American 'English'

Yes, Americans tend to be warm and welcoming people, and I have spent some happy times exchanging funny anecdotes with them about the strange way we respectively pronounce or change many words (split infinitive was deliberate there...because I can)

They don't have the hang-ups we do about evolving language, but I do like discussing the way we play around with words

We go to the States frequently, too, and I have had some interesting conversations with Americans about language. We were staying in a hotel in LA and the waiter at our breakfast table had some beautiful brightly coloured braces - so I complimented him on them. As soon as I had said braces, though, I remembered that I should have called them suspenders! (And, of course, suspenders are different things here, too!).

A word that I have found most Americans don't understand is "fortnight" which, I suppose, was shortened from fourteen nights?

I have heard it argued that US English is closer to English as spoken in England a few centuries back. The only ones that really grate on my nerves, do so because they remind me of the Bush administration - nucaler being the prime example.
I might put the argument that you English are a bit precious about your standard usage and pronunciation. The English stormed around the world, with bows and arrows and then guns, trying to appropriate as much territory as possible. Everyone living in the UK today has benefitted indirectly from this history in terms of the wealth created. In the process you exported your language - first to Scotland, Wales and Ireland and then - well - tally ho! In some case the language was forcibly imposed (ask any Welsh speaker)
In the last 2 or 3 centuries these other countries have taken the language and made it their own, enriching it in the process.
Are the far flung corners of the former empire supposed to toe the line in terms of standard BBC English and grammar for ever more? Is that it?
(I'ts Ok - I'm not picking a fight folks, - but putting forward a debating point )

Got caught out a few times over t'pond.

We were skiing with friends and I fell 'Ouch, our host said, does your fanny hurt'. I couldn't believe my ears. Same when he said 'do you want to borrow a fanny pack for your stuff"?

In a downtown bar my cousin had taken us after my birthday party in New York- I called my daughter over 'I'm dying for a fag' (I still have the odd one on special celebrations days) - that turned a few heads I can tell you.

At the airport, the announcement said 'your luggage will be momentarily available at number 10' - I panicked - what if we miss it?

And watch out in restaurants, the Entrée (clearly a starter when translated) is actually the main course. Duh!

Oh and as G. Bush said 'the French haven't got a word for 'entrepreneur' lol.

I've noticed from the films I watch all the time that a lot of words I "knew" weren't used in the US are definitely used in films. Fortnight, car, trousers, heard in the last couple of days. Also Americans (usually) say such nice things about our accents! JessM, you are absolutely right.

Hehe! Bang on, jess

With you all the way, Jess.

Pilgrim Fathers would have said "gotten" before they even got on the Mayflower. It's English English that changed it.

I think you are jess

Are what nonu ?

picking a fight !

I just wish that the inhabitants of the USA would acknowledge that the language they use is American, and that most of us over here speak English. They are two different languages, although I also notice that I have no problem understanding American, but they do seem to have a problem undestanding me when I speak English. Who says we are useless at languages?!

And as for 'fanny'!!!!!!

Just debating nonu just debating. It's easy to get tetchy with them for not talking proper, but there are other ways to look at the issue.
My US friends like watching British TV programmes. But the pause button often gets used as my friend, who lived over here for 2 years, has to translate for her husband. I once tried to give the poor man some complicated parking instructions which he failed to grasp. Over there you don't say "reverse" you say "back up"

Well thats good to hear jess, we have to face facts that we and they use different expressions for the same thing , as i mentioned on an earlier post have a great deal of amusement sorting things out. Lifes rich pattern eh !!!

The first time I visited The States 18 years ago I went into a store and asked where the pens were. The assistant took me to the jewellery counter. We were both baffled until, of course, I realised she thought I had said pin (meaning brooch).

And they didn't even know what a brolly was (duh).

I was somewhat puzzled by 'restrooms' with not even a sofa and indeed 'bathrooms' with no sign of a bath - very coy ways of referring to lavatories, toilets or loos. My kiwi niece also refers to 'the bathroom' when excusing herself to go to the loo, so the usage appears to have spread south.

I first interacted with Americans in Vienna as a young au pair student. The American students were lovely, but we ended up speaking German to each other because we simply constantly misunderstood each other in English. Things like them asking 'where's the bathroom I need to wash my hands' and my reply 'there isn't one, but there's a loo over there and there'll probably be a handbasin'. 'Or, that's a lovely purse' which confused me as my purse was old but my handbag was new. It got worse still, before I realised pocket book meant purse and purse meant handbag.... I don't suppose my Yorkshire accent helped either. We often say 'five and twenty past' instead of twenty five past, when saying the time. That was a real confuser! And I sometimes didn't realise which words were actually Yorkshireisms, which also confused my cockney friends. No wonder we all stuck to German.

Most of the differences mentioned in this thread between American English and British English are in fact quite trivial. Teachers often have to say the same thing in several different ways before all their pupils (of whatever age) understand what they're getting at. Seems to me that understanding Americans, or making oneself understood to them is similar to that. Why not just enjoy life's rich language diversity instead of moaning about it and pretending to be superior? As someone else has already mentioned, well written American English is wonderful and, if one keeps a lively mind, perfectly understandable. There are larger differences between the different ways English is spoken in Glasgow and London than there are between American English and British English. To use a 'vernacular' phrase, people who object to such differences really need to get out more and open their minds. There is a lot of intolerance in this thread.

Absolutely agree Bags. (I have pressed the "like" button on your post!) I recommend Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" and "Made in America" to understand the evolution of British and American English.

Thanks, mamie! Off to amazon right now! I'm struggling to "get into" any book at the moment and one of those might be just the ticket.

Absolutely true about the written word. The join does not show. I think I struggled a little with Catcher in the Rye, when young, but rarely is there any hiccup when reading US fiction. (I've been reading Anne Tyler and Barbara Kingsolver recently - smooth experience) And in scientific writing the same applies. And in movies (ooops sorry films) there is rarely a problem - we are more used to their accents than vice versa due to our exposure to film and TV.
Strange isn't it that we have all these problems with faucets and diapers .

Both fascinating, Bags, I have read them and re-read them many times.
I was just thinking about words invented by Shakespeare and found this:
"He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original."
The words include excitement, gossip, moonbeam, lustrous, gnarled and grovel.
Do you think people complained about new-fangled words and adulteration of the language at the time? I bet they did!

BTW granjura - the French may have a word for entrepreneur, but I am not at all convinced that anyone (at least anyone in l'administration) understands what it entails....

I'm in complete agreement with your post B - and as Mamie said, would click the "like" button if there was one.

I was beginning to feel there was an escalation in "let's take a pop at the Americans" on GN generally, so it is good to see some posts redressing the balance.

I've enjoyed reading this thread as I love to learn about the different ways that words are manipulated to suit a particular purpose.

Lots of different nationalities are protective about their language. I remember going to stay on a North Wales farm and the farmer's wife (farmerESS?) was determined that we would learn several Welsh words a day every time we called to pick up milk from her shop. She was a Welsh language teacher and one of several who had been employed to promote their language to ensure children spoke it, both at home and in school.

When holidaying in Italy, we were given tips about Italian in exchange for teaching pronunciation of certain English words. It's a source of humour when we get words 'wrong' and discover they mean something entirely different.

One American friend says she knows her pronunciation of certain words does not accord with how they are said in Engllsh or French, but it is how they are spoken in her home town, so she does what everyone else does.

I'll continue to cringe when I hear 'aluminum' or 'squirl' because they are words that I have learned to spell and pronounce differently, but we all know what they mean, whereas there are some UK dialects that leave me completely confused and no wiser about certain words and phrases which bear no relation to what would be said in my part of the world. When I worked only 20 miles from home, I found I needed help with some words spoken in Wigan, that I had never heard of previously. Fascinating! Long may it continue