The differences between American and British English are of course numerous, and I’ve touched on them before. One area that’s always intrigued me though is food.
Hold the Cilantro
British and American English
Petrol or Gasoline?
It’s probably pretty well-known that gasoline and petrol are the same thing, being the American- and British-English terms respectively for the same fuel.
It’s not unusual for their to be such marked differences between the words for the same thing in both varieties of English. But I’ve always been curious as to why the words are so different, especially considering that petrol has a fairly logical etymology.
Are Americanisms Killing the English Language? No, not Really.
The first part of the title of this post is the title of an article I came across yesterday on the Culture of the BBC website. I thought it would be interesting, and wondered in what way they might be killing the English language. I was quite disappointed then, to read it and find out, as I’d expected, they’re not killing it at all.
Boot or Trunk? Hood or Bonnet?
One of the strangest areas of difference between British and American English is that of cars. In many ways, the general differences between words in both main forms of English are small and superficial. Things like removing a U from a word like colour, or swapping an R and an E around at the end of a word. Other differences are based on old uses and forms of words, and are understandably caused by 200 years or so of drift. And there’s sports.
But cars are such a relatively new invention that it always seemed strange to me that American and British English would have such different words to refer to their different parts. Specifically why a boot in British English is a trunk in American English, and a bonnet is a hood.
Ill-Gotten Gains
One of those little indications of the difference between American and British English is the verb to get. In American (and Canadian) English its past-simple form is got (I got a new car yesterday), and the past participle is gotten (I’ve gotten better at grammar). In British English, got is used for both forms (I’ve got better at grammar). One exception is using have got to refer to possession, (I’ve got three kids). As this structure is the present perfect simple, strictly it should be I’ve gotten three kids, but that would sound like you’ve bought some kids, and might buy some more. Plus, the real meaning of I’ve got… in this context is a present simple meaning, despite using the present perfect simple, so demanding that one stick to the normal structure of the present perfect simple would be a bit silly. Continue reading
Aluminum or Aluminium?
Continuing the themes of the last two days, pronunciation and names, I want to shift focus slightly from issues with pronunciation in a second language, to those native English speakers have with their own tongue. If you search for something like “most annoying mispronunciations,” you’ll find plenty of people venting their frustration. Sometimes, it’s understandable. As I’ve mentioned before, we seem to have an inbuilt resistance to anyone using language differently from us, regardless of which one of us, if either is correct. Other times though, it says more about the person complaining. Here are some of the more common complaints: Continue reading
A Date with Destiny
-You there, boy! What date is it today!?
-Today!? Why it’s 05/08/16!!
-Wait… so is it August or May?
Why do Americans write the date differently from the rest of the world? Not that I’m really complaining, but, well, it can be annoyingly confusing at times, especially in cases like above where the day of the month is the 12th or lower. Of course I’m just used to the European format, but I do also think it’s more logical, moving from the smallest unit to the largest. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 