The longer I am a blogger with US blog mates, the more I learn but what I never expected was such difference in our common language of English. I knew the basics like tyre/tire, bonnet/hood, boot/trunk. Why are these so car focused? I can't remember the US equivalent of glove box.
From blogging, I learnt mould/mold and various other different spellings. I even learnt about Sterno stoves yesterday, and what Sterno actually is. Most interesting and I don't know why we never had the ultra safe Sterno here.
However, our grammar almost always matches, yet I've been jarred by one difference. Take a bow Steve.
I am a poor old age pensioner, so the government gives me $450 a week to support myself. This is not enough. I need to inform our Prime Minister that this is not enough. I need to write the Prime Minister, and I will have wrote the Prime Minister. Do I have that right for how it would be written in the US?
No matter, whatever is written like that just smacks me in the head like no spelling difference ever has. I will write to the Prime Minister, I will have written to the Prime Minister and I wrote to the Prime Minister.
Given how US, UK and Oceanic English grammar matches, this is one mighty big difference. Steve is an American and was a professional writer, so I am quite sure he uses correct grammar for his US readers, but isn't it remarkable that this is the only grammar difference I've noticed. Aside from my own grammatical errors. Maybe you know more?
I think the New Jersey Boud is UK or Irish born? I hope I am correct about that. But she has difficulty understanding the speech in Downton Abbey. Their accents aren't mine, but I can understand them perfectly well. The world is a strange place in so far as the English language goes.
Last night I took Phyllis and Kosov out for dinner. They shared a pizza and ate some of my chips, and souvlaki bread. The bulk of the bill was my two glasses of wine and an affogato with Scotch whisky. If you don't know, affogato is strong Australian style coffee poured over ice cream and with whisky poured over the top of that.
Kosov's English is quite good, but you may remember me mentioning the way he pronounced margarine, as marg, as in Margaret, arine. Given he has to drop his résumé into to many places to find work, I insisted on him learning how to pronounce resume. This night I've learnt the difference between resume and a CV, Australia, US and Canada are in agreement. But is does strike me as odd that we have a choice between French and Latin for a job application, and not English.
My hearing aid batteries will be changed today, as I do every Sunday, but this Saturday night, one is already warning me, baddery and not battery.
I'm not done yet. With one day of 40/104 degrees, media warned us of a heat wave. One day of extreme heat is not a heat wave. Media shot itself in the foot, as what superlative can it come up with for a real heat wave, such as today, tomorrow and the next day, 38/100, 39/102 and 36/97?
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English, the universal language of misunderstanding. The expression I really don't understand is, 'I could care less.' I know what is meant, but it's wrong. It implies that I could actually care less about something if I tried, but really, I couldn't care less. Yes, clear as mud!
ReplyDeleteIt's great fun to me! I've been reading British novels since I was a child so I am familiar with most differences in language. I'm getting pretty good with Australian accents because I watch shows made there. It's good to learn something every day, even a new word or phrase.
ReplyDeleteI had to relearn English when I emigrated to Canada and then when I moved to Newfoundland it was a completely different Hiberno-English experience. There's some Cornwall/Devon/Brittany influences into the Newfoundland English but it utterly charms me when I hear the Irish language itself incorporated into certain phrases. But Americanese creeps in everywhere. I love some of the unusual Oz words I hear and read.
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My comment about Downton Abbey was a joke! If course I can understand them, but this North Yorkshire lady can't resist the chance to tease my southern UK friends about the strange way they talk!
ReplyDeleteI have also noticed so many differences in grammar between all our English speaking cousins since I started blogging. As a Grammar Schoolgirl some of them jar with me, as "proper grammar" was drummed into me from the age of 11. No matter. We all understand each other ..even if it takes a couple of re-reads...
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