Literature The British English vs American English thread!

[ledboots]

My mom does this and it drives my sister and I crazy!! All my relatives talk like that also. They are all from Long Island so they have pretty thick New York accents.

You mean "Lowng Goylin" ?

 

[Digger]

You mean "Lowng Goylin" ?

You go, sister.

 

[PTree15]

I love regional accents, with the exception of New Yorkers' tendency to add "r" at the end of words ending in vowels. For some reason, that affects me like chalk squealing on a blackboard.

Rhode Islanders do the "r" adding as well. When I lived in Philly, people always made fun of me for that .

 

[thefadedone]

You mean "Lowng Goylin" ?

That's what I'm tawkin about.

 

[Joe]

This is a subject of quite some interest to me, so I thought I'd start a thread about it. This has had some discussion in the "Post something cool from the internet" thread, when someone posted
about "19 Confounding Discrepancies, etc."

​

19 Confounding Discrepancies Between American English and British English​

​

Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/147607#ixzz2Cttky2o3 ​

--brought to you by mental_floss!​

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/147607

Anyway, let me start with something trivial--expressions for time.

I had some Scottish friends visiting last year, and they could not believe that Americans would say "half past four" to mean 4:30. They would just say "half four," an expression that Americans might find confusing.

I was watching the TV program Call the Midwife and they used the expression "half past" several times.

So I am a bit confused. Now, that drama is set in the 1950s. So has British usage on this changed over the past 50 years or so? Or do British people use both expressions? Or what is the story here?

P.S. I hear many expressions in Call the Midwife that I can't even find in unabridged dictionaries,
so this is an endless source of curiosity to me.

 

[Muggle]

Just to let you know, there's already a thread for this.

http://forum.veggieviews.com/threads/the-british-english-vs-american-english-thread.1363/

 

[Freesia]

I think Half past four is said in England too.

 

[AeryFairy]

Merged threads!

 

[ledboots]

I usually say four thirty. (US)

 

[Muggle]

Anyway, let me start with something trivial--expressions for time.

I had some Scottish friends visiting last year, and they could not believe that Americans would say "half past four" to mean 4:30. They would just say "half four," an expression that Americans might find confusing.

I was watching the TV program Call the Midwife and they used the expression "half past" several times.

So I am a bit confused. Now, that drama is set in the 1950s. So has British usage on this changed over the past 50 years or so? Or do British people use both expressions? Or what is the story here?

P.S. I hear many expressions in Call the Midwife that I can't even find in unabridged dictionaries,
so this is an endless source of curiosity to me.

I use "half four" and "half past four" interchangeably. Although I probably use "half four" more often. Thinking about it, on the TV they're used interchangeably as well.

EDIT:
I live in England, near to Wales, so I don't know about Scotland or any of the regional differences up there.

 

[Calliegirl]

I've never heard anyone say half past four (or half four), just four thirty.

 

[mlp]

I find "half four" confusing, if it means "four thirty", because in German it would mean the same as "three thirty", i.e., halfway to four.

 

[Muggle]

I've never heard anyone say half past four (or half four), just four thirty.

Yeah, people here (including me) say four thirty as well. Although four thirty could easily refer to the price of something as well but obviously the context of the conservation would make it clear if it was the time or a price.

 

[kazyeeqen]

I find "half four" confusing, if it means "four thirty", because in German it would mean the same as "three thirty", i.e., halfway to four.

That's what it sounds like intuitively to me. Half of four.

Maybe it sounds like two o'clock. :think:

I hate doing math to figure out what time it is. That's why I just say four thirty.

 

[Mr Crunchy]

You mean "Lowng Goylin" ?

Where words like "door" and "dog" have two syllables.

 

[Calliegirl]

If someone asked me to meet them at half four, I'd be all . "Is that new bar/restaurant? Where is at? What kind of food does it have?"

 

[Mel]

Mind if I bum a fag, mate?

Just started reading this. In Canadian-French (or Acadian), we would say: J'peux-tu t'bummer une smoke?

 

[Freesia]

Whenever I talk via webcam or while overseas, to people who arent from NZ/Australia I usually am asked where I am from.

I often think "Isnt it enough that I am talking? Cant you guess the region at least?" but they seem pretty stumped. After a while they ask if I am Australian, which is close enough, but I am told that I have a very strange NZ accent.

Mine is a kind of weird regional accent. I dont really sound exactly like many of the other people in the city.

When I was backpacking I met 2 people from a similar local area to me and there was this kind of familiarity of accent and world view that I felt with them that I didnt feel from any other type of New Zealander i met overseas.

There are a number of accents, the Wellington accent sounds really sort of elegant, and down the very south, people roll their Rs because of the high number of Scottish people who settled there.

Also I lived in Australia as a child, so if I go back there my accent reverts back again. I had a Melbourne accent until I was about 9 or 10.

 

[Freesia]

A lot of the American accents I hear I can hear a lot of English, Irish and Scottish influence. I think that the American accent resembles the Irish accent most, but "Mom" comes from the birmingham area, and the Idear thing discussed earlier, I have heard some English people talking like that on TV, and it could also have Scottish R-Rolling influences too.

I think that with colonies a vast amount of regional accents sort of morph together to form a new accent. Which is kind of cool.

 

[Freesia]

Re toilet stuff, here people just say "I want to go to the toilet." Or sometimes other words are used like bog, or something creative like throne or something like that. THough some use restroom. It depends on the person. I use either ladies or bathroom these days. I remember on TV when I was a kid, watching Different Strokes and Arnold said he wanted to go to the bathroom and I was confused as I thought he was going there to have a bath or shower. I then realised that it wasnt what it seemed at all. I use it now as I think it is a good word to use.