I cannae believe it - "....and be THE nation again" it should be! So many of us get that bit wrong - shame on us.
I'm in a patriotic mood today and that's for sure!
I'm in a patriotic mood today and that's for sure!
Can British people pretend to speak like Americans?
English people can talk like Americans, my friend is brilliant at it...got the 'sneakers', 'movies', 'canteens' and all instead of trainers, films and water bottles :). But all my friends like the English accent better
After my own countrymen singing our sporting anthem O Flower of Scotland, I think it's only fair and proper to go down to the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff (Caerdydd in Welsh) and hear all our Welsh brethren singing out the Welsh National Anthem - Mae'r Hen Wlad fy'n Nhadau (Land of my Fathers):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYogExUngU&feature=related
Hae a guid weekend - I'm off now down the pub and after that who knows where.......
My handle says "Damian in Scotland" - in Welsh.
(Diolch yn fawr iawn, Andrew yn Sir Fon, Gogledd Cymru - a phob hwyl i ti!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYogExUngU&feature=related
Hae a guid weekend - I'm off now down the pub and after that who knows where.......
My handle says "Damian in Scotland" - in Welsh.
(Diolch yn fawr iawn, Andrew yn Sir Fon, Gogledd Cymru - a phob hwyl i ti!)
Hwyl fawr i chwi oll dros y byd o Sir Feirionnydd, Gogledd Cymru.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEaJqIDYT_Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEaJqIDYT_Q&feature=related
>>English people can talk like Americans, my friend is brilliant at it...got the 'sneakers', 'movies', 'canteens' and all instead of trainers, films and water bottles :). But all my friends like the English accent better<<
The thing about this is that not all that is necessarily not North American English to begin with. For instance, around here in Wisconsin people normally say "water bottle" not "canteen". And while in everyday usage people here use "movies" rather than "fims", the term "film" does show up in more literary usage here. As for "sneakers" versus "trainers", not all NAE dialects necessarily use the term you refer to as NAE here; at least here, people refer to "tennis shoes", or "tennies" for short, not to "sneakers".
The thing about this is that not all that is necessarily not North American English to begin with. For instance, around here in Wisconsin people normally say "water bottle" not "canteen". And while in everyday usage people here use "movies" rather than "fims", the term "film" does show up in more literary usage here. As for "sneakers" versus "trainers", not all NAE dialects necessarily use the term you refer to as NAE here; at least here, people refer to "tennis shoes", or "tennies" for short, not to "sneakers".
Canteen and water bottle are not interchangeable. Canteens are only used in camping these days, and are usually sort of disk-shaped. I don't even know if people still bother with them, now that water bottles are so ubiquitous.
Tennis shoes and sneakers are pretty interchangeable, but no one in the US uses trainers to refer to shoes. Trainers are people you pay to get your flabby ass moving, and they usually have the adjective "personal" in front of them.
Film is just a fancy word for movie, and they are both used in the US all the time. I'll put them in the same sentence sometimes. i don't distinguish much between them, although "film" often carries at least some glimmer of greater respectability -- Fellini makes films, Troma makes movies....
Tennis shoes and sneakers are pretty interchangeable, but no one in the US uses trainers to refer to shoes. Trainers are people you pay to get your flabby ass moving, and they usually have the adjective "personal" in front of them.
Film is just a fancy word for movie, and they are both used in the US all the time. I'll put them in the same sentence sometimes. i don't distinguish much between them, although "film" often carries at least some glimmer of greater respectability -- Fellini makes films, Troma makes movies....
>>Canteen and water bottle are not interchangeable. Canteens are only used in camping these days, and are usually sort of disk-shaped. I don't even know if people still bother with them, now that water bottles are so ubiquitous.<<
Exactly. Canteens are likely to be upholstered, while water bottles are those clear or translucent plastic things that are ubiquitous these days...
>>Tennis shoes and sneakers are pretty interchangeable, but no one in the US uses trainers to refer to shoes. Trainers are people you pay to get your flabby ass moving, and they usually have the adjective "personal" in front of them.<<
Yeah, but not all dialects use both; that here never uses "sneakers", for instance.
