151–160 of 255 posts
The article didn't mention what is by far my favorite British lingo: "faffing about". It's just so damn useful! I know that there are other phrases which work, but for whatever reason none of them really hit for me like "faffing about" does.
I like using it to say something is a waste of time or too much trouble; it’s a faff…
Having grown up in the US with what I would consider a higher than average exposure to the early 2000s internet, at least compared to other peers my age, much of my ability to read and write actually came directly from social media, instant messengers and online games rather than books. This meant I often found myself struggling with spelling errors in English class which sadly resulted in deducted points from my ess…
> Unfortunately my teachers were a little unreasonable about this and would still deduct points when I pointed this out... I can see the teacher's perspective here. I don't think it's unreasonable for teachers to mark this down, though I don't think your request to get back the points was unreasonable either. Communicating effectively with your particular audience (the local American audience one in this case) is arg…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> how we ended up with this situation, where pant(s) is a noun and a verb and really odd. I'm going to blame Britain, US and Italy (via Latin) and not necessarily in that order. Because (in English) adding -s(/-es) makes plurals of (most regular) nouns, and also makes 3rd person singular declension of (most regular) verbs. Other examples of noun+verb collocations: books, shows, scents, raises, views, votes, comments,…
Eats, shoots and leaves? https://g.co/kgs/UzZtYRr
Having grown up in the US with what I would consider a higher than average exposure to the early 2000s internet, at least compared to other peers my age, much of my ability to read and write actually came directly from social media, instant messengers and online games rather than books. This meant I often found myself struggling with spelling errors in English class which sadly resulted in deducted points from my ess…
I find it fascinating that anyone in the US has this issue, as a Brit this was an issue for anyone with early internet exposure, but I hadn't considered the volume of British/Canadian/Aussie English to have an impact the other way round!
So even before the internet was widely used people in the UK we’re aware of the problem.
1. See how I slipped that one in there?
Brit living in the US here. Despite being here 7 years now i'll every so often have an American point out how odd something I say is. Recently it was me saying "I'll need to head home and get my swimming costume before heading to the pool". To which the response was "wow wow wow, "swimming costume"? Really? A costume. Not a uniform but a costume; something you wear for halloween? OMG that's adorable" Turns out Americ…
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I'm fairly certain "dump" is the more commonly used word in the UK. There's the classic children's novel "Stig of the Dump" published in 1963. There's definitely cases where UK English has adopted a new word but American English hasn't. I was surprised to see the word "coupon" used in old UK literature. "Voucher" is the more common word nowadays. People would accuse you of being Americanised if you said coupon.
Dump and tip have different connotations. The tip is where one deposits refuse/rubbish. Whilst a dump and is a pile/collection of unwanted things, not necessarily rubbish. It’s a small but often important distinction.
I suspect might be one of those regional things like scone/scone[1].
1. It’s pronounced “scone” and I will fight anyone that says otherwise!
The article didn't mention what is by far my favorite British lingo: "faffing about". It's just so damn useful! I know that there are other phrases which work, but for whatever reason none of them really hit for me like "faffing about" does.
I like using it to say something is a waste of time or too much trouble; it’s a faff…
Anyway, I’m on the drag getting to the shops. I need to fix a picture thas on the huh. ;)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> just because you understand something that doesn't mean it can't slow you down, distract you, or be detrimental some other way Sure. I'm just sceptical that errant signal isn't lost in the background of the American dialect's regional heterogeneity. If I ask someone in San Francisco "what colour pop" they want, the friction won't come from the "u."
A better example for why regionality matters: what does "pants" refer to?
I once was talking wit some british people whilst in california and said "oh you can throw that garbage in the trash". They laughed and said it sounded really coarse, what did you do with it after? "It goes into a truck which takes it to the dump. Why, what do you say?" "We say you put your rubbish in the bin and the lorry takes it to the tip" which did sound more pleasant.
That reminds me of a phrase I've seen on signs in both the UK and in Aus/NZ (IIRC): "No fly tipping". I'm not sure if this is actually correct usage in those countries, or slang, but it certainly feels much more like slang, and felt virtually impenetrable, even to someone who's been exposed to a fair but of UK-isms in his life.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure about other Americans, but I'll sometimes say "swim[ming] trunks" if I'm specifically referring to male swimming attire. Otherwise, yeah, it's often "swim[ming] suit" or "bathing suit" here.
Ireland: Swimming togs (!)
As a kid I found the Irish usage of “press” for cupboard and “runners” for trainers/sneakers confusing as hell.