45 replies to this topic

[Macman]

. Language is dynamic, it changes over time to reflect so many aspects of our culture.

I can tolerate informal usage of English in certain settings, as I suspect you probably do

My son tells me the same thing when I go ballistic over misuse of the language.  Actually, I'm not as tolerant as you.  For instance, "feel badly" drives me up a wall because it doesn't reflect any aspects of our culture. It is simply the incorrect use of an adverb used by people who think they're using correct grammar, and I hear it by news anchors, in commercials, etc.  I also constantly hear, "There's many players who ...".  The people who say that would probably never say, "There is many players ...", but somehow fail to realize that the contraction "there's" is exactly that.  Ah, don't get me started.

 

I find the use of collective nouns by Americans and the lack of them by other English-speaking countries interesting.  It's hard for me to hear "the team lead by 2 points."  I used to hear that by hockey color commentators, and it took me a while to realize that they weren't dumb.  It gradually dawned on me that there's a big difference in usage between British English and American English.  I understand the concept, but I don't know where it ends.  For example, I see the European and Asian CNN ad that says, "CNN go ...".  I assume it's "go" rather than "goes" because CNN is made up of many people. I'm curious to know if the English say, "The earth revolve around the sun" or "revolves.  DC?

[Spyder Rocket]

The earth revolves around the sun.

The planets revolve around the sun.

When a person starts fouling up subject/verb agreement, I usually subtract a few IQ points.

I think I'd need to see the rest of the sentence to make a call on the CNN ad.

[Spyder Rocket]

The last time I visited the UK, I heard a morning traffic report that alerted listeners to the malfunction of a traffic signal.

The phrase "playing up" was used to describe an inoperative signal. That was a new one for me, but I have since heard it a few more times.

[Spyder Rocket]

The use of the word "reckon" in the UK and America is another peculiarity that I've noticed.

In the UK, I've heard people from all walks of life use this word, but in America, it is associated with the vocabulary of cowboys, mountain men, and rednecks.

If I had to guess why, I might point a finger at Hollywood because I can think of several backwoods type characters that used the word generously.

The Outlaw Josey Wales used it as a tag line, " I reckon so..."

[dixon cox]

The last time I visited the UK, I heard a morning traffic report that alerted listeners to the malfunction of a traffic signal.

The phrase "playing up" was used to describe an inoperative signal. That was a new one for me, but I have since heard it a few more times.

 
Playing-up is common in the UK, generally when something is not acting like it ought to. Can include people as well, especially children. Acting-up means pretty much the same thing.
 
 

The use of the word "reckon" in the UK and America is another peculiarity that I've noticed.

In the UK, I've heard people from all walks of life use this word, but in America, it is associated with the vocabulary of cowboys, mountain men, and rednecks.

If I had to guess why, I might point a finger at Hollywood because I can think of several backwoods type characters that used the word generously.

The Outlaw Josey Wales used it as a tag line, " I reckon so..."

 
Reckon is also very common in the UK. I've always imagined it as the UK equivalent of the American figure.
 
Reckoning means to work something out. I imagine the US term of figure is almost always interchangeable, apart from when you say go figure. We wouldn't say go reckon. Also, at the tail-end of a statement you were not 100% sure about you might say "blah blah blah, I guess". I'd say "blah blah blah, I reckon", even though reckon implies it's been worked it out.

 

 

I'm curious to know if the English say, "The earth revolve around the sun" or "revolves.  DC?

 

We (English) would say "The Earth revolves around the Sun". Not being facetious, but I capitalised both Earth and Sun as they are proper nouns. My spell-checker has underlined the word capitalised again as, being from the UK, I s'd it instead of z'ing it. I'm very used to that now

 

I wish my spell-checker would stick to "English (United Kingdom)". My Thailand bought laptop has an American keyboard with Thai characters included. It seems, sadly, that spelling choice and keyboard layout cannot be set independently. Perhaps that choice was made for me when the OS was initially installed.