>>Film is just a fancy word for movie, and they are both used in the US all the time. I'll put them in the same sentence sometimes. i don't distinguish much between them, although "film" often carries at least some glimmer of greater respectability -- Fellini makes films, Troma makes movies.... <<
"Film" tends to connotate being artsy or some real significance in some other way, "movies" tends to connotate being crap churned out for the unwashed masses...
Exactly. Canteens are likely to be upholstered, while water bottles are those clear or translucent plastic things that are ubiquitous these days...
>>Tennis shoes and sneakers are pretty interchangeable, but no one in the US uses trainers to refer to shoes. Trainers are people you pay to get your flabby ass moving, and they usually have the adjective "personal" in front of them.<<
Yeah, but not all dialects use both; that here never uses "sneakers", for instance.
>>Film is just a fancy word for movie, and they are both used in the US all the time. I'll put them in the same sentence sometimes. i don't distinguish much between them, although "film" often carries at least some glimmer of greater respectability -- Fellini makes films, Troma makes movies.... <<
"Film" tends to connotate being artsy or some real significance in some other way, "movies" tends to connotate being crap churned out for the unwashed masses...
<<"Film" tends to connotate being artsy or some real significance in some other way, "movies" tends to connotate being crap churned out for the unwashed masses... >>
'Zackly! Champagne versus popcorn, I suppose. ;)
'Zackly! Champagne versus popcorn, I suppose. ;)
Ahhh Vanessa, Uriel - I thought that the Americans call a subway an "underpass"???? We also call them underpasses but they are always signed "subway". I know many Americans that have gone into one of these to catch a train and ended up being rather confused. Maybe you don't have, as Uriel suggested, pedestrian walkways that go underground.
The differences between our languages is decreasing, which I find a crying shame as I personally have always enjoyed the mix-ups and confusion that our different dialects can throw up. I mean, I realise that at any point in history we would have always been able to communicate but how we managed to retain the same words but develop different meanings was always pretty interesting and I think also served to underline our differences as cultures.
When I was a kid in the 80's we had only a handful of American programmes on the telly (4 channels!!) and as a youngster I'd find much of what I heard confusing. I remember a scene in "Pretty Women" when Julia Roberts talks about meeting only 'bums' for partners. This made me scratch my head because I could not work out how anyone could meet a bum let alone have one as a partner!!! But this mix up just made listening to Americans all the more fun (for me anyway) and made me want to listen to them talk even more, It almost felt like I was learning a new language.
I really like the American way of talking, it probably has a freedom of expression that is (was?) lacking in British English, plus you lot have some cracking words!!! But the fun (I) got out of listening to Americans talk has definitely waned - we sound so much like you lot (especially the youngsters) that Americans no longer sound unique or even very much different.
Actually I feel sorry for the yanks because by everyone picking up American useage it would seem that the poor Americans are losing a part of what makes their identity unique - or rather having it robbed. It is true of course, that by us picking up American terms and using many in place of our own we are also now losing a part of what makes us British.
Publunch - I am not sure if we have any pedestrian walkways that go underground. I will be honest with you, most Americans have cars and drive everywhere! We don't do much walking, sad to say, which explains so much as to how we are so overweight with so many health issues but that's another topic for another day, I guess......anyhow....in large cities like NYC or the like, in those cases many Americans don't have cars simply b/c it's so expensive to have and it's not really necessary as there are subways, busses or taxis that city dwellers can easily take but everywhere else, we mostly drive. And, we drive large cars, SUVS, trucks, etc. Quite the opposite of what I saw in Europe but our gasoline prices are much less expensive while we still whine and complain about how much our gas is, it's in no comparison to what the cost is in Europe.......but I digress........
When I read your post, I had to chuckle to myself! When you used the phrase "throw up" - I thought immediately how still very different our English is. "Throw up" in the USA means "to vomit" but I don't think that is what you intended to say in your post. I think I got what you meant but while in many ways we speak the same language, we still have words and phrases that are quite different.
