English vs. American

I never call the sofa a couch. It sounds too weird. Like calling the sitting room "the lounge".

But at last I see that I can spell realise with an s and not be accused of spelling it wrong! Phew. Quite a few words seem to be swopping esses for zeds.

Imelda wrote:The amount of times I've been critiqued and some poor soul's gone through and altered all the spellings.

That happened to me once!

write me wrote:American: bank
British: banque

Not once in my life have I ever seen or called a bank a banque. That site seems to be taking it for granted that all words in American that end in 'k' or 'ck' end in 'que' in Britian. *shakes head*

For some unkown reason, I find the fact that you spell 'catalogue' as 'catalog' really amusing. How random of me!

Oh, and I always call a sofa a sofa. Again, 'couch' just seems strange. But then I do call the sitting room the lounge and the living room.

Isn't diversity fun! >.<

The fact that Americans don't know that there are differences is nothing but sheer laziness. For myself, if it's a common difference, I tend to use the British spelling, just because, well, they tend to look better and make more sense in my head. And I was raised on British authors (Beatrix Potter and Tolkien, for two). My dad never bought American versions; he's with me. We speak the Queen's English in my house.

...Or at least, we try to. It's hard, when American society's so inundated with an "if it's not red white and blue it's wrong!" mentality. And funnily enough, I've come to realise that the more literate and well-read someone is (and young members--that does not include such bubblegum fare as Avalon High and Uglies, no matter how much you trumpet them), the more of an innate understanding they'll have of this sort of difference.

I don't know. I know lots of English spellings from reading English stuff, but I wouldn't be able to tell you the differences between them if you asked me. I'm too used to the American way of spelling, but at least I'm usually able to spot the difference.

I think Fand has hit the nail head-on.

I think that is true. I can genurally tell the difference between the american and english way of spelling things but some of our teachers have started spelling words the american way. Very confusing. Mostly it is words where they change the 's' to a 'z'.


Some words that teachers are now spelling wrong.

American:analyizing
english:Analysing

American:Fractionizing
English:Frationising

I din't know if that is right but that is how they have started spelling things. When someone asks if they have spelt it wrong they shrug and say 'o well, i think that is the american spelling' and carry on writing it that way.

I call the sofa a couch but i don't call the livingroom the lounge. That to me sounds wrong.

Fand wrote:The fact that Americans don't know that there are differences is nothing but sheer laziness. For myself, if it's a common difference, I tend to use the British spelling, just because, well, they tend to look better and make more sense in my head. And I was raised on British authors (Beatrix Potter and Tolkien, for two). My dad never bought American versions; he's with me. We speak the Queen's English in my house.

...Or at least, we try to. It's hard, when American society's so inundated with an "if it's not red white and blue it's wrong!" mentality. And funnily enough, I've come to realise that the more literate and well-read someone is (and young members--that does not include such bubblegum fare as Avalon High and Uglies, no matter how much you trumpet them), the more of an innate understanding they'll have of this sort of difference.

Yes. One way or the other enumerated. ^_^

Fand wrote:It's hard, when American society's so inundated with an "if it's not red white and blue it's wrong!" mentality.

The Union Jack is red, white and blue as well as the Stars and Stripes.

ShadowTwit wrote:

Fand wrote:It's hard, when American society's so inundated with an "if it's not red white and blue it's wrong!" mentality.

The Union Jack is red, white and blue as well as the Stars and Stripes.

Ha, yes...but I've never personally referred to it as the 'red, white and blue' - and it's certainly not stars and stripes.

Fand may be being slightly hyperbolic. ^_^




IMP

Indeed I was, lol. I'll admit, I'm not British, so I wouldn't know--but I've never heard a Brit refer to their flag as "the red, white, and blue," whereas that's a very common phrase in American lingo. I guess just another of the differences, hm?

The French flag is red, white, and blue.


Americans (me included) are a silly bunch.

Claudette wrote:The French flag is red, white, and blue.


Americans (me included) are a silly bunch.

Ah, yes, but that's the tri-colour, non?

dude i had no idea that we (americans) spelled the color gray gray, i've been spelling it grey! Wow do i feel stupid.

It's only called the Union Jack when it's flown at sea, it should be the Union Flag.

Personally I call the lounge the sitting room and a sofa a sofa.

I fully understand that this is not the case with all Americans but it annoys me cataclismically when I'm told that my pronunciation or spelling of English is wrong. I have to reply, politely of course, that my pronunciation and spelling would be wrong if I were speaking American, not English, as I consider them to be spearate languages for annoyance sake.

but that UK books are all altered for the American market,

Not ALLhe books are altered, just the major ones like Harry Potter