British & American English

[Carol Rose]

Wiki Periodic table has it as ALUMINIUM
British English spelling is ALUMINIUM, like URANIUM, PLUTONIUM, ZIRCONIUM, SELENIUM, etc. Why is only Aluminium different for US English I wonder?

No clue.

 

[Carly]

The only time I struggled in the US was when I asked for the loo. Getting a blank look, I changed my request to lavatory, then toilet. 'Ah, you mean restroom,' she said. Believe me, the last place you can rest is in a loo where anyone can see most of your legs.

A lovely man was convinced I sounded like Mary Poppins (believe me, I don't) but he recognised my friends' accents as being different to mine. They lived in the next county to me. He did well as I find it difficult to differentiate between the way people talk neighbouring states.

I didn't realise until recently that US English also has different sentence constructions to ours.

 

[Charles Ott]

John Cleese once started a radio commercial by saying "Hello, I have a British accent and I recommend you buy ...". I think Americans generally think all Britons are better educated, more cultured and more sensible than we are ... except when attending a soccer game.

 

[Amber]

The only time I struggled in the US was when I asked for the loo. Getting a blank look, I changed my request to lavatory, then toilet. 'Ah, you mean restroom,' she said. Believe me, the last place you can rest is in a loo where anyone can see most of your legs.

A lovely man was convinced I sounded like Mary Poppins (believe me, I don't) but he recognised my friends' accents as being different to mine. They lived in the next county to me. He did well as I find it difficult to differentiate between the way people talk neighbouring states.

I didn't realise until recently that US English also has different sentence constructions to ours.

I don't like saying toilet. I say restroom. Depending on where you are in the US we'll say toilet, can, ladies room, wash room... A lot of us know the word loo.

 

[Rich.]

I think Americans generally think all Britons are better educated, more cultured and more sensible than we are ... except when attending a soccer game.

Dominic Sandbrook, the (somewhat controversial) British social historian, has an interesting narrative about the rise of football hooliganism in Britain. To paraphrase, he points to the rise of the middle class during the 1970s and their increased spending power, and the associated rise in leisure activities available to newly-minted middle-class men (waxing the nice new car, outside the nice new suburban house, for example) as the reason for the rise of hooliganism. All the dad's and grandads now had other things to do, which left the football terraces to the boys – boys who no longer had the older generation telling them to stop dicking about. Lord of the Flies, anyone?

Oh, and while we're talking about this, it raises another of the great linguistic divides – soccer vs football.

 

[lrholland]

Wiki Periodic table has it as ALUMINIUM
British English spelling is ALUMINIUM, like URANIUM, PLUTONIUM, ZIRCONIUM, SELENIUM, etc. Why is only Aluminium different for US English I wonder?

Because it was originally named by the English scientist Sir Humphrey Davy (of the lamp, and that ilk) as ALUMINUM. A few years later, he renamed it as ALUMINIUM precisely to keep it in line with all the other IUMs, but for some reason the memo didn't reach the USA, or at least Webster's dictionary, or perhaps no one cared because it was such a rare metal at the time. Either way, when aluminium became more common--easier to extract from its ore--about a hundred years later and Americans opened their Webster's dictionary they found it was called ALUMINUM.

 

[lrholland]

Dominic Sandbrook, the (somewhat controversial) British social historian, has an interesting narrative about the rise of football hooliganism in Britain. To paraphrase, he points to the rise of the middle class during the 1970s and their increased spending power, and the associated rise in leisure activities available to newly-minted middle-class men (waxing the nice new car, outside the nice new suburban house, for example) as the reason for the rise of hooliganism. All the dad's and grandads now had other things to do, which left the football terraces to the boys – boys who no longer had the older generation telling them to stop dicking about. Lord of the Flies, anyone?

Oh, and while we're talking about this, it raises another of the great linguistic divides – soccer vs football.

Except there was fighting at football ever since the game began--and not only in the UK--and the modern phenomenon of organized hooliganism in the UK began in the '50s and '60s, not the '70s. It just got more coverage then because of growing media interest.

 

[Amber]

John Cleese once started a radio commercial by saying "Hello, I have a British accent and I recommend you buy ...". I think Americans generally think all Britons are better educated, more cultured and more sensible than we are ... except when attending a soccer game.

No. Actually. No. Americans know there are trashy people in the UK.

You're The Worst

 

[Rich.]

Except there was fighting at football ever since the game began--and not only in the UK--and the modern phenomenon of organized hooliganism in the UK began in the '50s and '60s, not the '70s. It just got more coverage then because of growing media interest.

Like I said, Sandbrook's controversial. (I'm quite happy to be wrong – or, at least, for him to be wrong. @lrholland, your version makes a lot of sense.)

 

[Rich.]

Americans know there are trashy people in the UK.

There are not. We all live in castles and have royal blood. Just out of shot at the top of my avatar is a crown (it's a small one – a day crown).

