american english v. british english

[Cheval 61]

COLOR, ARMOR, FALL, BAR, FRIES, SOCCER,

and 1776 AS A GOOD YEAR GENERALLY

 

 

This took way longer than I thought it would....

[RiseofSpectrum 359]

I prefer the American english. It's smooth while the British one is pretty "stiff".

 

Though, you from the other side of the Atlantic say "soccer" over "football", it's a slight I'm willing to take for the greater good.

 

The greater good being you speaking while not sounding pretentious (sorry, fellow Englishmen, but... you really do sound like that).

[KrazyDashie 1,847]

well, I grew up with "colour" "defence" etc here in Canada so I prefer most british spelling, but i guess its mostly about what you are used to, right?

 

though, I don't get how American football is called football anyways, you hardly hit the ball with your feet

[Hansel 1,512]

I prefer the American english. It's smooth while the British one is pretty "stiff".

 

Though, you from the other side of the Atlantic say "soccer" over "football", it's a slight I'm willing to take for the greater good.

 

The greater good being you speaking while not sounding pretentious (sorry, fellow Englishmen, but... you really do sound like that).

 

 

u fuckin wat u tellin me i soun pretentious u barmy wanker i'll pinch yor mince pies out an frow u down the ol classic apples an pairs as they say an i'll make it look like an accident u shit.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Hansel

[RiseofSpectrum 359]

u fuckin wat u tellin me i soun pretentious u barmy wanker i'll pinch yor mince pies out an frow u down the ol classic apples an pairs as they say an i'll make it look like an accident u shit.

Alright, fine, if you don't sound pretentious, you sound like a complete utter barbarian.

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

I use British-English as I am British^, so no surprises there. Aside from the odd laugh at an American-English speaker declaring "Oh, my pants are dirty" and the number of American military officers that have rented accommodation in toilets* the only issues I have with American-English will now be explained by David Mitchell.

 

One fun little bit of confusion that has thankfully been resolved is the word billion. Until 1976, UK statistics used the 'long billion,' where 1 billion was defined as 1 million million, or 1,000,000,000,000 (1*10¹²) whilst the US (and I think most other countries, but I don't know) used the 'short billion', where 1 billion was defined as 1 thousand million, or 1,000,000,000 (1*10⁹) much to the confusion of all.

 

Thankfully the short billion is now the near-universally used definition, at least by the few people that actually use the word billion where the definition matters with any frequency at all. Switching so we all drive on the right would have been good, but I've already learnt to drive and I'd rather not have to learn to give way to the left on a roundabout so I'm afraid we're keeping that for now (along with milk in pints but fuel in liters, which makes certain cocktail ratios really hard.)

 

 

*US-English: Lieutenant is pronounced 'loo-tenant' (thus sounding to me like someone who is a loo's tenant.)

 UK-English: Lieutenant is pronounced 'lef-tenant' 

I vaguely recall hearing somewhere that there is something to do with 'lieu' (in lieu of the tenant, the 'tenant' referring to a senior officer?) and 'left' (left with the tenancy of command?) but I couldn't honestly say. The American one sounds more French, if that has anything to do with it.

 

 

^and when I use it, I am "not the poshest sounding person I know by a long shot, but definitely by a medium shot" as one American put it. But then I apparently even sounded posh when I spoke German, so I think that's just me.

Edited February 24, 2017 by Once In A Blue Moon