Differences between American & British English

Ben   Wednesday, May 26, 2004, 18:33 GMT
A Canadian accent is definitely distinct from a standard American accent, but many Northern US dialects are very similar. Here are the basic differences:

"ou" in "about"
GenAm: /au/
Standard Canadian: /^u/ (varies somewhat)

"o" in "top"
GenAm: /a/
StandCan: /o/

"ight" in "right"
GenAm: /ai/
StandCan: /ei/ (approximately)

"o" in "go"
GenAm: /Ou/
StandCan: /O/
Septic   Wednesday, May 26, 2004, 21:04 GMT
I don't think that Canadians should be upset by that at all. The accents are similar, especially on the West Coast and also as Ben points out. I can tell the difference most of the time, but I wouldn't expect someone who doesn't come from North America to recognize the difference.
Damian   Wednesday, May 26, 2004, 22:49 GMT
Ben and Septic....thanks for your comments and clarification on his particular topic. Very helpful. Cheers guys.
Xatufan   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 01:07 GMT
Damian: You are 22 years old and you are 1,54 m tall? You ARE a wee laddie! Hey, I already knew about Edinburgh and Glasgow. Thank you! I noticed something quite strange. You are from UK, aren't you? But you used kilometres and centimetres and not inches and miles. Now that's frightening!

I noticed a new word in a GBA game I just bought. The word is "rucksack". This is pretty strange, as in Pokémon games they used the word "pack" for the same object. And I thought it was called "bagpack". What word do you use for this useful object? Which is the most used word in each English accent?
sakura kinomoto   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 01:15 GMT
daniel you are stupid (this goes to xatufan) daniel eres tonto y tienes cara de mico y eres un estupido
tomoyo daidoyi   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 01:18 GMT
Hi i´m a very language persons see it

_Hi good morning
_Bonjour salute
_Hola buenos días


(xatufan is stupid and he is so stupid that he made stupid questions
Xatufan   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 01:31 GMT
To Septic: Did you know that your name means "infected by disease bacteria"? However, sceptic (or skeptic in US) means "a person who has doubts about..." I took this meanings from the "Longman Active Study". What a dictionary! I think your name is false (Duh!). My name is false too.

Damian: I haven't seen you, but my teacher of Religion is 1.40 m tall aprox. and I think he weights less than 80 pounds. So don't be sad. I am a 13 years old boy (for the people who doubted about my gender) and I am almost 1.70 m tall, but am I affected but my tremendous height (which is not tremendous, by the way)? No.
I agree with you when you said that religion and politics should not be discussed in this forum. If we do, people will battle fiercely. Oh, oh!
Jim   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 04:57 GMT
"You are from UK, aren't you? But you used kilometres and centimetres and not inches and miles." writes Xatufan "Now that's frightening!"

I wonder what's frightening about the fact that Damian has the good sense to join the Twenty-First Century and use a straight-forward system that lacks such absurdities as "There are five and a half yards in a rod, seven pounds in a clove and Lord only knows how many cubic inches there might be in a hogshead. Pints ... ale or wine, dry or wet, American or British? Tons ... long or short? Ounces ... American or British, fluid, apothecaries', avoirdupois or troy? Inches ... survey inches?"
Damian   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 11:52 GMT
Hey guys...I only know metric measures really...that's what they teach in schools now...in Scotland anyway! Why confuse things with two systems at the same time? The old imperials seem so awkward. In rush right now...between exams. Laters! Cheers :-)
you're right about that   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 13:54 GMT
and its not a partisan thing either. Bush is admittedly of average (or worse) intelligence, as he stated in his address to the Yale law school graduating class, shortly after he was elected:

"Those of you who are A students will go on to be supreme court justices,
[...] B students will end up on Wall Street, but you C students, don't lose
hope, you could wind up President some day"

so, fancy that. Who died and left the stupid people in charge?
Not a Bush Lover   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 18:58 GMT
Is he aware of his limitations, do you reckon? From the above posting it seems that he is. Money is the prime requirement for success in the United States of America....with a sufficiency of all that it takes you can get anywhere, no matter how dumb you are.
Jo   Thursday, May 27, 2004, 21:42 GMT
it is annoying trying to do everything in metric though- i use metric for everything- except height and weight for people. like, id say i was 5' 10" and i also still use stones. i have no trouble with metric at all (hey- im only 17) with things like cooking measurements, wood measurements etc etc- but for some reason i have trouble relating it to people!
Xatufan   Friday, May 28, 2004, 14:13 GMT
Sakura Kinomoto and Tomoyo Daidoyi: Ya los estoy buscando, ja, ja, ja.

To Everyone who can read this: I have read a lot of dictionaries and I've found that if you ask for a tonic in Boston, they'll give you a soda (or pop, it's the same). However, if you ask for a tonic elsewhere, you may recieve arsenic, because it was thought that this substance was a tonic. (It's toxic, no tonic; I wonder if they really ate it). Don't try this at home!
Xatufan   Friday, May 28, 2004, 14:18 GMT
I love Indian accent, especially the dialects from Kolkata and Mumbay. I heard a Bangladeshi speaking in a pizzeria in the U.S. and he spoke in a beautiful and sophisticated way.
Sara   Saturday, May 29, 2004, 04:50 GMT
I think Australian and British accents are so incredibly sexy. Does anyone find American accents as hot as we think British and Aussie accents are? As for the whole bum/butt argument, from my experience most Americans just call it an ass.