What English mistakes are typically American?
>>You're right, Travis. But really, we can't say that without using words like "basilectal", because if we discussed what that really means in terms of American English, it could be considered offensive. I'm surprised noone has picked up on this.<<
I was not using the term "basilectal" as any kind of value judgement on my part, though, but rather how such dialects are viewed (explicitly or implicitly) in society in general, independent of any of my own views.
I understand that, but this is one aspect of linguistics that bothers me.
Well, yes, it is unfortunate that dialects can be called "acrolectal" or "basilectal" to begin with, of course.
@Guest
>> You probably used an online translator for that and aren't really German. lol
And you are propably a troll. His German sounds native and not like translated online
To answer the original poster, rather than disappear off into non-sequiturs about how there is no such thing as correct language: Americans frequently say "there's" instead of "there are", and often use the preterite instead of the perfect, and use the conditional instead of the subjunctive:
There's two things here.
I already ate.
I would have done that if I would have gone there.
All three are substandard - and are substandard in American English, not just British English, because careful writers of NAE avoid them.
Trav admits that there is such a thing as standard English when he says that conservative NAE is close to RP. In other words, his other points about there being no standard, and everything depending on dialect, is, by his own mouth, wrong. QED.
>>It's all English. It's not like German where one is cautioned not to learn such and such because it's not the arcolect.<<
Well, that depends on the education system. Maybe you should say, since the Jewish linguistic professors started arguing for the teaching of basilectal English as "more accessible", the US education system has gone down the pan, and the English one is not far behind.
Jürgen
Du machst hier wohl wahrscheinlich einfach einen kleinen Witz mit dem Ziel, dass die Amerikaner wütend darauf reagieren. Wenn du das aber tatsächlich ernst meinst...
Wenn du US Englisch lernst, wirst du zwar einiges anders lernen, als wenn du das Englische von England lernen würdest. Es gibt zwar einige neue Entwicklungen wie z.B. dass das Prätarium öfter benutzt wird. Andererseits gibt's einige Aspekte des UK Englischen, die sich geändert haben, die aber im Amerikanischen Englischen eher wie das ältere UK Englische bleiben z.B der Kunjunktiv. Vergleiche mal:
UK Englisch: I insist John is there (hört man oft)
US Englisch: I insist John be there
Das UK Englische ist eher mehrdeutig, weil man nicht weiss, ob der Sprecher behauptet, er würde wissen, dass John da ist, oder dass er einfach will, dass John anwesend sein wird.
Welche dieser Optionen ist besser deiner Meinung nach, Jürgen?
One of the main differences between UK English and US English is that US English seems to be spelt phonetically, like:
colour = color
favourite= favorite
centre= center
either that or they dislike the spellings...
The thing I love about the Americans is how they pronounce Loughborough or Edinburgh..... instead of Luff-bu-ruh, they almost always say Luff-bu-ro and instead of Edin-bu-ruh, they say Edin-bo-ro, and a Toyota Celica ( Ce- leek- ka) is a Toyota Cell- ik- kah!
I love it! Everything seems to sound so much grander in US English.
By the way has the US accent come about as a mixture of English and Dutch? Anyone know?
>>Americans frequently say "there's" instead of "there are". <<
Americans most certainly DO NOT say this any more than UK speakers do.
>>I would have done that if I would have gone there.<<
This also sounds weird to American ears.
I have caught myself making this type of mistake after having lost my train of thought after having begun speaking. It's not really a "grammar" error and I doubt that anyone with at least half a brain would speak that way.
>>Well, that depends on the education system. Maybe you should say, since the Jewish linguistic professors started arguing for the teaching of basilectal English as "more accessible", the US education system has gone down the pan, and the English one is not far behind.<<
So now your exhibiting anti-Semitism - yay...
That should be "you're"...