Slappy
Because I read a lot of international literature, I sometimes make mistakes with English and American spelling. For example, realizing and realising. The English use s instead of z in so many words. Others are or and our such as in color and colour.
BBB
yeah bumblebee, that's what happens a lot in Englisch English and American English.
But I think the simpliest rule to memorize in that respect ist: American English is always the easier one.
And a second rule: AE is altays z and EE is s:
realize - realise
center - centre
neighbor - neighbour
Where that thing gets real nasty is when you have to study the globally seen obsolete British English just because you live in Europe. Now when you get somewhere abroad, say the States or Canada you mostly don't understand a word, they don't understand a word and you say "rubber" instead of "eraser".
thehamster wrote:
Where that thing gets real nasty is when you have to study the globally seen obsolete British English just because you live in Europe. Now when you get somewhere abroad, say the States or Canada you mostly don't understand a word, they don't understand a word and you say "rubber" instead of "eraser".
How about the entertainment the Brits get when American tourists attempt to pronounce the city names of Leicester and Towchester. Forgive me if I got the spellings wrong.
Or when a Brit asks for a kabob in the US and gets vegetables on a stick instead of a gyros sandwich?
Not to mention looking for a f@g.
In Australia there's a whole bunch of words that tourists from England and the US think describe places or our animals or indigenous crafts. In reality we just made them up in the 1970s before you mob started to visit and we just listen with a straight face until the tourist is out of sight - then it's Laughsville!
PS - when Americans ask for "Uzzi" beer we just give them a glass of cold horse urine. Cracks up the whole hotel as they get it down.
Well, General, I can't tell ya bout the fun Brits have when Americans try to pronounce local names.
I'm just one of those continental Europeans who almost asked some Asian students for a rubber when taking ESL courses while being in Canada.
The real nasty thing about all that British English - American English thing seems to be that the Brits usually know their way of distinguishing those expressions and using the proper ones just in place.
The pissed ones are we Continentals who're taught British English as if it were THE thing out there.
To get back to topic:
How about the word "opinion"? It's one of those I have to look up in the dictionary regularly, to not add a second "p" to it.
thehamster wrote:
To get back to topic:
How about the word "opinion"? It's one of those I have to look up in the dictionary regularly, to not add a second "p" to it.
Well, since there is no second "p" in the original Latin word .... :wink:
You're one of those nerds who took Latin instead of French?
Shame on you Mr. Hintern
Salaams
I can't stand ebonics.
--Ibn
i always get upset when people misspell humuhumunukunukuapua'a.
how hard can it be? it's spelled the same way it sounds.
thehamster wrote:To get back to topic:
How about the word "opinion"? It's one of those I have to look up in the dictionary regularly, to not add a second "p" to it.
Think of an onion, think of onion pie; ONION + PI[E] = OPINION
Geez this memory hook rocks :-)
Thanks a lot
I opine that there is only one 'pi'.
Fo'shizzle there's just one real pi out there.
The other pi mentioned above is there to help dumby hamster get the word opinion spelled correctly...and I assure I feel terrible for having to use the nature's best number for doing it.
thehamster wrote:But I think the simpliest rule to memorize in that respect ist: American English is always the easier one.
Many here will disagree with me, but I will argue that British English is the correct version, as it was our language in the first place.
I am tempted to make a joke about why the Americans need the easier spellings, but I won't... :wink:
You're right I won't agree with ya, Duke ;-)
For me language can't be described by a state, it's always something that faces a process of change.
So what you came to consider the language of you guys in the first place, is in fact not your original language at all. Sure I won't be able to tell you what your original language was, but just have a look at books like "Maria Stuart" - it's not a whole new language, but still it differs from what you know at least the way American English differs from British English.
Grand Duke wrote:thehamster wrote:But I think the simpliest rule to memorize in that respect ist: American English is always the easier one.
Many here will disagree with me, but I will argue that British English is the correct version, as it was our language in the first place.
I am tempted to make a joke about why the Americans need the easier spellings, but I won't... :wink:
I won't get into it in depth right now, as I don't have time, but the statement "it was our language in the first place" is a bit of a fallacy.
cavfancier wrote:
I won't get into it in depth right now, as I don't have time, but the statement "it was our language in the first place" is a bit of a fallacy.
'Litotes' is the terminus technicus for that, I think
Sorry Walter, I don't speak Dutch.
Prolly. It's not even close to what they're trying to write: probably.
