Eh, Wot?

And don't forget the classic Canadian example:

"Pass me a serviette, I have dropped my poutine on my chesterfield".

We Canadians take the easy way out....we use a mix of both!

So, what do you Canadians use, British English or American English?

I was once told by a Brit that there are some words in British that have exactly the opposite meaning from what they do in American.

Yes, there are opposites. If you watch "Keeping Up Appearances" on Public TV, you'll hear this one regularly. Hyacinth is a notorious backseat driver. She often exclaims to Richard, "Look out for the pedestrian!" "What pedestrian?" he says. "The one on the pavement," she says. In the US that would be an appropriate warning, but in the UK "pavement" means "sidewalk" rather than "street."

For the entertainment of those interested in how a common language can divide two countries (US and UK),

click here for a Yankee - British dictionary

My personal favorite is reflected in this advice "Americans: do not call it a fanny pack in the UK

And for our Canadian cousins: should there be a 5-way translation dictionary? a British English - American English - Canadian English - French Canadian - French French Dictionary?

A chesterfield is a sofa, davenport, couch. Poutine? Being BC born and raised, I consider poutine to be an ethnic import food. My fellow Canucks from east of the Rockies will be better equipped to provide a description!

Ah yes, poutine.....snack food extraordinaire from Quebec, designed to harden your arteries in one sitting. French fries, topped with cheese curds, then gravy....sometimes with chopped onion thrown in for variety. Available at McDonalds across Quebec.

I wasn't sure if I should wade into this discussion or not?

My opinion on this is similar to Norm's, in that I tend to use both at times. However, as many have probably noticed from my posts here, I tend to use the British / Canadian form of words like "travelling", "harbour", etc. These words always have the red bar underneath them indicating a "spelling error", but that's the spelling I prefer.

Poutine is available in some places west of the Rockies, but not something that will be in my diet anytime soon (my arteries don't need any more "hardening").

Cheers!

What about New Zealand English? Or the Bahamas and Jamaica?

It is as much fun to learn the different words that each country uses as much as the different words that you would use in various regions. The slang from the deep South is not the same as in NYC or California.

Poutine is available at most malls, in the food court,, at "New York Fries" funny eh? .. It is of course from back east,, but has been available here for many years..

I think the fanny pack is hilarious,, it took me a long time to get how inappropriate it was to call it that on an international forum. I thought "fanny" meant " bottom" and that some people were just being too prissy about hearing the term used, er,, it doesn't mean "bottom" after all,, LOL

"So, what do you Canadians use, British English or American English?"

And the Australians. What about the Australians?

If British English and American English get counted as two separate languages, surely the Australians get their own too!

But California has almost twice the population of Australia (36 vs 21 million), so we should recognize Californian English (as if anyone can recognize Californian English) before Australian English.

But, if only one name is used, as has been true up to now with just "English", since there are about five times as many Americans as British, we should change the name from "English" to "American".

And there are more Mexicans than any other "Spanish" speaking people, so let's change that, also.

I know I speak American rather than English. Growing up in San Diego I also learned to speak Mexican rather than Spanish. The distinctions from American to English and Mexican to Spanish are similar, we can understand both dialects but our vocabulary has definite differences.

Using a combination of British and American English can sometimes cause problems. We were asked if we were bringing any food into the US on a camping trip. When I mentioned canned soup, the border guard wanted to inspect it. It was Campbells soup in a tin can. I guess I should have said "tinned" soup??? Does canned refer to homecanning?

I am not sure that population size dictates the language spoken!

As an Australian, I can comment that British English is far more usual than American English in Australia.

Sadly, to me, that is slowly changing.

And should we even start with spelling?

What's with the extra "U" in words like "favourite?"

Or pronunciation:

How would you pronounce "ghoti?" I pronounce it--"fish"

gh--as in enough
o--as in women
ti--as in notion

Fish

Frank II,

Using the "u" in words like "favourite" or "harbour" is the way I learned to spell, so that's ingrained to some extent. I believe that's the British method?

I suppose this is along the same lines as the issue of "Z" being called "zee" or "zed" depending on which side of the 49th parallel one happens to live.

Cheers!

For an extensive list of British slang (individual word and expressions)translated into American check out "effingpot.com"

One problem with our language differences is that we find different things funny. I went to a play in England. Half the audience went into hysterics upon hearing the word "bloody" or "bugger." I guess the play was a comedy, but I had a hard time finding anything funny.

tricia,

I would probably say, "a can of soup". If you said, "a can of Campbell's soup", he would have known exactly what you were talking about. Canned soup doesn't necessarily mean it was canned at home but it could be so he probably wanted to look at it.

A lot of people (more commonly from South of the US) bring in home made meats and cheeses that might not be allowed.

On an African safari, our local guide said that most of the guides couldn't tell if a guest was American or British, by their accent. However, the guides quickly learned to ask the guest to identify the white and black striped animal that looks like a horse. Americans would answer with "zee-bra", whereas Brits would answer with "ze-bra". Our guide said that the test has never failed. :)

And to add on to Rick's comment...a way to tell Australians from New Zealanders which is very close: Get them to say the number "six." If it sounds like "sex", they're probably from NZ.

I once led a tour with people from England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Talk about a mixture of accents.

It's not just spelling as I pointed out...yes, Ken, adding the "u" to favourite is British, not American. But also usage. In the U.S., I would say "I'm going to the hospital." In England it would be "I'm going to hospital."

And with all the different words we have that have the same meaning, no wonder it's so difficult to learn to speak English correctly.

Rick,

Although the "Safari test" may never have failed, it's somewhat limited as it can only identify two nationalities. On that basis, I'd probably be identifed as American as I tend to say "zee-bra".

The Safari people need to develop a more comprehensive test, LOL!

I was in London when Heathrow's Terminal 5 opened. I was reading an article describing the chaos. The baggage handlers were rioting and calling each other "w*****s." What? I could not figure that one out. It turns out it was "wankers."

Ken: "Using the "u" in words like "favourite" or "harbour"...I believe that's the British method?"

Yes, British. The US spellings are credited to (or blamed on) Noah Webster, who produced the first widely-accepted dictionary for Americans in 1828. Like fried catfish, it never made it to Canada.

Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, so his dictionary introduced American English spellings, replacing "colour" with "color", substituting "wagon" for "waggon", and printing "center" instead of "centre", "theater" rather than "theatre", etc. He also added American words, like "skunk" and "squash", that did not appear in British dictionaries. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828.*

*From Wikipedia, for what it's worth.

While on the subject, I have to mention the two Swedish exchange students we hosted in the 1990's (we didn't have them both at the same time).

One was always talking about his "jello yacket". (his yellow jacket)

The other kept mentioning wanting to visit "New Jork and New Yersey". (New York and New Jersey)

My favorite one was when he (Mr. New Jork) was working on his English literature homework one night. I heard him shout, "Yesus, I yust can't do this!"

"Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex"...if he felt that, why did he just drop a couple of letter from words where it didn't make much of a difference anyway, and attack words like "tough" and "rough." He would have done us all a real favour (favor) then!

Agreed, Norm. I admire Webster's effort, but he only scratched the surface.

Swedes are known for their difficulties with the english "J" like in "Jam". Eg. Jimmy, Jack and jeans are pronounced like "Yimmi", "Yack" and "yeans" in Swedish language, and Swedes often have difficulties pronouncing them "correctly" when they speak English.

chrismo1, have you ever heard this one-

I yust go nuts at Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8SqY9crHA8