British English vs American English

[ARav989]

Eh. I guess the whole silent letters thing makes more sense now.

Still though, asking which one is better...I think it all comes down to the accents in the end.

 

[ARav989]

bodine is exaggerating a bit. Unless his friends are assholes, of course. Mate isn't a term we have around here. If my friend called me mate, I'd laugh at him. In our dialect..substitute mate for bro or dude.

 

[Bodine]

Why on earth would they do that?

eh, that was a bit extreme. But here mate is more like someone you have sex with, usually used for poking fun at primitave talk, like cavemen, or Tarzan.

 

[Sixty]

Wrong wrong and er wrong again!

For starters, in the EU, British English is almost certainly more widely taught than American English (due to the proximity, I suppose).

Also, for the knife phrase- blame the French!

As for British English and American English being languages- no, and I understand that Portugese Portugese and Brazillian Portugese are far more apart than American and British English.

For starters, Britain is surgically removed from Europe unless other countries want money for something. Another thing, they're best friends with one another, so they choose to speak their languages. Hello Scandinavia. How many languages do you have to choose from in Europe? English, Spanish, French, German. The rest of the world has more of a concern with speaking English, and they do so the American way.

 

[Frogger]

Haha, the only country that I know in Europe that learns British English is France. I'm sure you're proud of that, Navarre. My Danish sister didn't even know there was a British/American variation in English, and she was taught the American way - a lot of it by her British father.

 

[anax4aero]

All English is a result of over-complicating things. ALL OF IT!!

OBJECTION!

English is actually a result of simplifying things. It's one of the more adaptable languages in the sense you can combine words and such to establish new meaning and create new words. I actually remember hearing from somewhere that English is the world's bastard tongue, taking what it needs from every surrounding language to evolve. This high adaptability is also making it the optimal language for the internet, since you can easily make up new verbs like "to google" or "to tweet" without much complications.
In this sense, I would say American english would get a leg up due to the fact that people around the world do learn the american english, since it is much less strict when it comes to pronunciations and spellings. Personally, I find both of them to be equally good, depending on who's speaking/writing in it. Because if we think of the slang of each country, it's disgusting in every single case. Properly spoken, both dialects can sound equally elegant.

 

[Monsteroids]

The silent letters, deliberate grammatical errors, and rule exceptions would like to say otherwise.

 

[Sixty]

America wanted to standardize English into everything being completely phonetic. Wouldn't that have been beautiful?

 

[Napalmbrain]

In some senses English is a simplified language: unlike most European languages it doesn't bother with gender inflection and grammatical cases. On the other hand, it's also quite complicated: it's highly inconsistent, every vowel letter has several different pronounciations with no way of knowing which one it should be, and it's restricted by a rigid word order.

 

[navarre]

I'd like to state that if we americans we're to call one of our friends "mate" they'd probably punch us in the face. :lol:

The American accent just doen't go with the word 'mate'. In fact, if you did say it, you'd sound like complete turds.

In some senses English is a simplified language: unlike most European languages it doesn't bother with gender inflection and grammatical cases. On the other hand, it's also quite complicated: it's highly inconsistent, every vowel letter has several different pronounciations with no way of knowing which one it should be, and it's restricted by a rigid word order.

Gender and grammatical cases are the bane of any European language- especially when the gender changes, and the case changes too.

Why do I have to say 'Ich sheiBe mich'? It should just be 'Ich sheiBe ich'. Makes much more sense.

 

[Frogger]

Someone asked me about my folks today. My folks.

 

[Napalmbrain]

Why do I have to say 'Ich sheiBe mich'? It should just be 'Ich sheiBe ich'. Makes much more sense.

1. If that beta-like letter (I can't remember the name) isn't available, you should use 'ss', not 'B'.

2. You **** yourself? ut:

 

[navarre]

1. If that beta-like letter (I can't remember the name) isn't available, you should use 'ss', not 'B'.

2. You **** yourself? ut:

The best example my teacher gave me to remember it.

And yes, I will start using 'ss'.

Someone asked me about my folks today. My folks.

How embarrasing.

 

[Frogger]

Beautiful.

