A common language to divide us
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I've just noticed that where I work has an Item Enquiry screen that calls an Item Inquiry service. I believe that in current British English usage that is correct however I believe the reason for its being is that the screen was created by Brits and the service by Europeans.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
The company I used to work for had a guideline that said all documents must be written in British English. It was so harshly phrased you thought you'd burn in hell if you used US English. The paragraph describing this guideline contained at least 3 words written in US English :omg:
Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...
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Do you think there really is that much difference? Beyond the colloquialisms (rubber for durex, fanny for bum, spunk for spirit, always makes me cringe, those last two) and the interesting affect French has had on it (butte, the pronounciation of bouy, and the really odd habit Americans have of using 'that' to join sentences that just doesnt work in English (but does with 'que' in French)) they are identical IMO.
Munchies_Matt wrote:
Do you think there really is that much difference?
A fair old bit, I think. "Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!) Most of it goes unnoticed but the one that always sticks out like a sore thumb when I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
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Munchies_Matt wrote:
Do you think there really is that much difference?
A fair old bit, I think. "Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!) Most of it goes unnoticed but the one that always sticks out like a sore thumb when I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
I'm American and that still sounds wrong!
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question? The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism. Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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My (Dutch) team decided to standardize on British English. That didn't work out so well for our Organization entity. The Initialisation function is fine though :) I admit I find it difficult sometimes. I know color and colour, but who uses center and centre? I guess I could use some counseling and counselling so I may cast a better judgment and judgement. I my defense and defence, English isn't my first language so you can't expect me to memorize and memorise all the differences. So don't criticize and critizise, because for a non-native English speaker I'm pretty skillful and skilful. Of course, I always welcome dialog and dialogue on the subject :)
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Regards, Sander
Brilliant.
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The company I used to work for had a guideline that said all documents must be written in British English. It was so harshly phrased you thought you'd burn in hell if you used US English. The paragraph describing this guideline contained at least 3 words written in US English :omg:
Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...
Now that made me chuckle.
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Yes, it sounds like the terms are used correctly. (Its a bit pedantic though, English, dont you find? I mean, it really is a bastardised language, the least pure of any, I often think it hasnt got the right to take itself so seriously. :) )
I'm sure you're sure that you cannot ensure if I'm insured.
Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...
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Munchies_Matt wrote:
Do you think there really is that much difference?
A fair old bit, I think. "Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!) Most of it goes unnoticed but the one that always sticks out like a sore thumb when I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
PeejayAdams wrote:
"Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!)
Yeah, I think we have that one right... If you're referring to just the city/state, it's singular. The team names themselves are usually plural. For instance, "The Mets were my favorite team", or "New York was my fav--" Err, ok, there are two New York teams, so can't just call them "New York"...
PeejayAdams wrote:
I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
Um, that sounds like plain old bad writing to me. We use "lit", not "lighted". I mean I guess "lighted" is valid, but yeah, it sounds stupid.
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Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
PeejayAdams wrote:
"Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!)
Yeah, I think we have that one right... If you're referring to just the city/state, it's singular. The team names themselves are usually plural. For instance, "The Mets were my favorite team", or "New York was my fav--" Err, ok, there are two New York teams, so can't just call them "New York"...
PeejayAdams wrote:
I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
Um, that sounds like plain old bad writing to me. We use "lit", not "lighted". I mean I guess "lighted" is valid, but yeah, it sounds stupid.
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)Ian Shlasko wrote:
Um, that sounds like plain old bad writing to me. We use "lit", not "lighted". I mean I guess "lighted" is valid, but yeah, it sounds stupid.
It's used frequently by Ed McBain and I'm sure that I've come across it in a fair few novels by other American writers - wasn't there a Hemmingway story about a "well-lighted room" or something similar? Is it something that used to be common but has fallen out of use?
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Munchies_Matt wrote:
Do you think there really is that much difference?
A fair old bit, I think. "Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!) Most of it goes unnoticed but the one that always sticks out like a sore thumb when I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
PeejayAdams wrote:
"he lighted a cigarette."
Yes, the strong to weak verb change thats taken place in English.Its just old English the Americans use, so like weaved and wove, dived and dove, perhaps we should just accept lighted and lit side by side each other? :) Another old word is the use of 'gotten', whereas in the UK it only exists as a fossil in a phrase (phrases tend to keep their original words) as in 'ill gotten gains'. When I left the UK many years ago and learnt French and to some extent Dutch, and hence the origin of much of English, I stopped being so pedantic about its usage, and am far more accepting of its foibles and oddities, and even its miss-usage. It realy is such a bastardised language that I dont see why we shouldn't continue to do so! :) --edit-- Correction, its weak to strong change thats happened in general.
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I've just noticed that where I work has an Item Enquiry screen that calls an Item Inquiry service. I believe that in current British English usage that is correct however I believe the reason for its being is that the screen was created by Brits and the service by Europeans.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
chriselst wrote:
I've just noticed that where I work has an Item Enquiry screen that calls an Item Inquiry service.
Not really. You can use "enquiry" in place of "inquiry" (to broaden the scope to include the run-up to the inquiry), but not the other way around. Hah! The US (or should I say U/S?) spell-checker in this browser doesn't even have the word "enquiry"!
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Ian Shlasko wrote:
Um, that sounds like plain old bad writing to me. We use "lit", not "lighted". I mean I guess "lighted" is valid, but yeah, it sounds stupid.
It's used frequently by Ed McBain and I'm sure that I've come across it in a fair few novels by other American writers - wasn't there a Hemmingway story about a "well-lighted room" or something similar? Is it something that used to be common but has fallen out of use?
Could be... I sure don't use it in my novels... At least I don't think I did... If I did, I blame grammar check.
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
The company I used to work for had a guideline that said all documents must be written in British English. It was so harshly phrased you thought you'd burn in hell if you used US English. The paragraph describing this guideline contained at least 3 words written in US English :omg:
Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...
There's actually no such thing as "British English". There's English (calling it English English would just be stoopid), Scots English (several variants, few of which are even remotely understandable), Welsh English (has a lot more "baa" sounds), and NI English (sounds fine, if you've downed enough Liffey water). They're all too different to class them under a single dialect.
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As an Englishman, I hate to say it, but I do think that the language is gradually drifting towards the American version. I often hear younger devs talking about dee-em-zees rather than dee-em-zeds these days and the practice of sticking a zed where an ess should be (organize etc.) seems to be growing.
PeejayAdams wrote:
I hate to say it, but I do think that the language is gradually drifting towards the American version.
Never, never, Never, NEVER, NEVER will I use "gotten". We dropped that out of English because it sounds and looks silly, and God knows we English don't stand for sounding and looking silly!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Munchies_Matt wrote:
Do you think there really is that much difference?
A fair old bit, I think. "Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!) Most of it goes unnoticed but the one that always sticks out like a sore thumb when I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
PeejayAdams wrote:
"Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team"
That's a common referent difference, where both are grammatically correct, i.e: - (That team) is my favourite - (Those eleven players) are my favourite The same works with other collective nouns, like "the government", which can be referred to as 650 individuals ("the government are voting on a bill") or as an institution ("The government is voting in a summit"). At the same time, though, "Villa are my favourite football team" and "Villa is my favorite soccer team" are both just so incredibly wrong, because Villa's cr@p. And how about we use a proper word, for the other issue: "He enlightened my cigarette"? I'm sure the mayor of Springfield would approve.
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PeejayAdams wrote:
I actually find the Dudley accent about the hardest to decipher in Britain
For me, that's Yorkshire. Every time I've been there, they can understand me fine but I have to hold out a handful of change to pay for anything... :sigh:
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I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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PeejayAdams wrote:
"Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team"
That's a common referent difference, where both are grammatically correct, i.e: - (That team) is my favourite - (Those eleven players) are my favourite The same works with other collective nouns, like "the government", which can be referred to as 650 individuals ("the government are voting on a bill") or as an institution ("The government is voting in a summit"). At the same time, though, "Villa are my favourite football team" and "Villa is my favorite soccer team" are both just so incredibly wrong, because Villa's cr@p. And how about we use a proper word, for the other issue: "He enlightened my cigarette"? I'm sure the mayor of Springfield would approve.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Mark_Wallace wrote:
At the same time, though, "Villa are my favourite football team" and "Villa is my favorite soccer team" are both just so incredibly wrong, because Villa's cr@p.
Oi! We're not cr@p, we've just been slightly out of form for a few years.
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The company I used to work for had a guideline that said all documents must be written in British English. It was so harshly phrased you thought you'd burn in hell if you used US English. The paragraph describing this guideline contained at least 3 words written in US English :omg:
Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...
Power Puff Boy wrote:
It was so harshly phrased you thought you'd burn in hell if you used US English.
Did it say "It is strongly advised that documents should be written in British English". Anything stronger than that is hyperbole.
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Power Puff Boy wrote:
It was so harshly phrased you thought you'd burn in hell if you used US English.
Did it say "It is strongly advised that documents should be written in British English". Anything stronger than that is hyperbole.
KeithBarrow.net[^] - It might not be very good, but at least it is free!
Keith Barrow wrote:
Anything stronger than that is hyperbole
Is that better or worse than parabole? :rimshot:
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Mark_Wallace wrote:
At the same time, though, "Villa are my favourite football team" and "Villa is my favorite soccer team" are both just so incredibly wrong, because Villa's cr@p.
Oi! We're not cr@p, we've just been slightly out of form for a few years.
PeejayAdams wrote:
Oi! We're not cr@p, we've just been slightly out of form for a few years.
OK, OK, I'll at least admit that your pitch is superb. Mind you, the amount of dung that's spread on it every weekend, that's not surprising.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Power Puff Boy wrote:
It was so harshly phrased you thought you'd burn in hell if you used US English.
Did it say "It is strongly advised that documents should be written in British English". Anything stronger than that is hyperbole.
KeithBarrow.net[^] - It might not be very good, but at least it is free!
Sorry, but I can't remember the exact words. One thing I do remember is that some of it was WRITTEN IN CAPITOL LETTERS. When people do that then they're really serious about it, no matter how stupid the guideline.
Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...
