american or british
>What is the best pronunciation is it américan or british?
There are many versions of each, and many other versions as well as those two, but basically it is the US and Canada on one side, and everyone else on the other.
It depends on whether you want to sound like an ignoramus or not.
Yeah....hello? As I recall there's another continent on our little planet that uses English besides the British and the Americans
Exactly. What's your point?
>>It depends on whether you want to sound like an ignoramus or not.<<
If I am reading that right, are you, well, implying that North American English speakers are somehow ignoramuses or somehow happen to sound like them, considering that most comments of this sort tend to be about NAE speakers? Now, explain your comment please...
"Yes, but most of their dialects sound awful because they underpronounce their r's." I agree, that's why I prefer the American English!
A turnpike is just a toll road. You Brits should know that one; you invented the word!
An expressway is a high-speed road that goes through or around a congested area, allowing you to speed through there more quickly than you would if you had to take the usual city streets. So it's more or less like a highway, Larissa.
We call them by-passes. So why is the New Jersey turnpike so famous?
in my area (Santa Clara County in California ) an expressway and a highway are very different things. A highway - well, everybody knows that, has maximum speed 65 or 70 mph, no intersections, etc.
An expressway is just like another big road, only with maximum speed 45- 55 mph. It DOES have: intersections with traffic lights, turns and u turns allowed. when the highways are called by their numbers (I-280, CA-85, ets), the expressways have names as usual streets: Lawrence expwy, San Tomas expwy.
P.S.To my surprise, Wikipedia also says indeed California in general and Santa Clara County in particular have their own system of expressways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressway
<<in my area (Santa Clara County in California ) an expressway and a highway are very different things. A highway - well, everybody knows that, has maximum speed 65 or 70 mph, no intersections, etc.
An expressway is just like another big road, only with maximum speed 45- 55 mph. It DOES have: intersections with traffic lights, turns and u turns allowed. when the highways are called by their numbers (I-280, CA-85, ets), the expressways have names as usual streets: Lawrence expwy, San Tomas expwy.
P.S.To my surprise, Wikipedia also says indeed California in general and Santa Clara County in particular have their own system of expressways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressway>>
Yeah I've noticed that the term "expressway" for that kind of road isn't as commonly used outside of the Bay Area. Other places in California have those kinds of major roads but they're given other classifications. One good example is Jamboree Rd. in Irvine. It's a multilane high speed (up to 55 mph speed limit) thoroughfare that goes thru the entire city. It'd probably be called "Jamboree Expressway" if it were in, say, Santa Clara County but in Irvine it's just "Jamboree Rd."
Anyway, interesting article. It was interesting to see a carpool lane on the furthest right lane of San Tomas Expressway. I'm not used to seeing carpool lanes on non-freeways.
<<So why is the New Jersey turnpike so famous?>
Because
1) it's one of the most heavily traveled highways in the eastern US;
2) it's the main route to get from Washington DC to NYC (other highways from neighboring states also connect to it);
3) it's been immortalized in songs written and/or sung by Chuck Berry, Simon & Garfunkel, John Phillips, David Bowie, and native son Bruce Springsteen; and
4) because the highway cuts through the entire state of New Jersey and has high sound walls on both sides throughout most of its length, thereby preventing drivers from seeing what's on the other side of those walls, out-of-staters who drive it think New Jersey *is* the Turnpike. ;-)
The Turnpike is to New Jersey (and perhaps the entire Eastern seaboard) what the Autobahn is to Germany.
***A turnpike is just a toll road. You Brits should know that one; you invented the word!***
I would respectfully refer Uriel to the following post of mine in this thread:
***Damian - tea break Edinburgh Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:00 pm GMT***
;-)
As a matter of interest, not many of the motorways (the main arteries of road transport in the UK) are called expressways, although they are basically the same thing.
When I went down to Wales over Easter, I went along the main motorway type road along the North Wales Coast...the A55...and it's officially called the North Wales Coast Expressway. That's the only road called that in the UK as far as I know....which isn't all that much. Whatever, the traffic congestion was horrendous....but it was a holiday weekend.
<An expressway is a high-speed road that goes through or around a congested area, allowing you to speed through there more quickly than you would if you had to take the usual city streets. So it's more or less like a highway, Larissa.>
What she defined an 'expressway' would be considered incorrect here. It's simply a motorway. What she mentioned is what we would call 'Ring roads'.
It's just that the terms are used in different contexts.
<<May I ask You. What is the best pronouciation is it américan or british????>>
That depends upon which words you are referring to. With some words pronunciation can be broken up more easily into other groups. For example, Northern English and North Americans use what is sometimes referred to as "conservative pronunciation" as it maintains the original pronunciation. People in the South East, Australia and NZ use what is sometimes known as "innovative pronunciation"; the name reflects the change which started to occur about 300 years ago but has been incomplete in its deployment.
The following words, for example rhyme in conservative pronunciation, but not in innovative pronunciation:
glass......gas
answer....cancer
pass.......mass
path.......maths
castle......tassel
disaster....aster
last....elastic