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Post by The Sonar Chicken on Jan 6, 2008 17:36:12 GMT
The amusing differences between British and American English. www.effingpot.com/Oh... I came across this site a long time ago but it's still amusing enough for me to post.
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Post by killerzzz on Jan 6, 2008 23:01:09 GMT
Oh good, someone brought it up. I keep forgetting. Nice site Lucifiel. ;D That should help me when I'm trying to "translate" some british novels. Alright, me British amigos. I've often wondered: Is "arse" pronounced the same as "ass"? Does the "r" have the slightest pronounciation (technically)? Killerzzz
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Post by Alrik on Jan 6, 2008 23:17:53 GMT
Do you need it ? I mean - when you write it as an insult in internet forums, no-one will really take care how it's properly pronounced.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jan 6, 2008 23:28:51 GMT
The 'r' is definitely pronounced, Killerzzz. If you ever saw the Mummy 2, the kid tells Imhotep: "My Dad's going to kick your arse!" He pronounces it perfectly ;D
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Post by Galadriel on Jan 7, 2008 2:02:33 GMT
The 'r' is definitely pronounced, Killerzzz. If you ever saw the Mummy 2, the kid tells Imhotep: "My Dad's going to kick your arse!" He pronounces it perfectly ;D ROFL He sure does say it right!!! Arrrrrrse! ;D
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Post by killerzzz on Jan 7, 2008 4:19:51 GMT
For some weird reason, I do. Thats why when I talk in real life I pronounce "laugh" and "laff" differently, say stuff like "lawlerskates", and pronounce "o rly" and "srsly" as spelt. I've made many embarassing mistakes in the past on proper pronounciation, because I read a word in a book before even hearing it, and mispronounced it in real life because of a "supposed" pronounciation based on comparison. The 'r' is definitely pronounced, Killerzzz. If you ever saw the Mummy 2, the kid tells Imhotep: "My Dad's going to kick your arse!" He pronounces it perfectly ;D Hey yeah! Good point. ;D Killerzzz
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Post by Alrik on Jan 7, 2008 12:32:01 GMT
I once asked in another forum about the right pronounciation of "either". As t appeared to me, there seem to exist two different pronounciations, one with the "ei" spoken like the "I" (which sounds German), and the other pronouncing only the i in either, not the e at all.
As I heared, both are used.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jan 7, 2008 13:31:03 GMT
You'd be right, Alrik.
'Eye-thuh' and 'Ee-thuh' are both correct.
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Post by Galadriel on Jan 7, 2008 13:33:20 GMT
I got that with my nickname too, Kylia. For me it's pronounced with a short e instead of a long i, but I gave up telling English speaking people that. ;D
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jan 7, 2008 13:34:59 GMT
Sure, Kylie! ;D
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Post by The Sonar Chicken on Jan 7, 2008 13:55:28 GMT
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Post by rockergrl on Jan 7, 2008 16:26:05 GMT
These are so amusing especially when I think of what these words mean to us Americans. lol!
Blow me - When an English colleague of mine exclaimed "Blow Me" in front of a large American audience, he brought the house down. It is simply an exclamation of surprise, short for "Blow me down", meaning something like I am so surprised you could knock me over just by blowing. Similar to "Well knock me down with a feather". It is not a request for services to be performed.
Box your ears - Many young chaps heard their dads threaten to box their ears when I was a littlun. Generally meant a slap around the head for misbehaving. Probably illegal these days!!
^ They used that in Even Stevens!
Camp - Someone who displays effeminate or gay behaviour is somewhat camp. And to "camp it up" would be to dress in drag.
