British v. American English

[Christinko]

American ..... British

toward ..... towards
gray ..... grey
"I love you." ..... "I love you".
organize ..... organise
humor ..... humour


etc. etc. Does it matter to you?

[Chicago Jake]

Don't forget license vs. licence, as in "Licence to Kill".

You left out the option that I would vote for: I enjoy the difference. Homogeneity is so boring......Jake

[Christinko]

Good reminder on license spellings...thanks!

So if you enjoy the difference...is it okay to mix them in the same document/written article?

[Ardbeg... innit]

With my spelling abilities, I rely on being able to claim 'accepted British spelling", whether true or no.

British vs American spelling

[Chicago Jake]

christinko said:

So if you enjoy the difference...is it okay to mix them in the same document/written article?

Good question. I'd probably have to say, technically, no. But in practice, I'd find it fun and sassy, sort of like throwing in an occasional "ain't" or "nuther" in casual communications, just for flavor.......Jake

[jdmcowan]

I agree with Gordon and with Jake. My unintentional British spellings can then be forgiven and enjoyed.

It seems much ado about nothing to me. Fixed spelling is a recent invention anyway. I tend to ignore other people's spelling errors unless the error actually ch-ch-changes the meaning or unless I'm feeling ornery.

Jeremy

[Ardbeg... innit]

jdmcowan said:

Fixed spelling is a recent invention anyway.

Very true Jeremy.. even reading documents from the early 19th century can be taxing, let alone earlier documents. Go back before the 18th century and original text can be near undecipherable.

[New Mama]

Freedom to express is more important than the host country's 'customary' spelling. Mix'um up or not, it's OK by me.

[Alice]

Same here. I had so much trouble with spelling in grade skool that I spent almost every weekend in my room studiing. I don't think it helpt much.

[Chicago Jake]

I think it's the old case of "breaking the rules is all right, once you have learned the rules." Because then you can break them in a way that is humorous or pithy or somehow adds depth to your point. But breaking them because you never learned them in the first place just makes you look like an idiot. I could "link to post" many times over but I'll refrain......Jake

[Chicago Jake]

Oh what the hell. Here's a link to my own post that discusses this very subject.

Link to post

Quoted in part: "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word!" -- ascribed to Andrew Jackson

[edie2u]

I dunno, I'm so blonde

[justheidi]

i recently noticed a mispelled word that was quite ironic or moronic actually......................

i agree...learn th erules first then you can be creative when you break them..............but if you never learned them well there's a problum hehehe

[Cherbunny]

Don't forget color -- colour

I'm 1/2 English...my dad was born there....so either or, or both spellings are ok with me.

So is scribbling doctor-writing with a fat crayola...I can read it too.

[Christinko]

Damn! I hate it when no one agrees with me. I like the distinction and think when you do not spell consistently within the same document that you look like you were lazy with detail and other inaccuracies/vagueness might have slipped in.

And Jeremy...fixed spelling being a recent thing for English? Two hundred fifty years isn't enough? Grin! Noah Webster did his standardizing thing in the 1700s.

[Irish Stu]

admin said:

christinko said:

So if you enjoy the difference...is it okay to mix them in the same document/written article?

Good question. I'd probably have to say, technically, no. But in practice, I'd find it fun and sassy, sort of like throwing in an occasional "ain't" or "nuther" in casual communications, just for flavor.......Jake

Or flavour ;D

I enjoy the differences between English as I speak and write it, and American English. From my perspective as a Brit I've never looked down on American English and it's spelling differences as a bastardisation of my language, as some here in the UK do, instead I enjoy the differences and see American English as a parallel version of my own language that has evolved, and continues to evolve, in a different way because of the influences upon it. Arguments about which is the correct English annoy me, as far as I'm concerned both are correct.

On my travels what I sometimes get caught out on though is the different meaning and usage of the same words. A good example happened at Hedo in October. I was sitting on the edge of the pool, and a guy who was walking past noticed my watch and asked me the time. Well the big hand and the little hand were both pointing to the 12 so I told him that is was midday. Seemed fair enough to me, how was I to know that my midday is his noon? And presumably his midday is the time period around the middle of the day, not an exact point in time. So he said "Yes, but what time is it?" to which I again replied "Midday" so he replied "I KNOW it's midday, but what TIME is it??" Calling me a fucking jerk after I said midday yet again wasn't exactly in the Hedo spirit in my opinion, but I can understand the fuckwit's frustration.

Simon

[Irish Stu]

"England and America, two great nations separated by a common language" - Winston Churchill.

Simon

[Chicago Jake]

Yes, Simon, to most Americans, "midday" could be anywhere from 10 am through 3 pm or so.

My favorite disconnect is the word "pissed". To Americans, it means angry or upset, but I understand that to Brits, it means drunk.......Jake

[Christinko]

I like the British "he knocked me up the other day" expression for a phone call.

And the expression Fanny Fatigue got me in trouble with a bunch of Brits I made a presentation to once. (Fanny in Britain is a gal's privates--thus DH Lawrence's "Fanny Hill" novel).

That "jumpers" are pullover sweaters amuses me too.

I especially like "boot" for the trunk of a car--I wonder if that's the derivation of "booty" referring to a woman's butt in the USA (as in: it's in the back part).

I'm still disappointed no one is as anally retentive as I am about spelling correctly for the country you are writing for.

So how far would you let misspellings or variant spellings go? Nite for night? Thru for through?

[Chicago Jake]

Nite and thru are not variant spellings, they are misspellings. Much like "lite" and "phat", they run rampant in this post-literate age.