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

In the late 70s I shared a house in Japan with an American pop group. I horrified them by announcing that I was going to 'wash up' in the kitchen. It took them a while to work out I was going to do the dishes and not wash myself.
My dad (sorry to mention him again - I realise I mention my parents a little too much here) in New York in the 60s wanted to buy some cigarettes. So he said to the cab driver, 'stop at this drug store a minute, I want to pick up a few fags.' Needless to say, he was kicked out of the taxi.

 

[Amber]

There are not. We all live in castles and have royal blood. Just out of shot at the top of my avatar is a crown (it's a small one – a day crown).

A day crown .... hilarious. Please take a picture showing your day crown... please please please... LOL ... so funny.

 

[Tim James]

There are not. We all live in castles and have royal blood. Just out of shot at the top of my avatar is a crown (it's a small one – a day crown).

Some of us are not. Some of us are poor.
I'm poor. My butler is poor. My maid is poor. My chauffeur is poor. All three of our gardeners are poor. Even the lad who cleans out our stables is poor.

 

[Amber]

In the late 70s I shared a house in Japan with an American pop group. I horrified them by announcing that I was going to 'wash up' in the kitchen. It took them a while to work out I was going to do the dishes and not wash myself.

Yeah. That's about right. We DO the dishes.

My dad (sorry to mention him again - I realise I mention my parents a little too much here) in New York in the 60s wanted to buy some cigarettes. So he said to the cab driver, 'stop at this drug store a minute, I want to pick up a few fags.' Needless to say, he was kicked out of the taxi.

That's funny.

 

[Amber]

Some of us are not. Some of us are poor.
I'm poor. My butler is poor. My maid is poor. My chauffeur is poor. All three of our gardeners are poor. Even the lad who cleans out our stables is poor.

Also hilarious.... It puts it all into perspective.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Ah, there was a bit of a learning curve coming to New Zealand, trying to figure out what bugger all and for Africa meant, or how to properly use the (obviously similar) phrases Bob's your uncle, and she'll be right. Or what the heck people meant when they said Story when passing on the street. I also had to learn the cryptic words pav, jandal, dag, and wop-wops. Most crucially, I had to learn that the silicone sealant we call caulk in the US is caulking here. If you go into a hardware store and ask for caulk with an American accent (as I, to my great embarrassment, did once), they think you're asking for cock.

 

[lrholland]

I'm just popping outside to smoke a fag.

 

[Amber]

Oh, and while we're talking about this, it raises another of the great linguistic divides – soccer vs football.

I don't follow sports. But... Americans barely acknowledge the existence of what everyone else in the world calls football. Which is interesting to me. Apparently the whole rest of the world really loves it. As usual, we think our sports are better.

 

[Amber]

I'm just popping outside to smoke a fag.

A hate crime any way you look at it.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Most crucially, I had to learn that the silicone sealant we call caulk in the US is caulking here. If you go into a hardware store and ask for caulk with an American accent (as I, to my great embarrassment, did once), they think you're asking for cock.

 

[Rich.]

Funny. But he went on a bit, didn't he?

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Funny. But he went on a bit, didn't he?

Yeah. The point was made in about five seconds Sad to say he made 2 more videos of exactly the same thing.

 

[Tim James]

As usual, we think our sports are better.

Well you did take rounders/softball and turn it into a professional spectator sport, well in the USA anyway.

 

[Amber]

I’m baffled by this comment about caulking. I’ve never heard it as caulk. It’s always been causing to me.

 

[Amber]

Well you did take rounders/softball and turn it into a professional spectator sport, well in the USA anyway.

Have you watched a professional baseball game? Nothing happens. Hours pass and nothing happens.

 

[lrholland]

Well you did take rounders/softball and turn it into a professional spectator sport, well in the USA anyway.

Ditto netball.

I've lived here almost 20 years and never been to watch an American sport. I have driven many miles--thousands, actually--to watch proper football in places like New England, New Jersey, California, North Carolina, and Toronto, USA.

This is the back of the official t-shirt I bought in Toronto, USA:

 

[Tim James]

Have you watched a professional baseball game? Nothing happens. Hours pass and nothing happens.

Much like cricket then.
I think it is the only sport I know where they can play for four whole days and then at the end say "I tell you what, let's call it a draw."

 

[Rich.]

Ah, but in cricket there are tea breaks built into the game, so that's clearly all right then.

Getting back to the expressions.

Football (soccer) is 90 minutes of pretending you're hurt. Rugby is 80 minutes of pretending you're not.

I've also seen this applied to Australian rules football and American football:

Soccer is 90 minutes of pretending you're hurt. (American) Football is 60 minutes [3 hours?] of pretending you're not.

Except that in the case of American football it can't be true because they all wear crash helmets and 80s shoulder pads. [Cases of ignored serious head injury notwithstanding – I know, I know.]

 

[Charles Ott]

I've heard lacrosse described as "rugby with weapons".