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American and British Vocabularies | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 9 of 76 06 August 2008 at 10:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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Like Chung, I use autumn/fall fairly interchangeably, although I have a mild preference for 'fall'.
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| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6148 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 10 of 76 06 August 2008 at 10:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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What about amongst/among, amidst/amid? I used to think Americans found the variants with "-st" old-fashioned but I've seen them used fairly often.
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 11 of 76 06 August 2008 at 10:46am | IP Logged | |||||
I occasionally use the -st versions, but they do have a more stuffy/old-fashioned/artificial feel for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 12 of 76 06 August 2008 at 11:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I stick with the forms without "-st". I can do without the extra syllable. :-P
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 13 of 76 06 August 2008 at 11:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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Speaking "American": I think people use them for flavor. "Talk amongst yourselves", "admist the heart of.." are not pretentious, necessarily. If you use them with a good mix of style they can add a slight sarcasm to writing (in blogs for example). I don't see whilst used that often but I understand it's used in BE.
Edited by Sunja on 06 August 2008 at 11:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5981 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French | Message 14 of 76 06 August 2008 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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One less-common one that I find interesting is coriander/cilantro. Cilantro is the Spanish translation of the herb
that is coriander in English. Until recently, coriander was used in the United States, but has been replaced lately by the Spanish translation due to the heavy presence of cilantro in Mexican cuisine. Older Americans still use the word coriander, but in a couple of different dictionaries I've seen "cilantro" given as the American English word, and "coriander" given as the British English word. However, because coriander is still used with some regularity in the US, many people are unaware that they are one in the same, or they use the word "cilantro" when they are using the herb for a Mexican dish and the word "coriander" when the dish is not Mexican. Or I've heard as well that people use "coriander" when the herb is dried and "cilantro" when it is fresh. For some reason, though, I've always thought of coriander to be a "Britishism." Edited by Olympia on 06 August 2008 at 12:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 15 of 76 06 August 2008 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
I use coriander and cilantro interchangeably, barely leaning towards the latter.
I don't add a syllable when I use them. Hooray for English consonant clusters. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 16 of 76 06 August 2008 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
I never really thought about it, but it's true! Coriander (the dried spice version) was introduced to the US by the Brits and has been used in cooking for quite some time. The use of coriander/cilantro as a fresh herb is relatively new, I think. I think people learned to associate the word with the fresh herb. I'm lucky to get the Greek imported cilantro :P 1 person has voted this message useful |
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