I am not a native speaker of English so I get confused when writing since there are sometimes two different spellings of words in English — by which I mean an American spelling and a British spelling. Are there specific situations where one spelling is recommended over the other? Answer I’m from the UK, but … Read more
There is a response in Australian English that means “Yes I hear you and empathise with your situation, but no this course of action won’t work for me.” [Yeah-Nah] I assumed this was a normal part of the English language, until I saw other discussions claiming this to be unique to Australian English. That didn’t … Read more
Were American, Australian, and New Zealand English dialects ever spoken in Britain before the colonization of these lands? Answer Languages change. Otherwise, we’d still be speaking like Chaucer. The British settlement of America started in the 17th century; there has been lots of time since then for several different American dialects to develop. The British … Read more
Is there an adjective meaning “from or pertaining to the British Isles” (or if you prefer “from Great Britain, Ireland or surrounding islands”, or “from the Atlantic Archipelago”, or whatever floats your boat)? I’m obviously not looking for British, but for a term that could be acceptable to an Irish person. I’m primarily looking for … Read more
To continue the question started in identifying accents of British actors, there is one popular current cultural artifact with an excess of non-standard British accents, and that is The BBC series Downton Abbey. For one very specific example, Anna Smith pronounces the word ‘money’ not as in standard English ‘MUH-nee’ (IPS /’mʌ nij/) but instead … Read more
Whats does “woman front bits” actually means? This question is surprisingly inspired by one of the answers to this question: “Is there any slang I should avoid in the UK or Ireland”. It is appropriate to quote it here: Avoid the use of the word “fanny”, as it is slang for, ah, a woman’s front … Read more
My 5 yr old daughter was given a task by her teacher to “find as many things as she can that have the sound r” with examples of rabbit, barrow, and ruler (all r’s were underlined in the 3 words). She was criticised by the teacher for answering with the word “heart”, because “it’s the … Read more
What is the correct sound of the letter H when reading the alphabet – is it ‘aych’ or ‘Haych’ ? Answer The Cambridge Online Survey of World Englishes has the question, “How do you pronounce the letter ‘H’?” Their current results: aitch (85%) haitch (12%) I use something else (2%) You can see a clearer … Read more
Yes, I admit, as an AmE speaker, that all non-North American accents sound the same: BrE, Irish, Scottish, Australian and South African. Or rather, I can tell they are different if placed side by side as in the excellent 21 accents but I can’t name them off in isolation, unless I pick out one very … Read more
British and Irish cinema names from a certain period seem to come from a pool that includes The Odeon, The Curzon, The Savoy, The Adelphi (maybe you can think of more). Where did these names come from? Are they prevalent in any other English speaking countries? Answer Savoy The Savoy cinema opened in 1920 in … Read more