I think that most of the TOTALLY different terms between British and American English are new-technology words for things that weren't invented until after the geographic "schism" between the two cultures. Things like elevators (lifts), trunks (boots) and hoods (bonnets) for cars, trucks (loreys), etc.

I believe in Spanish it is the same thing. Modern contraptions like automobiles are different in Castillian (European) Spanish and in Latin American Spanish (such as "coche" for an automobile in one and, well, I forget what it is in the other.... "carro" maybe?).

Even more interesting is how REALLY new technologies do not exhibit this schism, since international communication is now so fluid. So only during the span when inventions were prevalent, but international communication was not, do we get this difference of words.

Well, if that makes any sense, there you have it.......Jake

[Ardbeg... innit]

I am just so happy that the English language does not attach gender to nouns. I took German in high school, and to this day no one has been able to give me an explaination of WHO determines the gender of a new thing (der Komputer is male), and how the same object can be different genders if you call it by different names, like a car (der Wagen is male, das Auto is neutral)

[jdmcowan]

admin said:

I believe in Spanish it is the same thing. Modern contraptions like automobiles are different in Castillian (European) Spanish and in Latin American Spanish (such as "coche" for an automobile in one and, well, I forget what it is in the other.... "carro" maybe?).

Coche and carro are both words for cars, but I have never understood there to be a regional difference and I'm pretty sure that both are understood all over the Spanish speaking world.

It seems that a lot of languages have two words for cars, including English (automobile vs. car). In Japanese it is either jidôsha (automatic cart) or kuruma (wheeled vehicle).

bornagaindruid said:

to this day no one has been able to give me an explaination of WHO determines the gender of a new thing (der Komputer is male), and how the same object can be different genders if you call it by different names, like a car (der Wagen is male, das Auto is neutral)

My favorite in Spanish is socks: los calcetines vs. las medias.

Jeremy

[edie2u]

Truthfully, Chris I have to agree with you. I was just being facetious in my last post. I use to write and respond to a great many Legislator's inquiries. If a letter contained grammar or punctuation mistakes it would be returned to me. Thank god I had a good secretary! LOL The English spellings of such words as blonde, colours, etc., would have been considered misspellings. For those of you that would say "But they're not!", I didn't make the rules. But, if I wanted to keep my job I had to follow their edicts.
I know the grammar and punctuation in my sentences sucks but I have been retired for 10 years in April! I am that slogan "A mind is a terrible thing to waste"! LOL

Oh, and the spell check did pick up blonde and colours as misspellings.

[Christinko]

Just FYI:

Blond = adjective to describe hair color
Blonde = noun to describe a person who has blond hair

(same with brunet v. brunette)

Thanks, Edie, for Some Justification for my hard-headedness re: spelling for the audience (choosing between British or American English).

[Christinko]

I just realized I made an egregious grammatical error in the poll's question...verb & noun don't match--doh! Should read: DO the differences....

Ooops.

[Irish Stu]

admin said:

Yes, Simon, to most Americans, "midday" could be anywhere from 10 am through 3 pm or so.

My favorite disconnect is the word "pissed". To Americans, it means angry or upset, but I understand that to Brits, it means drunk.......Jake

Yes, we don't get 'pissed' when we are angry, we get 'pissed off'. As you say, when we're 'pissed' we're drunk.

Simon

[Irish Stu]

christinko said:

I like the British "he knocked me up the other day" expression for a phone call.

To 'knock up' actually means to wake someone up, or call round at their house or apartment, as in "Could you knock me up in the morning?", not to call someone. When we make a telephone call we 'phone' someone, or 'ring' them. Very few people would say 'I'll call you' or 'Call me'

And the expression Fanny Fatigue got me in trouble with a bunch of Brits I made a presentation to once. (Fanny in Britain is a gal's privates--thus DH Lawrence's "Fanny Hill" novel).

Ok, I'm curious now, what does 'Fanny Fatigue mean? That's a new one on me.

I especially like "boot" for the trunk of a car--I wonder if that's the derivation of "booty" referring to a woman's butt in the USA (as in: it's in the back part).

I don't know the origin of that one, but another difference is we call a 'sedan' car a 'saloon'... a totally different meaning in the US!!

I'm still disappointed no one is as anally retentive as I am about spelling correctly for the country you are writing for.

I share your pain on this one. In the UK American spellings are totally unacceptable in any professional document, newspaper, magazine, educational environment, and rightly so in my opinion, and I see no reason why you shouldn't feel equally protective of your own language. Unfortunately though with the internet and the proliferation of Windows they are creeping in. I just this minute opened a quote from an exhibition stand contractor proposing to charge me for 'labor' and 'colored' graphics. No doubt his spell checker in Word defaults back to American English, as mine does, every time he launches the 'programme.'

Simon

[♥ COVID-19♥]

samnsi said:

In the UK American spellings are totally unacceptable in any professional document, newspaper, magazine, educational environment, and rightly so in my opinion, and I see no reason why you shouldn't feel equally protective of your own language.

Ebonics is to American English as American English is to British English. Discuss.

[Christinko]

Simon--thanks for the correct meaning re: knocked up--all this time I had wrong info!

Fanny fatigue is when you've been sitting on your fanny (your BUTT to us Americans) and you need a stretch.

So I was talking to about 12 Brits at work who were sitting around a table listening to me gab about some keyboard, blah blah blah, and 45 minutes into it, I told them that I suspected they had fanny fatigue and needed a break. Many hands went to mouths to cover grins. I'm so glad I was told the next day after they had all left what they understood me to say. Ooops! The tale is one of my fav personal gaffes.

[Lady Irie]

I think I must have had a past life as a Brit.....I often find myself spelling words in Brit form. Sometimes I'll think to go back, and ch-ch-change them. I have no idea why or where that comes from.