h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

US: Aluminum; a-lum-in-um
GB: Aluminium; al-lu-min-ium

flan is a pastry cooked in a round pan with no bottom, a ring.

Now Peta, you know better. Superman wears tights. .

No soccer, no. Rugby; tough sport.

Yes an article for The Post comparing GB/US word usage would be great fun. There is already an article on GB slang but I've forgotten the number. (I guess that is what the search engine is for, eh?)

Shall we make an effort on this; make it a project? I love etemology.

There are so many examples: US flashlight, GB torch.
US hood, GB bonnet (as in auto, speaking of which: GB tyre US tire)

Let me ponder a while. Very busy at the moment: just finished teaching one class and the next starts 13 May (yet another: US May 13, GB 13 May).

Does "Hold your water." come across in English as in American? Certain had gestures also have subtle differences, usually as an affront.

Duty calls! Must break out the red ink pen and see how many students know how to follow instructions. These are University students and often cannot spell or read simple directions! to the US education system.

MJM ACE

Thanks for the advice, I may incorporate some into yhe essay. I have two questions though, is "w**k" really such a bad word that it should be edited? Next, what do I need to do to this before it can get in the edited guide?
Thanks
Dave

BTW I'm American.

Dave

US - Q: How many children do you have? A: One/two/three
UK - Q: How many children do you have? A: One a year at the most.

In the UK we would ask 'How many children have you got?' instead. (At least when I last lived there. Language changes.)

Awu

US - Q: How many children do you have? A: One/two/three
UK - Q: How many children do you have? A: One a year at the most.

In the UK we would ask 'How many children have you got?' instead. (At least when I last lived there. Language changes.)

Awu

I'm by birth an American, but having Sub-edited for a year I've developed a sort of transatlantic writing style. I'll cheerfully go back and forth between British and US usages, unsure which is really which anymore. The only thing I can be sure of, in fact, is that pedants of both the US and the UK will find something wrong with my sentences.

For instance, 'learned' versus 'learnt'. What are the rules? In America, we don't often spell it 'learnt' (though there are dialects that pronounce it that way), but I don't think it's an all-encompassing construction in the UK either.

The ultimate dead giveaway of being a Yank is using the word 'gotten'.

Faucet is also US-only (though apparently you still call it a tap when it's attached to a beer-barrel/beer keg ).

Spike may have fooled many Americans with his accent, but I assure you that few in Britain have been taken in. And that goes double for Dick van Dyke.

Yes, w**k is extremely offensive, probably on a par with f**k and c**t and s**d (OK, I made the last one up).

I always thought that attempting to use more than 1 piece of Cockney per sentence was a sure sign of NOT being English ...

Cheers geezer,

Gif

btw, learnt - acquired wisdom.

LEARNed - acquired wisdom (alternative spelling).

learnED - wise (same spelling, different pron.).

That's how it works in the UK, anyway.

The same in the US but we use learned to mean aquire education as well.
Dave

A129647 - Trousers versus Pants seems a relevant link.

My favourite UK vs US difference is 'momentarilly': in the UK that means 'for a moment', in the US it means 'in a moment'. In the UK, 'the plane will be landing momentarilly' means that it'll touch down, taxi across the runway, and take off again.

But it'd be silly to even attempt to list all the differences in spellings and word choices between the countries. What would be ideal would be to find some other place that does, and link to there...

At the moment this entry seems aimed very much at a US audience - perhaps you should make this clear from the title - or maybe explain it to say how an Austalian, for example, should fake the accent. Oh, and should this entry be about a British accent? Or an English one? I wouldn't want our devolved neighbours to take offence...

Isn't it learnèd, with an accent? Or is that an anachronism?

Yep, wxxk is on the BBC banned words list, so you need a pretty good reason to get it through unscathed. A one-liner in a partly serious entry won't make it...

-Martin (gesturing at A677261)

F24307?thread=119337

Tha'r should keep the'sen tidy for't right while

i'm english and i say anyways all the time.

anyways, the entry misses lot of thins out and things mentioned in both the entry and this thread are't always true and it's just making a generalisation when engish people say lots of different things.

spook

Think I'll be pedantic but shouldn't this entry be in the Writing Workshop. Seems like there's a lot of good comments on how to improve this.

Anyway (I don't use the plural) moving quickly on here are my thoughts on what you can add:
In a chatroom you'd probably want to allow for time differences in a chatroom given that the mainland States are 5-8 hours behind Britain. So if u just got home from school (that's a college & high-school in the US, are typically Uni / University & Sixth form in the UK) you'd probably have finished your tea (evening meal) in Britain. But then perhaps this article isn't about faking a personality only an 'accent'.

Watching Graham Norton a few months back, he had Antoine De Caune on (a French chap who is biggish on English TV). He pointed out that the English say "Really" a lot. Since then I've found myself saying it a lot. Don't know whether it happens in chatrooms though.

ITRW Yanks say "like" a lot to finish their sentences, is it the same in chatrooms?

The current filler (in England) is "you know".

bbs

Urhm I say Cherrio..that must be the Greek half of me, actually I only say it in chatrooms not in real life. But that's just a pathetic attempt at making myself sound endearing.

I agree, this does not cover all the differences between the two "languages," but this is just a generalization for Americans who don't know better. This is targeted to both audiences, Americans and Enlish, the English to realize how stupid these generalizations are, and the Americans to see some funny stereotypes.
And as of right now, no one has told me how I can get this in the edited guide. Please offer advice.
Thanks
Dave

Read a suggestion here.
If the suggestion will improve the entry, in your opinion, add it in.
If it will not improve the entry, say why here.
Repeat for all suggestions.
Wait for further suggestions, and eventual recommendation.

-myre

Hi Jimmy,

I bet you didn't realise what a can of worms you'd open up by tossing this one into the pot!

(aside) Or did he?!

Well, much has already been said and I shall limit my comments to thanking Lucy for the wonderful mental image of a plane landing momentarily!

...and the suggestion that you could think about doing a companion piece entitled 'Why to fake etc.'. That's the question that springs to mind each time I see this conversation.

seeya
spiff

Jelly = solid, you eat it with a spoon.
Jam = gooey fruity stuff you spread on bread.
Chips = like at McDonalds but thicker and actually with potato in
Crisps = flat crispy potato things, in bags

(take it from an actual English person)