Quote:
Originally Posted by mrbanana
'Pardon' is another odd word. 'Pardon', is a normal response in the North West if you don't hear someone and would like them to repeat what they said, but in the South of England, some people see nothing wrong in simply saying 'What', which sounds rude to me. This probably has its roots in the old fashioned class system.
On the subject of greetings, I've always thought the formal 'How do you do?' with the automatic response of 'How do you do?' without the expectation of a response to be rather silly.
In the North West you hear 'Are you all right.' or simply 'All right' all the time, along with 'Hiya', both delivered in what to my ear is a rather annoying high pitched sing song voice.
For birthdays, as already stated, people tend to say 4th of July, 10th of November, etc.
The trouble is, due to fashion, and the influence of modern global media, the language is constantly in flux, and what might be accurate today in one social group, may not be accurate a few years later.
A perfect example is the modern use of 'like' and 'love'. Just about everyone under 30 seems to say 'I am loving it' or 'I am liking it'. If you point out the verb tense is wrong, you will then probably have to explain what a verb is, and by the time you realise you will then have to explain the differences between dynamic and stative verbs both parties will probably have lost the will to live. 
Maybe it's my age but to my ears it's one of those language quirks that triggers memories of racist comedians from the 70's and their deeply unfunny jokes at the expense of people from the Indian subcontinent. |
Saying "What?" to indicate one hasn't heard is quite rude! I would say either "Sorry?" or "Excuse me?" - a digression that one may encounter a black American expression "Excuse
you!" if one accidentally jostles another (or some such) and doesn't apologize for it, from the jostled to the jostler.
I have not seen "How do you do?" (rare these days in its own right) replied with the same. "I am loving it" is used to show emphasis on how awesome "it" is; you should expect to hear amongst the Younger Set "I totally love it!" ("I am totally loving it!") soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by djchapple
My American friends who come from Rhode Island but have lived nearly all their married lives in Florida always uses burgularis(z!)ed and I have seen it in the local papers whilst over there.
One other difference between American English and UK English is the that sometimes one sees surprized and at other times surprised. I an a very old ex university lecturer (engineer) and i am still confused and delighted by the wonderful differences in language that continue to crop up in everyday usage.
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I still maintain burglarized still sounds funny (and brings to mind an image of the McDonald's Hamburgler). "Surprized" looks horrific to me; I have never seen it, and if I did it'd be a "What the
hell?" moment.
I, too, find these differences fascinating. Any "right/wrong" nonsense is tedious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by djchapple
The Americans love turning nouns into verbs, for example "deplaned" for leaving an aircraft. I find that bastardisation of the language annoying.
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I have mostly heard that used by the airline itself during landing instructions, but "disembark" seems more common, or even "exit" I'd say.