British English vs American English

[Bodine]

American dialect is easier to understand.
British dialect is more proper.

I think it's pretty stupid to say one is "better". You're obviously just going to say the one you were raised with.

And the southern US dialect is for comic relief :lol:

 

[Lewi T]

How the hell did 'fanny' get its different meanings? It's a pretty big difference as well. 'Fanny' will always be the c**t to me though, whenever I hear it.

Also, the north of England do indeed say 'pants' meaning trousers. 'Pants' meaning underwear is just ridiculous.

'Ass' has it's place. Whenever I type 'ass', or 'assed', I usually mean it to be pronounced as 'aahsed', but the spelling of that would more likely be 'assed' than 'arsed', because if I wrote 'arsed' I would actually mean it to be pronounced with the 'r'.

Any other words I can slate the meaning of in a different English? I'm not even going to start on football.

 

[DBloke]

American dialect is easier to understand.
British dialect is more proper.

I think it's pretty stupid to say one is "better". You're obviously just going to say the one you were raised with.

Somebody isnt in the UK

Sometimes its hard to understand what people are saying

 

[lbu8]

Somebody isnt in the UK

Sometimes its hard to understand what people are saying

It goes both ways though.

American English is the result of taking a bunch of people who origanally spoke different languages and placing them in an English speaking country. As they learn the language they'll pronouce things differently and even add some of their native language.

American English and British English are almost closer to being different languages then different dialects. If that makes any sense.

 

[ARav989]

I don't see how it matters. Both languages get the point across.

However, words with silent letters make no sense. Can any of the English people here explain the sense in that? For instance -Knife. How the hell does a K get in there?

 

[Bodine]

I don't see how it matters. Both languages get the point across.

However, words with silent letters make no sense. Can any of the English people here explain the sense in that? For instance -Knife. How the hell does a K get in there?

Nife wasn't complicated enough.

 

[ARav989]

ya know, I bet that's how it happened.

 

[Brawny]

American dialect is easier to understand.
British dialect is more proper.

I think it's pretty stupid to say one is "better". You're obviously just going to say the one you were raised with.

Or the one that your girlfriend uses and thus listen to more often than any other.

I've already started saying mum. Mom is so childish.

It goes both ways though.

American English is the result of taking a bunch of people who origanally spoke different languages and placing them in an English speaking country. As they learn the language they'll pronouce things differently and even add some of their native language.

American English and British English are almost closer to being different languages then different dialects. If that makes any sense.

Ehhh, they're pretty close in the majority. I can still get on with British people alright... Except when they ask about Santa's Reindeer.

 

[Monsteroids]

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

 

[Sixty]

I don't see how it matters. Both languages get the point across.

However, words with silent letters make no sense. Can any of the English people here explain the sense in that? For instance -Knife. How the hell does a K get in there?

Accents were a lot different a couple of centuries ago, so they would pronounce things slightly, like with words that include "igh". Well, there was a period where people found odd "ite" words and changed the spelling to "ight" because it looked pleasing.

Knife is from the French word canif (or is a spelled with a k? I can't be bothered looking that up) where you did pronounce it. Maybe the English didn't, but the spelling definitely derives from that.

 

[Napalmbrain]

American English and British English are almost closer to being different languages then different dialects.

Not by a longshot. Even as dialects they're not far removed- British and Americans can almost completely understand each other without any difficulty. A better example would be Scots (not to be confused with Scottish English or Gaelic), which depending on your view is either a dialect of English or a separate language.

 

[navarre]

For the majority of people, it's going to be American, because that's what foreigners learn. Also, you won't be marked down on British tests if you write in "American" English, especially for the realise/realize thing, where realise is actually the spelling that came after and a lot of British writers prefer to use realize.

However, words with silent letters make no sense. Can any of the English people here explain the sense in that? For instance -Knife. How the hell does a K get in there?

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.

 

[Napalmbrain]

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

True, but how many non-English speaking countries are there in the rest of the world compared to Europe? I don't know for certain, but my guess is that people in China, Japan, South America, etc. generally learn American spelling.

 

[Brawny]

True, but how many non-English speaking countries are there in the rest of the world compared to Europe? I don't know for certain, but my guess is that people in China, Japan, South America, etc. generally learn American spelling.

...All of them.

 

[Bodine]

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: