110 replies to this topic

[Sean]

It's a shame they don't teach English in America. Likewishe American should be taught in England.

I'd actually be quite fascinated by the subtle differences found when studying the two dialects.

Dialects is the correct term I hope?

[PrejudiceSucks]

Sean, on Mar 28 2006, 05:08 PM, said:

It's a shame they don't teach English in America. Likewishe American should be taught in England.

I'd actually be quite fascinated by the subtle differences found when studying the two dialects.

Dialects is the correct term I hope?

We get "taught" it from most popular televison programs - this is American English, rather than Canadian English, remember.

From what I can easily describe (as I'm not particularly articulate), American English involves swapping the letter 's' for the letter 'z' in the term 'ise' (such as 'colonise' or 'colonize' as they'd have it).

Another key point is to remove any adjective endings, e.g. "real funny" instead "of really funny".

Also, take out any unnecessary words from sentences, such as "that".

"Got" is strangely replaced with "gotten" in some cases (when to is something that I can't discern).

Mum  = mom. Always.

Irony = sarcasm for some reason. "That's real ironic" usually means "that was a bit sarky".

Petrol is replaced with "gasoline".

You should put 's' on the end of the words 'way', 'anyway', etc.

In pool (a fine game that is), "English" is side-spin, the cushion is the 'rail' and you play 'racks' rather than games.



And Sean - 'dialects' would pretty much be right, although it's starting to be more 'languages' to be honest.

[Blood-Pigggy]

PrejudiceSucks, on Mar 28 2006, 04:36 PM, said:

Blood-Pigggy, on Mar 28 2006, 02:46 AM, said:

I bet like five-hundred dollars none of you can speak Afrikaans.

And I'm not being serious, but if you can, that's awesome.

Ik spreek keen Afrikaans!

Close?

Can I have 5 Rand if that's anything like right?

If I payed you five rand you'd be getting less than a dollars worth in US cash.

[Stroggy]

Blood-Pigggy, on Mar 28 2006, 03:46 AM, said:

I bet like five-hundred dollars none of you can speak Afrikaans.

And I'm not being serious, but if you can, that's awesome.

Speak? no. But I can read it, and understand some of it when it is spoken.

Anyway, I know hebrew.

[Blood-Pigggy]

Probably because it's ALOT like Dutch, and even somewhat like German.

[Moogle]

Sean, on Mar 28 2006, 05:08 PM, said:

It's a shame they don't teach English in America. Likewishe American should be taught in England.

I'd actually be quite fascinated by the subtle differences found when studying the two dialects.

Dialects is the correct term I hope?

Pfffft, you british and your facination with the letter "U"

[Blood-Pigggy]

AAAH! MOOGLE LIVES IN CALIFORNIA!!

I think most of the people that actually care about how Americans use the English language don't realize that others really don't care themselves, even though the ones that do think that those that don't do.

[Moogle]

Of course I live in California, silly foo

[A. J. Raffles]

PrejudiceSucks, on Mar 28 2006, 05:52 PM, said:

We get "taught" it from most popular televison programs - this is American English, rather than Canadian English, remember.

For shame, Prejudice, you just used an Americanism yourself. That should be "programme". If I wrote that in one of my essays, I'd get thoroughly bashed for it.

Quote

From what I can easily describe (as I'm not particularly articulate), American English involves swapping the letter 's' for the letter 'z' in the term 'ise' (such as 'colonise' or 'colonize' as they'd have it).

Actually, no, it's more complicated than that. There are a few verbs for which the correct English spelling ends in "ize" or "yze", but I've always found them impossible to remember. Thankfully, everybody else seems to be just as confused.

Quote

Also, take out any unnecessary words from sentences, such as "that".

Never heard of that one. Are you sure you're not confusing it with defining relative clauses?

Quote

"Got" is strangely replaced with "gotten" in some cases (when to is something that I can't discern).

Didn't "gotten" actually use to be the correct form (ages ago, obviously)?

[BeefontheBone]

Can we please try to avoid having to split this AGAIN?

[Stroggy]

BeefontheBone, on Mar 29 2006, 10:41 AM, said:

Can we please try to avoid having to split this AGAIN?

Are you quoting Niels Bohr there?

[PrejudiceSucks]

Blood-Pigggy, on Mar 28 2006, 09:18 PM, said:

PrejudiceSucks, on Mar 28 2006, 04:36 PM, said:

Blood-Pigggy, on Mar 28 2006, 02:46 AM, said:

I bet like five-hundred dollars none of you can speak Afrikaans.

And I'm not being serious, but if you can, that's awesome.

Ik spreek keen Afrikaans!

Close?

Can I have 5 Rand if that's anything like right?

If I payed you five rand you'd be getting less than a dollars worth in US cash.

So was it right?

[Puffin]

In my school, they teach icelandic, english, danish (all three are mandatory), french, german, spanish (everybody have to choose 1-2 of those), russian, latin, italian, sometimes japanese, swedish, norwegian, (swedish and norwegian only for students who have lived there and learn it instead of danish), esperanto, and probably some more that I'm forgetting.
And ancient nordic is taught with Icelandic in copule of courses.

I personally hate the american way of skipping u's.. Like "Favorite color".. I hate it!!! For years, I thought it was an error. Untill I had a teacher who had studied in the States, and she wrote it like this.

[Blood-Pigggy]

PrejudiceSucks, on Mar 29 2006, 04:54 PM, said:

Blood-Pigggy, on Mar 28 2006, 09:18 PM, said:

PrejudiceSucks, on Mar 28 2006, 04:36 PM, said:

Blood-Pigggy, on Mar 28 2006, 02:46 AM, said:

I bet like five-hundred dollars none of you can speak Afrikaans.

And I'm not being serious, but if you can, that's awesome.

Ik spreek keen Afrikaans!

Close?

Can I have 5 Rand if that's anything like right?

If I payed you five rand you'd be getting less than a dollars worth in US cash.

So was it right?

Keen doesn't belong in there.
From what I can tell you just said
"I speak like Afrikaans"

So you're wrong, and not to mention most of the words are spelled incorrectly

But it's still pretty right.

@Puffin: Colour looks stupid.

[PrejudiceSucks]

I thought that "keen" meant "no(ne)".

And anyway, it was a guess, I speak very little Dutch and was trying to string some Afrikaans together with that

I would also say that "colour" does not look stupid, and when I see people spell "honour" as "honor" (due to those insipid "Medal of Honor" games) it makes me rather sad (I'm talking about Englanders here, you kerrazy Americans can keep your weird spelling).