Spoiler

Da Werds
aah-eh or arr ay Its not fair!
ace well done
Antwaccky, dead antwacky Dead Old; Ancient
axe ask, as in Don't axe me?
avin a barney having an arguement
Ay ay I Say!
Ay La! I say, young man
'avin' a bevvy Having a drink of beer
Ar kid My brother
bail out leave, exit a place
bags, bags of loads, lots
backie, crogger passenger ride on bicycle
barney arguement
Binbagged Thrown out by your bird/feller
blitzed, chemicked very drunk
bezzie best, as in bezzie mate - bezzies - best clothes
Boogaroff No, please depart
Buttie Sandwich, slice of bread and butter
bifta fag, ciggie, smoke
bint, berd girl
Bummin' Begging
bent could be as in a homosexual or stolen property or disreputable
Cum 'ed den Well, come on then?
chuffed, dead chuffed happy, very happy
chocker, chocka can also mean full eg: me bags chocker; me 'eads chocker
crack on recognise someone
Crimbo Christmas
cozzie swimming suit
Chip Buttie Chips between two slices of bread - Magic!!
Chippy The Fish & Chip Shop
dale they will
Dis pura kecks is too tight These trousers are tight
dead very eg: dead good
Darrafact Is that so?
diesel do these will be fine, thank you
divvy, dozey stupid
dunno a blind werd 'e sez? I do not understand him
do one run away, or tell someone to run away
doddle easy
der t'ingy any object whatsoever without a name coming to mind
De lecky man The electric meter reader
Dem They, those
de bizzies, scuffers Police - I think Bizzie comes from a "busy body"
Diddyman Small person
De unkill My uncle
De ant My Aunt
De Mersey Funnel or Paddy's Wigwam Catholic Cathedral
De whatsit The - forgotten the name it it, the thingy?
Desert wellies Sandals
duff defective, broke.
Ee yockered on me He spat at me
eotra he really should ....
ghostin' Going with a workman to work, watching him and doing nothing
Gissome Please serve us with..
Gizalite Could you oblige me with a match please?
Go 'ed den Well, go on then?
Give uz some or Gizza lorra or gizzum Give me, a large portion please, or give to me now
gammy 'anded, cack 'anded Left handed
gob mouth, to spit
gozzie, gozzie eyed squinty eyes
grass inform, informer, to "shop" someone, snitch
grotty squalid, horrible, eg: dead grotty
iddle it will do
I'le mug yer My treat!
La young man
lavvy, lav toilet
lecky electric
Leg it! Lets escape, ******* is coming, run!
lemme let me? Permit Me
lorra large amount
loosie single cigarette
Lolly Ice Frozen Fruit (or flavoured) juice on a stick
made up pleased
mate seems to have replaced wack, wacker
Me Ma'll deck ya (If you persist in this) my mother will hit you
mingy mean, stingy
Me Nin, me gran My grandmother
me fella My boy friend, husband
Me dar, de ole man My father
nits lice
nitty nora School nurse
nutt'n nothing
oavy overtime
ozzy hospital
scally loveable rogue
short-arse small
slummie small change
Scouse Pot-au-feu l'hiver poule
Snot rag (or more politely gartons - snot rag backwards) hankerchief
sock robber person from a less than nice area
saggin' skewl playing truant
Straight Up! Honest
Ta, Wack Thanks, I am most grateful
tatty head! knotted hair
thisavvay, disavvy This afternoon
termorrer, t'sermorrer Tomorrow
Treesa Theresa
tod alone, as in on me tod
took spoken for, as in she's took (taken)
Uz I, me
Yer, Yiz You, Yours
Wudden mind Yes Please
warra yer like? Get away, I am surprised!
Wellie, welligogs (kids) Rubber footwear of the boot variety
Worrel? What will?
We wuz playin' We were playing
woollyback not a scouser. Also means someone from the countryside
Yis Yes
Yockered Spat out something a bit green!
Y'know like meaningless interjection
Yer wha? Do I hear you correctly?
Yer wanna You ought to
Yistiddy Yesterday
Yer gorra cob on? You are in a bad mood
Yews You (plural)
Yer doin' me 'ead in You are making me extremely annoyed right now

 

[Lewi T]

Ah that's better. Lerd.