BrE / AmE vocabulary and grammar perception

Uriel   Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:50 am GMT
<<I don't think most Americans would have any idea what an aubergine is.>>

Sure we do. It's a shade of purple in upscale clothing catalogs. We probably just wouldn't be sure why you would want to eat that.... Come to think of it, having tried eggplant, I'm not sure why anyone would want to eat that either.



<<Surely Americans are familiar with the expression "to throw a spanner in the works"?>>

Most Americans wouldn't have the faintest idea what you meant by spanner. "Wrench" would certainly not come to mind....



<<What really puzzles me in Americanspeak is this, and we've been here before with this issue......

"I couldn't care less about this matter" (Brit)

"I could care less about this matter" (US)

To my British mind that seems as if the Americans actually COULD care less about it, but there you go...>>

We actually say it both ways; the second version is just sarcastic.
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:57 am GMT
Sarcastic? Americans being sarcastic? And there was me thinking that sarcasm was the sole preserve of the British! ;-)
sarcasm is universal   Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:13 pm GMT
<<Sarcastic? Americans being sarcastic? And there was me thinking that sarcasm was the sole preserve of the British! ;-) >>


Wow, Damian, the level of your posts is falling to an all time low. Sarcasm is not only not only British, but is also Tuvan, Bhutanese, Guarani and Zulu.
Uriel   Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:38 am GMT
We do sarcastic all the time. The difference is that we consider it mean-spirited and rude, not the pinnacle of wit. So it's used a little differently. And British humor is perceived a little differently....sometimes more nasty than humorous.
Damian in East Kilbride   Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:24 am GMT
So that's it then....it's all a matter of different cultural perception and interpretation, which we've known all along really, and which results in British people living in the United States realising quite soon that they must be careful about what they say and how they say it over there for fear of giving offence, or at the very least incomprehension.

For the Americans living over here they appear to become resigned to it quite quickly and in time learn to respond and quip in the same manner, which results in amicability all round as each side gets to understand and appreciate the mindset of the other.
Kaeops   Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:49 pm GMT
''Pavement'' for sidewalk is a regionalism (typical of Baltimore).
mati:   Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:15 pm GMT
+I found a ten-dollar note at the pub last night. (note/bill, pub?)
You have to turn it anticlockwise. (anticlockwise/counterclockwise)
+I've got sick and tired of this. (got/gotten)
He fell and hit the edge of the pavement. (pavement/sidewalk)
+*Do you fancy some aubergines? (fancy? aubergine/eggplant)
*Excuse me, do you have some nappies? (nappy/diaper)
+Is there a lift here? (lift/elevator)
*I just don't care, full stop. (full stop/period)
+Do you believe in Father Christmas? (Father Christmas/Santa Claus)
*Can I borrow a spanner? (spanner/wrench)

*i would have some trouble understanding [spanner/nappies/aubergine/full stop would confound a bit]
+would easily notice the sound of britishisms, but no real confusion

>>''Pavement'' for sidewalk is a regionalism (typical of Baltimore). <<
i also hear it here in california. i cant really imagine it being for the actual street itself. sounds a bit silly
Dude Who Knows   Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:51 pm GMT
>>''Pavement'' for sidewalk is a regionalism (typical of Baltimore). <<
i also hear it here in california. i cant really imagine it being for the actual street itself. sounds a bit silly

Really? I've lived in (southern) California all my life, and have never heard someone refer to the sidewalk as pavement. As I said before, in my experience it has always referred to a road, or more generally the asphalt it's paved with (thus, pavement could also refer to the asphalt or "black top" in areas such as a playground or airport runway).
BrE2   Fri Feb 12, 2010 10:03 pm GMT
<For the Americans living over here they appear to become resigned to it quite quickly and in time learn to respond and quip in the same manner, which results in amicability all round as each side gets to understand and appreciate the mindset of the other.>

You need to get out of the habit of dealing in cliches and stereotypes. There is not a British mindset and an American mindset. Americans who live in the UK do not think and speak and behave as one, like some kind of appalling monocultural Greek chorus. British people do not spend all their time making sarcastic "quips" or being "ironic" in some kind of dismal Richard Curtis fashion.

And where did this ludicrous vision of "amicability all round" and "sides" and incessant Anglo-American banter come from? You're just making things up.
Vert Blanc   Fri Feb 12, 2010 10:08 pm GMT
As an American I find British people using 'got' where I would use 'gotten' just sounds grammatically wrong to me. I know that to the British it sounds correct, and it IS correct in their variety of English but I still instinctively think it sounds completely wrong.
mati:   Sat Feb 13, 2010 1:49 am GMT
>>Really? I've lived in (southern) California all my life, and have never heard someone refer to the sidewalk as pavement. As I said before, in my experience it has always referred to a road, or more generally the asphalt it's paved with (thus, pavement could also refer to the asphalt or "black top" in areas such as a playground or airport runway). <<

all my life as well, and ive only heard older people call the "black top" at a playground "pavement", but never the road. Airport runway is "tarmac" for me.

"sidewalk" is the definite majority winner, but i do hear the occasional "pavement". could be a fading term on its way out of use here, and i happened to have caught the tail end of its use
Another Californian   Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:53 am GMT
I have also lived in California all my life and I haven't heard much use of the word "pavement" for any purpose, so I'm not really sure what its primary meaning here is... People usually call road and parking lot surface "asphalt", in my experience.
Entbark   Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:15 am GMT
If someone said the word "pavement," I would have to take context into consideration. If we were inside a building, the pavement would most likely refer to a parking lot or other large, paved area outside. If we were driving, pavement would refer to the road. If we were walking, pavement would refer to either just the road or the road and sidewalk together. It would almost never mean the sidewalk alone unless the road was brick while the sidewalk was paved -- or if it referred to the sidewalk vs. the grass.

Overall, I never hear it used much unless there is a reason to differentiate a paved surface from an adjacent surface of another sort of construction.
Damian in Edinburgh   Sat Feb 13, 2010 1:24 pm GMT
It's universally a pavement here.....nobody worth his or her British salt would use the word "sidewalk" which, to us, always seems to sound like "sidewok" when used by Americans.

To us a sidewok would be perceived as a spare cooking vessel when rustling up a chow mein or any Chinese stirfry, but although I have found myself in a hectically frantic professoional kitchen I've yet to see a wok tucked away on the side for additional use, but I reckon Ken Hom must have plenty of them in his.

Neither do we park our cars in a lot, either.....invariably it's the more logical "car park", but there again there is a flaw with that one.....look around the average car park in the UK and you will see vehicles other than cars parked there, so maybe "parking lot" is the most sensible......a lot of vehicles using it for parking.
An American   Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:31 pm GMT
Americans call it a "Parking Lot". To Americans "car park sounds like another one of those childish British neologisms.