Here's a different kind of quiz.

What do you think? We don't want to be dogmatic about this quiz, but we think you might recognise some modal differences between British and US English usage. If not, feel free to argue. (In fact, we hope you will.) These answers are based on Editorial experience with Post contributors and readers, and observations of their usage of modal verbs.

They're also based on a certain amount of good will. For example, we assume that the British Researcher who began a comment with, 'You need to …' didn't mean it that way, but was offering an alternate suggestion,rather than trying to boss us around.

Anyway, if your answers were mostly 'a', we suspect you're British. If most of your answers were 'b', you're probably North American. If your answers tended to 'c', then you're probably a US Southerner or Westerner –at least, you don't speak Urban American.

A note for furriners: Modal verbs are tricky things in any language that has them. Take German, for instance. Your Editor got into a lot of trouble by using the verb 'must' in a German sentence.

'MUSS?' the lady yelled. 'Ich MUSS nichts!' I apologized. I should have used another modal verb for that suggestion. They're sensitive about 'must' in the Rhineland.

About Question 3: President Jimmy Carter once answered a reporter's question about policy with, 'We might could do that.' Southerners understood, Washingtonians were baffled, and college professors were contemptuous. He was right, though. As usual.

Subtle language differences can be fascinating. At least, they could be fascinating. I mean to say, I should rather like them to be fascinating, at least to an anthropologist or linguist…

Aw, heck. You know what I mean, y'all.

PS For extra credit, vote on what you would do if a perfect stranger called you 'honey'. And whether it would matter if that stranger were of the same or opposite gender to yourself. Now, that'll separate the linguistic subgroups.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

20.01.14 Front Page

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