American and British Vocabularies (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

American and British Vocabularies
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Alkeides
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Bhutan
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Message 41 of 76

08 August 2008 at 7:03am | IP Logged

thebard wrote:

"Got" is the standard past participle of get in the UK, but you sometimes hear "gotten". I went through a phase of using it, in fact, and I'm not entirely sure why. Also, we tend to use "have got" and not just "have" to indicate possession, so that the question form is "have you got?" more often than "do you have?"

‘
Sometimes I use "Have you any ...?"/"Have you ...?"

Somewhat archaic? I haven't encountered many people who also use it.

I read a book on this subject a while ago and they said that British English also tends to contract "I will not" to "I'll not" more often than "I won't" while it goes the other way around for American. I guess this could be related to "I shall" being retained more commonly in the UK than in the New World?
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Sunja
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Message 42 of 76

08 August 2008 at 12:06pm | IP Logged

amphises wrote:

I read a book on this subject a while ago and they said that British English also tends to contract "I will not" to "I'll not" more often than "I won't" while it goes the other way around for American. I guess this could be related to "I shall" being retained more commonly in the UK than in the New World?

We almost always contract "shall" to "--'ll". Does anyone use "shan't"? I love hearing it when spoken but it's been reduced to "won't" in the US.

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Sunja
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Message 43 of 76

08 August 2008 at 12:16pm | IP Logged

Volte wrote:

"A few fries short of a happy meal", "not firing on all cylinders", and many others.

hehehe -- I like "Thank God stupidity isn't painful"

Those that translate I'll have to share with my German group!
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Volte
Tetraglot
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Message 44 of 76

08 August 2008 at 12:22pm | IP Logged

Sunja wrote:

Volte wrote:

"A few fries short of a happy meal", "not firing on all cylinders", and many others.

hehehe -- I like "Thank God stupidity isn't painful"

It's extremely commonly used in technical circles.

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jody
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Message 45 of 76

08 August 2008 at 1:04pm | IP Logged

My favorite is "Sharp as a marble."
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Aritaurus
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Message 46 of 76

08 August 2008 at 3:12pm | IP Logged

hmm , here's some other ones I know of

Primary school (UK), Elementary school (CAN) , Grade school (US)
Secondary school (UK and often used in Canada) , High school (US)
Tyre (UK), Tire (US and Canada)
Kerb (UK) , Curb (US and Canada)
Dodgy (UK), Shady (US and Canada)
Posh (UK), Plush (US)
Anti-clockwise (UK), Counter-clockwise (US and Canada)
Driving license (UK), Drivers license (US and canada)

I know in Canada, they teach the British spelling for words like colour and behaviour but for words like realise, they would teach us to spell them with ize instead of ise. I personally use ise instead of ize because I've gotten used to it over time. Most people I know here use the American rules almost 100% of the time.

Edited by Aritaurus on 08 August 2008 at 3:17pm
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Alkeides
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Message 47 of 76

12 August 2008 at 10:04am | IP Logged

I heard that Americans also tend to pronounce ee-ther instead of eye-ther, but I:ve heard eye-rather often enough.

Also, American British is different than British English, but British is different from American and sometimes different to.

Edited by amphises on 12 August 2008 at 10:11am
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Sanukk
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Message 48 of 76

31 August 2008 at 10:25pm | IP Logged

thebard wrote:

The omission of "have" strikes me as very American eg. "I just arrived" for "I've just arrived" but I think it's becoming more and more common over here, and I catch myself saying it from time to time, hehe.

Americans tend to miss 'and' out of numbers where Brits do not:
two thousand four == US
two thousand and four == UK
While on the subject of numbers, the study of mathematics here is called maths, and in America it's reduced to just math, it has been suggested that the reason for this is because the Brits can manage more than on sum per lesson TeeHeeHee.

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