The differences between our languages is decreasing, which I find a crying shame as I personally have always enjoyed the mix-ups and confusion that our different dialects can throw up. I mean, I realise that at any point in history we would have always been able to communicate but how we managed to retain the same words but develop different meanings was always pretty interesting and I think also served to underline our differences as cultures.
When I was a kid in the 80's we had only a handful of American programmes on the telly (4 channels!!) and as a youngster I'd find much of what I heard confusing. I remember a scene in "Pretty Women" when Julia Roberts talks about meeting only 'bums' for partners. This made me scratch my head because I could not work out how anyone could meet a bum let alone have one as a partner!!! But this mix up just made listening to Americans all the more fun (for me anyway) and made me want to listen to them talk even more, It almost felt like I was learning a new language.
I really like the American way of talking, it probably has a freedom of expression that is (was?) lacking in British English, plus you lot have some cracking words!!! But the fun (I) got out of listening to Americans talk has definitely waned - we sound so much like you lot (especially the youngsters) that Americans no longer sound unique or even very much different.
Actually I feel sorry for the yanks because by everyone picking up American useage it would seem that the poor Americans are losing a part of what makes their identity unique - or rather having it robbed. It is true of course, that by us picking up American terms and using many in place of our own we are also now losing a part of what makes us British.
Publunch - I am not sure if we have any pedestrian walkways that go underground. I will be honest with you, most Americans have cars and drive everywhere! We don't do much walking, sad to say, which explains so much as to how we are so overweight with so many health issues but that's another topic for another day, I guess......anyhow....in large cities like NYC or the like, in those cases many Americans don't have cars simply b/c it's so expensive to have and it's not really necessary as there are subways, busses or taxis that city dwellers can easily take but everywhere else, we mostly drive. And, we drive large cars, SUVS, trucks, etc. Quite the opposite of what I saw in Europe but our gasoline prices are much less expensive while we still whine and complain about how much our gas is, it's in no comparison to what the cost is in Europe.......but I digress........
When I read your post, I had to chuckle to myself! When you used the phrase "throw up" - I thought immediately how still very different our English is. "Throw up" in the USA means "to vomit" but I don't think that is what you intended to say in your post. I think I got what you meant but while in many ways we speak the same language, we still have words and phrases that are quite different.
American actors in films never quite get the English accent right. They try to mimick the posh accent and forget that most of England doesn't actually speak the Queen's English. I have a few English friends and they can mimick an American accent perfectly. They can immitate quite a few too. Not just the LA type but strong southern too. The English get our slang perfectly too. Better than we understand theirs. It's so uncanny. My English accent is terrible. I just can't quite get it. From meeting many Brits, I would say that they are better at imitating an American accent than vice versa.
<<I have a few English friends and they can mimick an American accent perfectly. >>
Rob, while not wishing to inpugn your judgment, I doubt your assertion very much.
Certain quirks give them away every time; in particular, even the most experienced English actors use the "linking 'r'" when imitating an American accent, when this feature is uncommon in American speech.
Examples: Vanillar ice cream, anyone? If not, what about a vodker on the rocks?
Angela Lansbury said,"The Atchison, Topeker and the Santa Fe is arriving."
Rob, while not wishing to inpugn your judgment, I doubt your assertion very much.
Certain quirks give them away every time; in particular, even the most experienced English actors use the "linking 'r'" when imitating an American accent, when this feature is uncommon in American speech.
Examples: Vanillar ice cream, anyone? If not, what about a vodker on the rocks?
Angela Lansbury said,"The Atchison, Topeker and the Santa Fe is arriving."
>>Certain quirks give them away every time; in particular, even the most experienced English actors use the "linking 'r'" when imitating an American accent, when this feature is uncommon in American speech.<<
I myself find this is probably *the* biggest thing that gives away native English English speakers trying to speak North American English, more than anything else.
I myself find this is probably *the* biggest thing that gives away native English English speakers trying to speak North American English, more than anything else.