grammar question?

nick   Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:08 am GMT
Are there any differences between British English and American English in grammar, I am thinking about buying Cambridge Grammer of English, thank you!
Skippy   Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:56 pm GMT
Nothing so significant that you wouldn't be able to understand... Just a few things I found off google:

In Britain, collective nouns use the plural form of the noun. For example, in England they would say "Alkaline Trio are a good band," but in America it would be "Alkaline Trio is a good band."

American English uses the simple past more frequently...

I've never actually heard an American say the world "whilst" but you hear this frequently in England (Americans would say "while").

There's also a huge number of lexical differences; Britons will almost always know what you're talking about if you're using American lexicon. Americans will often be able to tell what you're talking about if you're using English English, but we're not as fluent with English English as they are with American English.
nick   Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:11 pm GMT
Thank you, I think there are just few differences, it doesn't matter.
K. T.   Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:19 pm GMT
There is information about this question in this book, or in the book that follows by the same author. I really need to read them both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_&_Leaves

or

"Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door."

Author: Lynne Truss
Uriel   Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:54 am GMT
<<I've never actually heard an American say the world "whilst" but you hear this frequently in England (Americans would say "while"). >>

Not only do we not say it, I had no idea it was even being used in this day and age! And I would have thought from the spelling that it was pronounced with a short I; boy was I wrong!
Davidab   Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:11 am GMT
Calliope   Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:55 am GMT
@Skippy
"In Britain, collective nouns use the plural form of the noun."

Actually, I wonder if this is really true nowadays... I clearly remember being taught that rule when I was studying English (British English), but when I used it as a university student in the UK, it got marked off... hmm.
Guest   Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:25 am GMT
It's a British colloquialism, so it's not acceptable to use it in writing.
Guest   Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:22 am GMT
I think we should add negation. If I don't mistake, double negation is often used in coloquial American whereas it's not in British English.
furrykef   Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:07 pm GMT
I doubt that, unless you're talking about African-American speech, which is a dialect of its own (African-American Vernacular English, or AAVE). Aside from that, most Americans never use double negatives except for a specific effect. The same applies to the word "ain't", for example. But there are some exceptions, like people in rural areas, or generally "uneducated" people.

There is also a grammatical double negative, where the two negatives cancel out. For instance, "I don't want nothing", if spoken with just the right intonation, will mean something like, "It's not that I don't want anything..." My guess -- only a guess -- is that this is a universal feature of English found in all dialects.

- Kef
Jérémy   Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:28 pm GMT
Surprising. I really thought it was frequent in General American but not in British English.
Sentences like "I don't want no trouble".
Guest   Sun Jul 29, 2007 8:03 pm GMT
It is stigmatized though, so probably limited to lower-class/uneducated speakers, as Kef mentioned

Yep.
Gest   Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:55 am GMT
<It is stigmatized though, so probably limited to lower-class/uneducated speakers, as Kef mentioned.>

Are there that many uneducated native speakers? If so, where?
Milton   Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:29 am GMT
''Are there that many uneducated native speakers? If so, where?''

in the southern States
try watching the Jerry Springer Show,
you will hear many double negatives and ain't-s there.
Guest   Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:38 am GMT
<you will hear many double negatives and ain't-s there. >

Why is it uneducated to use those?