 

Regarding if words such as CNN or BBC are plurals or not I suppose it's a case of if the context implies a collective or a single entity. Whether you're referring to it (the company), or them (the staff).

[Spyder Rocket]

 

 Reckon is also very common in the UK. I've always imagined it as the UK equivalent of the American figure.
 
Reckoning means to work something out. I imagine the US term of figure is almost always interchangeable, apart from when you say go figure. We wouldn't say go reckon. Also, at the tail-end of a statement you were not 100% sure about you might say "blah blah blah, I guess". I'd say "blah blah blah, I reckon", even though reckon implies it's been worked it out.

Right, I understand the definition of the word, what I find amusing is that in American culture the usage of the word is associated with rustic backwoods characters almost exclusively.

[thailover57]

Growing up in Boston, I heard some strange use of language. One was, 'so don't I' indicating agreement somehow. For example, I say I like something and if the other person agrees, he/she would say, so don't I! Go figure (oops, sorry, reckon)!

I also heard broadcasters talking about attorney-generals (plural) when in fact it's attorneys-general.

Irregardless is another term that is like fingernails on a chalkboard. It's regardless. And another hated sound, 'nucular' instead of nuclear.

And a reporter talking about the vetting process for picking juries pronounced the term 'voyer dyer' as opposed to the French voir dire.

[Macman]

DC, the reason I asked about "revolves" versus " "revolve" was because I wasn't sure if the English would consider "Earth" as a plural noun, as they do "team" or even "CNN", oddly enough..  Spyder, the subject-verb agreement wasn't in question.  As you know, we Yanks make use of collective nouns, which we consider to be singular, while a lot of other English speaking countries do not.  As I said before, when I saw "CNN go" instead of "CNN goes", it made me wonder just how far collective versus plural nouns go.  From DC's answer, I see that Earth is considered singular by the Brits as well as the Yanks.

 

Hey, all this makes me wonder about the pronunciation of a certain word.  Being in Asia, I hear a lot of English on programs originating in Hong Kong and Australia, as well as London.  DC, do most English pronounce "vulnerable" without the "l" sound, as in "vunerable"?  I hear it all the time, although I did hear Richard Quest say "vulnerable" this morning.

[Spyder Rocket]

@Macman

Are you talking about the travel show on CNN, named CNN - Go?

I'm not sure I would beat CNN over the head for that one. In my opinion, brand names, or titles of shows can bend the standard convention and be creative.

[dixon cox]

DC, do most English pronounce "vulnerable" without the "l" sound, as in "vunerable"?  I hear it all the time, although I did hear Richard Quest say "vulnerable" this morning.

 

The mispronunciation of words can be a little frustrating but there seems no common way to say some of the more commonly mispronounced words. Some people say them incorrectly, some do not. Probably due to a combination of education, family and peers. When spoken incorrectly by a professional broadcaster is when it's at its worst. 

 

A few of those words that commonly make me cringe are; arks, perscription and expresso.

In other words; ask, prescription and espresso.

[Macman]

Spyder, maybe that's what it was.  I hope so.  As for the English not using collective nouns, obviously it's their language, not ours, but I still find it off-putting when I hear things like, "The team win again," so I'm glad that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

 

DC, in New York, some say "axe" for ask.  You're right; "PERscription" is very common.  I must admit, though, until I saw it written, I thought "expresso" was correct.  In my circles, growing up, nobody drank it, so I just thought that what I heard was correct.  "FebUary" is another common mispronunciation.

 

Re the  "axe" mispronunciation, that led to an old joke.  The cops should have known what O.J. Simpson was going to do because he had been asked by a talk show host, "What does your wife think?", and his reply was, "I don't know. I'll axe her."   Oooofff. Terrible joke.

[thailover57]

A new trend that is bad, the phrase 'be like.' For example, he be like all over that.