Hangar not "Hanger"

[ViperPilot 97]

In this large country, you can go to different regions and get varying versions of "American English". Some areas show more influence from Irish, Scots and Germans and others more British. For a linguist, this is a fascinating nation.

Seenyore Bill,Eespeshuly een tha Southwest, where the cultural eenfluence tends to leen towards south of la frontera con los E.E.U.U. y Mexíco. It reminds me of the concept of IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. It's part of what makes the USA so rich, culturally speaking.All I can say is... a day without Green Chili is a melancholy day.

[BillW 223]

Nothing like green chile enchiladas. Or green chile salsa. Or green chile omelettes. The list goes on. Not to mention the senoritas. I better stop.

[Raindance 25]

Well since this thread isn't quite zombie yet, I'll comment on a couple of points raised.Aluminium/aluminum:(Firefox's spell-checker picked up on that last spelling). The "-ium" ending is standard usage in the naming of chemical elements. Americans don't say "uranum" or even "americum" (I hope!). Do Americans really spell it like that, or just pronounce it so? Periodic table:-http://www.webelements.com/aluminium/Zed/Zee:Z & C sound quite dissimilar in British English, but not in American English, which is useful (try spelling 'czar' out loud).(of course you could say charlie zulu alpha romeo)..-ise versus -ize:It's something of a modern fallacy that -ize is specifically American. It's pretty much optional in British spelling now, but the -ize form was much more common in the past over here, and the OED still regards it as the correct form, apparently.Cheers

Edited February 5, 2012 by Raindance

[EagleSkinner 36]

Well, as a Brit in America I once bummed a fag... errr...And the American preponderance to call a botty a fanny - erm... that does not sit well with the British vernacular. As for all those Beaver pilots, well, my dear old sainted aunt would blush. What about lush vegetation? In the US of A one might think of an alcoholic brain-dead, but we Brits tend to think in the direction of rain forests here...... and saying "I do" when you mean "I have"... too funny. As for the "high comma"...A Po’s TrophyBy Chris BrislandA possessive thing is a po’s tropheIt’s its confusing role that makes us loafOver whether or not its functions bothPossessive or omissive need be quothAnd why can’t we use it for plurals?It’s got itself high, like a comma on drugsAnd those who misuse it, like grammatical thugs,Will suffer diaeresys of the colonUntil it’s cold turkey they go onFor a period of ’strophic abstention.But other punctuations yet loom to confuseThe writer’s accent into heavenly muse.Did asterisk really live in old FranceAnd with obelus hyphenate Roman advanceOf circumflexion as modern birth control?Or did they hôpital down to the hospitalTo see cedilla, pre-appendectomy C, fallIll with a grave caçe of a cute akçentitisWhile doctors slash’d virgule’s perioditisTilde ampersand’s bleeding was stopped.Can you understand what I’m trying to say?Please try to keep punctuation at bayOr your brackets will blockAnd you’ll call “Comma doc!I need a dose of colonic punctuation.”

Edited February 8, 2012 by stormpup

[ViperPilot 97]

Zed/Zee:Z & C sound quite dissimilar in British English, but not in American English, which is useful (try spelling 'czar' out loud).(of course you could say charlie zulu alpha romeo)..Cheers

Zed, Zee, Nil... Say what?Yo, man... we'z ain't watchin' socker here! It's either zip, zilch, nada, nuthin'... or just plain ZERO!And, I can think of many more substitutions for 'fanny' that are used in Ameriken vocabulary, but unfortunately most of them cannot be uttered here in a family Forum! Of course, if you want to PM me, I can elaborate further...(and we can all come to the conclusion that this is all just harmless poking at enunciation, derivation and semantics, right?)Alan Investigater uv awl thengs haveing to due wif werds and how theere spelt, sed an whut tha werds meen... Edited February 8, 2012 by ViperPilot

[kevinh 409]

_{In the UK the pavement is what you walk on next to a road. In the USA it's the road itself. Telling an American to walk on the pavement is asking for trouble.The misuse that annoys me most, as a Brit, is "momentarily". In English it means something which happens briefly. In American English it means something which will happen soon as in "I'll be with you momentarily". AAAGGGGHHHH.}

[ViperPilot 97]

_{In the UK the pavement is what you walk on next to a road. In the USA it's the road itself. Telling an American to walk on the pavement is asking for trouble.The misuse that annoys me most, as a Brit, is "momentarily". In English it means something which happens briefly. In American English it means something which will happen soon as in "I'll be with you momentarily". AAAGGGGHHHH.}