Oh so Peter likes to camp it up! Sorry I couldn't resist! I think the words the British use are cool, I find them so interesting! *bookmarks site*
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Post by The Sonar Chicken on Jan 7, 2008 16:32:48 GMT
These are so amusing especially when I think of what these words mean to us Americans. lol! Blow me - When an English colleague of mine exclaimed "Blow Me" in front of a large American audience, he brought the house down. It is simply an exclamation of surprise, short for "Blow me down", meaning something like I am so surprised you could knock me over just by blowing. Similar to "Well knock me down with a feather". It is not a request for services to be performed. Box your ears - Many young chaps heard their dads threaten to box their ears when I was a littlun. Generally meant a slap around the head for misbehaving. Probably illegal these days!! ^ They used that in Even Stevens! Camp - Someone who displays effeminate or gay behaviour is somewhat camp. And to "camp it up" would be to dress in drag. Oh so Peter likes to camp it up! Sorry I couldn't resist! I think the words the British use are cool, I find them so interesting! *bookmarks site* Yep... the British are an amusing lot.
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Post by Alrik on Jan 7, 2008 16:39:44 GMT
I remember the story of the late 80s or very early 90es of an English teacher here at school ... He told us the story of a colleague, who had asked an american school-girl who was (with a whole group) visiting our school here ... He asked her for a "handkerchief", and didn't understand her and her friends giggling over that. What he needed was a - as dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed§Hdr=on&spellToler=on&search=taschentuch tells me - "blow rag" or a "tissue", but he was later told that this word was understood by her with the meaning of an "condome".
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Post by The Sonar Chicken on Jan 7, 2008 16:43:57 GMT
Ouch, a condom? Poor guy.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jan 7, 2008 17:40:31 GMT
My favourites are 'rubber' - which means eraser in England and condom in America; 'bum' which is a tramp in America and your bottom in the UK, and 'fag' which is a cigarette in England and a very nasty word for a homosexual in America.
Talk about divided by a common language! ;D
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Post by killerzzz on Jan 7, 2008 19:53:17 GMT
My favourites are 'rubber' - which means eraser in England and condom in America; 'bum' which is a tramp in America and your bottom in the UK, and 'f ag' which is a cigarette in England and a very nasty word for a homosexual in America. Talk about divided by a common language! ;D And then there's poor Canada: devided between the two. I recognise a bunch of the words from both sides of the defenition ('ceptin' some of the expressions ). Reason being, history lesson. ;D In short, Brits colonized Canada. American "Yankees" loyal to England came up during the war for independance, and brought their language with them. The British were like "What the F is up with Canada, they're starting to talk wrong!" so they sent more Brits our way and enforced "proper" speaking in the schools. But it was too late. The British settlers began to talk like tha Yanks as well, but some of the message got through, and basically we got a vocab of Birtish and American versions of stuff (mostly British, especially in spelling), and alot of the American pronounciation (which just so happened to be closer than the original way of pronouncing English, where as England's English changed - therefore "pay-puh" vs. "pay-pur"). So we use both "tap" and "faucet", "rubber-band" and "elastic", etc. Killerzzz
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Post by The Sonar Chicken on Jan 7, 2008 20:15:49 GMT
LOL @ Killerzzzz... in Singapore, we speak a huge mixture of British English(older standards) and also some American English.
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Post by Alrik on Jan 7, 2008 20:46:32 GMT
English is very popular here in Germany - imho too ppopular. It has bexome a "fashion language", so to say.
I wish people would be more proud towards their own languages. It's really a bit too much for my taste here.
Besides, the word "Handy" for cellular phones seems to be a geniously German product ! And very often Germans are surprised when I explain that ! Because they always think "oh, it's just another one of the English words used by the oh-so-clever marketing guys for their products", said with a little bit irony/cnism.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jan 7, 2008 20:55:05 GMT
'Cell phones' = 'mobiles' in English English.
English - in its many & varied forms - is becoming the lingua franca because of several things, IMO:
* The British Empire, which spread it to the far corners of the globe.
* British & American music and American films.
* The internet. Most of the content appears to be in English, and (As this forum proves) where many nationalities get together they usually use English as a kind of 'common tongue' because so many people speak it (And because the native English speakers usually don't speak other languages... *cough*).
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