubber (eraser), please.

American shopkeeper: D:

xd.png

 

What would the shopkeeper be imagining...

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Brit: *Walks into a shop* I'd like some fags (cigarettes) and a rubber (eraser), please.

American shopkeeper: D:

...pfft....hahaha! omg xd.png

 

i think that just made my day

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I think I knew a girl who used to call the trunk of a car, the boot. Is that in use in the UK?

Yus. And we call sneakers "trainers" (I don't know if it's any different in the US).

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Yus. And we call sneakers "trainers" (I don't know if it's any different in the US).

We never use trainers. Haha!

I hardly ever hear anyone say sneakers, either. It's mostly, "hey I like your shoes!"

 

Edit: The same girl said to me, "Pardon?" when she didn't hear me, so I was a bit taken aback since I'm used to "What?" or "Excuse me?"

Edited by brahmapride

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Edit: The same girl said to me, "Pardon?" when she didn't hear me, so I was a bit taken aback since I'm used to "What?" or "Excuse me?"

That's the polite thing to say, yes. Not everyone is that polite, though. A lot of the time it's just "what!?" over here as well.

 

To us biscuits are things you dunk in tea. The things you call biscuits resemble badly-made scones (that said - I love 'em. My grandma makes the *best* when we go to Florida on holiday). I won't bother trying to explain what crumpets are, and how they differ from muffins. I remember tying myself into knots the last time I tried explaining that one to an American online.

 

What we call the pavement, you call the sidewalk. What you call the freeway, we call the motorway (or in the case of the M25 "the worlds biggest car park.").

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That's the polite thing to say, yes. Not everyone is that polite, though. A lot of the time it's just "what!?" over here as well.

 

To us biscuits are things you dunk in tea. The things you call biscuits resemble badly-made scones (that said - I love 'em. My grandma makes the *best* when we go to Florida on holiday). I won't bother trying to explain what crumpets are, and how they differ from muffins. I remember tying myself into knots the last time I tried explaining that one to an American online.

 

What we call the pavement, you call the sidewalk. What you call the freeway, we call the motorway (or in the case of the M25 "the worlds biggest car park.").

The hallway the corridor, the truck the lorry, and so forth.

 

I used to go to a British international school, so I picked up some words.

 

"What's down the corridor?"

"What?"

"Sorry, the hallway."

 

And I picked up a British and Aussie accent.

Now it's gone, of course.

Occasionally when I read British words or newspapers or the like I supposedly have a British accent.

 

But really, Americans should be more mindful of words that exist outside of their little sphere of non-existent language. The Brits, after all, did invent the language [Yes, I know, latin-based, taking into account all other cultures, yes, yes, I know.]

Really, hand an American a British pamphlet and he'll be thinking he slept on the wrong side of bed - or had too much port.

 

Also - my biggest pet peeve of the American culture - the outdated, ridiculous Imperial System.

The Metric is perfectly fine - and better, my good sirs.

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I love British english. I just got home from a trip to London and it was hillarious to hear the variations. The British are so proper. On the subway system they constantly tell passengers to "Mind the Gap".

 

In America, we'd just say something like "Don't trip". Do people in Britain call carbonated drinks "Soda"? When I went to a restaurant and asked if they had soda, they looked at me like I was from a different planet.

Edited by Enitsnid

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In America, we'd just say something like "Don't trip". Do people in Britain call carbonated drinks "Soda"? When I went to a restaurant and asked if they had soda, they looked at me like I was from a different planet.

This is starting to stray from grammar and spelling haha, but what is a soda? I know it's a fizzy drink, but I mean WHAT KIND OF FIZZY DRINK?! Is it a coca cola? Or lemonade? Or just fizzy water? Ginger beer?

D:

 

Back on subject, I feel a bit annoyed because I once lost loads of marks in an exam for using a capital letter after a semi-colon. We weren't taught not to do this, and every time I did it I lost a mark. dry.gif

Edited by Sparkeycat

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I love British english. I just got home from a trip to London and it was hillarious to hear the variations. The British are so proper. On the subway system they constantly tell passengers to "Mind the Gap".

 

In America, we'd just say something like "Don't trip". Do people in Britain call carbonated drinks "Soda"? When I went to a restaurant and asked if they had soda, they looked at me like I was from a different planet.

Only as part of 'Cream Soda'. To talk about them generaly we say 'fizzy drinks', or in a resteraunt it's more normal to ask for the specific kind you want (cola, lemonade etc).

 

Although you have to watch what foreigners think is 'polite' though. I know a lot of English people who can be really very, very nasty while seeming to be polite. I'm one of them. If you ever hear the cool, clipped very middle class tone from me it's a sure fire warning that you're on dodgy ground.

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This is starting to stray from grammar and spelling haha, but what is a soda? I know it's a fizzy drink, but I mean WHAT KIND OF FIZZY DRINK?! Is it a coca cola? Or lemonade? Or just fizzy water? Ginger beer?

D:

"Soda" generally just refers to carbonated drinks, particularly stuff like Coke or Pepsi. I've never heard of something like lemonade being called soda, unless it's actually lemon-flavored soda instead of lemonade.

 

"Soda" is a bit of a regional thing, too. It's a generally understood term in the U.S., but different regions might have different words. In the Midwest, we called soda "pop" instead.

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