Hmmmm... I think I might need some clarification on that one.If you're referring to the extreme edge of the roadway (usually on the far right edge on the other side of either a solid white or yellow line) we in the US of A call that the 'shoulder'or more generally, "the side of the road"."Momentarily"... that's a new one on me. Used in a sentence how; as a noun ("I have to go to the momentarily") or a verb (to momentarily; "I momentarilied [?] yesterday")...Really? Like I said; you need to gimme a hint on that!Alan :Thinking:

[kevinh 409]

Hmmmm... I think I might need some clarification on that one.If you're referring to the extreme edge of the roadway (usually on the far right edge on the other side of either a solid white or yellow line) we in the US of A call that the 'shoulder'or more generally, "the side of the road"."Momentarily"... that's a new one on me. Used in a sentence how; as a noun ("I have to go to the momentarily") or a verb (to momentarily; "I momentarilied [?] yesterday")...Really? Like I said; you need to gimme a hint on that!Alan :Thinking:

In the UK the pavement is what an American would call the sidewalk. Whereas pavement in the US is the road surface.Neither use of momentarily was as a noun. UK use is as an adverb, not sure how you'd define US usage.US: the aircraft will be boarding momentarily. (i.e. soon)UK: the light flickered momentarily. (i.e. briefly)

[ViperPilot 97]

Kevin,Ah so... I see very clearly now about sidewalk vs. pavement; thank you for the clarification!Momentarily... OK, I get it! it's kinda like "for a sec"; "When the dog bit the TV news anchor in the lip on live TV, the bystanders were stunned for a sec [momentarily].Isn't linguistics fun? Alan

[Paul J 349]

If jet planes don't have propellers, what propells them?

As one of my flight instructors once told me - it's not a 'plane', Kevin - it's an 'aircraft', or an 'aeroplane'. A 'plane' is used to remove layers of wood from a plank of wood, thus reducing its thickness and smoothing it surface. :LMAO:

[sluggy 3]

Trains and buses run to a shed-ule (schedule), not a sked-ule. Although looking at the correct spelling, you mightn't have thought so.Cheers, SLuggy from sunny Australia

[htfc 0]

I have never understood why our American friends say ' I could care less'. Unless I am mistaken they are attempting to convey the same meaning as the British version - which is ' I could not care less '.

Edited February 13, 2012 by htfc

[ViperPilot 97]

Trains and buses run to a shed-ule (schedule), not a sked-ule. Although looking at the correct spelling, you mightn't have thought so.Cheers, Sluggy from sunny Australia

Yo Sluggy,Yu tauk funie! Shed-ule... yeh, lak ai went tue a shu-el (school) oar went on tha see inn a shoe-ner (schooner)!Whar did yu goe tue shu-el, annywae? Mai colage coarsses ai tuk threw tha mael nehvere sownded lak tha waeyu tauk. R yu shoe-r?

I have never understood why our American friends say ' I could care less'. Unless I am mistaken they are attempting to convey the same meaning as the British version - which is ' I could not care less '.

htfc,But, wouldn't 'I could not care less' imply that since there isn't anything below 'less', that in actuality one might actually care more?Now, on the other hand, 'I could care less' is pretty ominous in its intent; the finality is that one would, is, doing the deed of caring less, so there's no chance of hope; I could care less!But... Homey don' plae dat.Instead, I prefer using "I don't give a (pretty implicit, right to the point) __________ ...(Here I usually insert something like 'a rodent's posterior', or some other witty linguistic combination, but most of the time it's usually 'expletive','expletive expletive' or on a very rare occasion, 'extremely explicit expletive expletive, anatomically impossible expletive violent expletive expletive'.Ah luv Inglesh... etz sutch a purty sownd den lainggoowajua! :Doh: Edited February 14, 2012 by ViperPilot

[boeing247 0]

I have never understood why our American friends say ' I could care less'. Unless I am mistaken they are attempting to convey the same meaning as the British version - which is ' I could not care less '.

I'm one of your "American friends" and I'm as perplexed as you are. I say "I could not care less". However, I do say "I could care less" if I'm conveying to somebody that, no, I don't really care, but I suppose that there are things that I could care less about.And I have to ask, do you Brits use the word "ironic" correctly? I've only ever had oneEnglish(!) teacher that used it correctly.

[BillW 223]

Well, I see that I will need an interpreter when I visit the British Isles. I expected it in Scotland, but this has been an eye opener.I'll just have to keep watching "Doc Martin" and listen closely.