Differences between American English and british English

<<Why are you guys making nonsense conversations? I can't read to learn English about what this is really.>>

Well, Info, usually the whole POINT Of learning a language is to get good enough at it to be able to follow ordinary conversations between people, like the ones we have .... so consider it an exercise in the practical application of your reading comprehension skills!

Info, Uriel is right there. I picked up informal style(ass style) after reading her posts on a regular basis and enhanced my vocabulary to Dicken's level after reading Damian's posts. You see, written posts on this forum are not rigid and tersed in style - they are a good example of day to day conversations. In an effortless way, we are actually absorbing the language. Uriel and Damian - if you are reading this post, go ahead with your tittle tattle (picked up this phrase from Damian's post).

:)

Och - golly gosh!! - Info - you don't know how relieved I am to read your last post! I honestly thought that from now on we had to confine everything we write in here to strict comments on grammatical style and lectures on idiomatic constructions, syntax, parsing, and the study of and disssection of the English Language in boring classroom format. Eeks! I thought I'd left all that sort of caper behind me!

As long as we use the English Language as it should be used (with just the occasional lapse into obscure colloquialisms) then it's fun to tittle tattle away about anything under God's sun as long as it broadly follows the theme of the relative title thread. I know it's so easy to drift away off the track and into the bush wilderness, but what the heck - it's all words and it's words that are basically the life blood of Antimoon.

As Uriel says, if we chat away in a reasonable standard of English (no matter which legitimate (and prefererably non vulgar) brand of English and no matter where it's from) then we shouldn't give a tinker's cuss what we natter about, especially if it helps those who follow the threads in an attempt to prove their comprehension of ordinary conversational English. It's the next best thing to us all being together in one room chatting away like crazy and helping those whose first Language doesn't happen to be English. That would be really great - but unfortunately it ain't gonna happen, so this Forum is the substitute.

Have a fantastic weekend. It's Friday!!!!! :-)

For "prove" read "improve". :-(

My proofreader is now off down the road......

PS: "off down the road" is Britslang for the "sack" - dismissal from a job.

Um, a bridegroom is a MAN ....!

Normally that's so - but here in the UK now it's possible to have two bridegrooms! Ha! Or two brides for that matter. That would definitely frighten the horses but fortunately not many ceremonies are conducted in the street.

>>Och - golly gosh!! - Info - you don't know how relieved I am to read your last post! I honestly thought that from now on we had to confine everything we write in here to strict comments on grammatical style and lectures on idiomatic constructions, syntax, parsing, and the study of and disssection of the English Language in boring classroom format. Eeks! I thought I'd left all that sort of caper behind me! <<

For some reason I imagine this comment has something to do with me... ;)

I feel I should explain more about my people. Saami. We normally live in the north of Norway, Russia, Finland etc. We speak several dialects and they are different to General Norwegian. Danish is also different from Norwegian. I do understand Finnish because we have contact mostly with Finns. Some people know the region as Finmark ("mark" means land of). My brother is brave and moved to Danemark.

The word Lapp is slightly offensive to the Saami people. Lapp means dirty old rag. I am big girl now so I am not crying.

We have many similiarity with American Indians. We were pushed from our lands, we live in tents, we have songs like chanting, we believe in earth spirits...

Travis: don't be silly! Of course not - I did NOT have you in mind at all and that's gospel. You supply great input to this Forum and provide a superb service on the workings of the Language and how it should be used and most particularly - the whole phonetics thing. You must keep it up. It's fine by me if you leave the idle chats to us wastrels! I enjoy being a wastrel and I enjoy reading the writings of other wastrels. :-)

It's tea time in Scotland.....

<<It's the next best thing to us all being together in one room chatting away like crazy and helping those whose first Language doesn't happen to be English. That would be really great - but unfortunately it ain't gonna happen, so this Forum is the substitute. >>

And look on the bright side -- you learners don't have to put up with the added headache of wading through all of our various accents!

<<Info, Uriel is right there. I picked up informal style(ass style) after reading her posts on a regular basis>>

Hee hee -- glad to know that I am able to corrupt from afar!

When I'm still visiting this forum, I read a lot of mistakes of these people, for example: Basset Hound Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:21 pm GMT
I have "British bridegroom" to converse and a "horny American lady" to love.

<< So I like both English styles with my two women. >> ???

This person is saying about two women instead of his wed man as a gay and his lustful Yankee woman. So I definitely say his bisexual. Even this different creature makes very wrong writing.

You need to learn English for yourself before you correct anyone else.

Adam writes:

"American English has virtually NO impact on British English.

I've hardly heard anyone say "license plate" instead of number plate, "trunk" instead of boot, "dumpster" instead of skip or "gas" instead of petrol."

Adam (And readers),
I am astonished to hear the amount of American words used now when I return for visits to my home Country of England. Even words that I do not use despite having lived here in the States for 18 years now, such as using 'guy' instead of 'chap' or 'fellow', using expressions such as 'that's cool' and many others. What's going on over there?

the only British use that has been imported recently is BE MISSING...

She's missing.
She went missing.

Until the beginning of the 20th century ''to be missing'' was not used at all, in American English...It one of the few Briticisms that got their way across /@'krAs/ the Ocean.

***I am astonished to hear the amount of American words used now when I return for visits to my home Country of England. Even words that I do not use despite having lived here in the States for 18 years now, such as using 'guy' instead of 'chap' or 'fellow', using expressions such as 'that's cool' and many others. What's going on over there?***

The 'guy' thing is easy to explain - it's more acceptable simply because it's more classless (we are talking about England here after all!). Words like 'chap' and 'fellow' now have a sort of posh upper class connotation, and sound as if they belong to the past, and reminiscent more of an outdated public school scenario - as in "John Brown's Schooldays", "Maurice" or "Another Country".

That's why "guy" is pretty much universal here now, even though "bloke" seems to be used even more when referring to a male (guy can also be used unisexually).

"Cool" or "that's cool" has been used as far back as I can remember. Also saying things like "good" or "I'm good" when someone asks how we are. Americanisms are bound to occur when we see so many American films and TV programs especially, but I bet you heard words used here that you probably won't hear over there in the USA - like muppet, gobsmacked, dickhead, sound (meaning genuine - as in "sound as a pound") etc etc. Those are pretty much national - local regionalised words are a whole different ball game (isn't that an Americanism?) And back home in Scotland we have loads of words that would totally mystify you.

Unless they had American links of whatever kind no British person would ever use "gas" for petrol, "trunk" for boot, "hood" for bonnet, "purse" for handbag (a purse is a small container for loose change/bank notes). License plates here are number plates or registration plates. Very often we refer to the registration number of a car simply as its "reg". Like the UK went over to "57" reg plates on 01 September and will change to "08" reg plates on 01 March next, so if you have a shiny spanking new car on your drive right now it could have a reg plate something like SD57TPC (a Scottish reg). A London reg could be LY57FCW.