How do Americans feel about UK spelling?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

One thing that really does throw me off, however, is the single quotes for speaking. I have greater difficulty looking past that. I much prefer double quotes.

This isn't strictly a British thing, but just some British publishers. I have many books by British authors published by British publishers that use double quotes for direct speech.

E.g. English Farming and Why I Turned It Up by Ernest Bramah. Published in London in 1894. Double quotes throughout.

I much prefer double quotes for speech myself.

[Jamess]

I'm still trying to work out why Americans use the word 'bit' instead of 'bitten' as in "he was bit by a mosquito" rather than "bitten by a mosquito"?

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by Jamess

I'm still trying to work out why Americans use the word 'bit' instead of 'bitten' as in "he was bit by a mosquito" rather than "bitten by a mosquito"?

The 'ten' ending is tending to disappear from popular usage, from what I've seen. 'Forgotten', 'gotten', 'bitten'... all examples of less-common usage these days.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by nomesque

The 'ten' ending is tending to disappear from popular usage, from what I've seen. 'Forgotten', 'gotten', 'bitten'... all examples of less-common usage these days.

Really, nomesque? I find that surprising - it's not my experience at all, at least in Australian English. I see it a lot in US-originated print and video (TV, films), but so far OZ English seems to me to have resisted it.

(Unfortunately, we are giving in strongly, though, to the US English trend of interchanging verbs and nouns, and replacing adverbs with adjectives. I don't like that at all.)

[Joebill]

Originally Posted by Jamess

I'm still trying to work out why Americans use the word 'bit' instead of 'bitten' as in "he was bit by a mosquito" rather than "bitten by a mosquito"?

Probably due to the rise in illiteracy here. Race has nothing to do with it.

I have seen more people, who say they graduated from high school, and have some university classes, have problems reading high school level material. Some really bad grammar issues.

I was considered an average reader, grammar usage, and speller, in hgh school. These days I have people tell me i am talking above their education level.

I basically talk on a high school level.

Hmm... I am old enough that if a student flunked, they were held back a grade. I flunked the 7th grade, but managed a C overall score level upon graduation.

[Luke King]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

This isn't strictly a British thing, but just some British publishers. I have many books by British authors published by British publishers that use double quotes for direct speech.

E.g. English Farming and Why I Turned It Up by Ernest Bramah. Published in London in 1894. Double quotes throughout.

I much prefer double quotes for speech myself.

I'm not sure if this is correct, but the way I was told it was that, originally, everyone used double quotes. The use of single quotation marks arose in academic writing, and then migrated into fiction.

I wasn't aware of there being any bias toward one or the other in particular countries.

[naivejenni]

I totally agree with HarryT
I find it amusing when American writers take a spin on classic tales.
Seriously!!

English writers have a certain charm.
As strange as this sounds but if you read a paragraph and close your eyes, you can almost visualise the scene.

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[MrPLD]

Although not really a proper language issue, one thing that is really grating me nerves recently in my primary field (Electronics) is people writing "soddering" rather than "soldering". What started out as someone's hastily attempted reading of a word that turned them into writing it incorrectly has now become a rampant virus. Goodness knows how many words have been formed through such a process.

(Really - one should teach those people how bad the word 'soddering' really sounds).

[MacEachaidh]

I don't think that's a flat-out typo, MrPLD. In several dialects of English, "solder" is pronounced as if it was actually spelt "sodder", and I believe it has been for several centuries. The alternate spelling is simply an attempt to reflect the phonetics of the word.

[MrPLD]

MacEachaidh,

I'd prefer to go with that concept - except that it's primarily been cropping up from young US sources - unless that's still plausible? (Started out with some Youtube videos, then beginners on the chat channels started writing it)

I'll admit that in 30 years of electronics this was the first time I've heard people use that term, not that my age has any relevance since I was in a fairly closed world


Paul.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

I'll admit that in 30 years of electronics this was the first time I've heard people use that term, not that my age has any relevance since I was in a fairly closed world

I've never heard or seen "sodder" used instead of "solder" at all until this thread.

[MacEachaidh]

Mmm, US English was one of the dialects I was referring to. I have no idea how widespread or uniform its usage actually is, but "sodder" is a valid variant of the word in dialects of both US and UK English.

[MrPLD]

Curse... I hate facts.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've never heard or seen "sodder" used instead of "solder" at all until this thread.

But now checking I see it's a common US/Canadian pronunciation. It should still spelled "solder" though.

Just another weird pronunciation difference. "Herb" always catches me by surprise too. Now if Americans dropped all their aitches I could understand it, but they seem only to drop it when pronouncing "herb". In the UK, in general, the 'h' isn't silent.

[Fbone]

It doesnt help that there is a sod, sodding, sodded and sodden. And what would you call someone who lays down sod for a living?