# British or American English?



## Stray Cat Terry (Jan 31, 2021)

First off, a disclaimer:
  I'm never trying to fix sides and cause conflicts, hence we need no polls at all. Stay cool and we want no fights, yeah?

Now to the topic: 

  We all know that the English is a masterkey language of the major cultures of the globe. And I of course was taught English as a second language. Yes, I'm not a native speaker.
  What's the issue? I am a South Korean (ROK) who was educated in both the southern region of China and Hong Kong when I was young due to personal reasons. As I have went through half of my education in HK(British) and the other half on ROK(American), my pronunciation is, in a good term, hybrid; in a bad term, abomination. (No offense to anyone else, it's just for myself.)

  Of course, it doesn't really matter if all I expect to do is to type and read on the internet, but it just comes to my mind once in a while that my speaking is mixed. I know the differences on my head, but my mouth just goes 'astray' when I just try to speak em out naturally.

  I expect I'm not alone in this world, as I know a few real life friends who went through this sorta changes alongsides me on learning English, so why not?
  Also, I wanted to hear each English's pros and cons (or else) on certain circumstances from their native speakers and those who are more familiar to English than an Asian like me.

  So, anything from anyone is alright, fun stuffs are more than welcomed as well! Anything you wanna share about British and American English? OwO

Edit: 
  Oh and also! Does it make you feel odd when you see people like me using mixed pronunciations and/or word choices of both?


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## Netanye Dakabi (Jan 31, 2021)

lasso gennin weegit crank time ah verse like proper kings tongue aye


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## Stray Cat Terry (Jan 31, 2021)

NetanDakabi said:


> lasso gennin weegit crank time ah verse like proper kings tongue aye



OwO..?? Pardon?


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## Deleted member 111470 (Jan 31, 2021)

American English here.


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## Stray Cat Terry (Jan 31, 2021)

Rimna said:


> American English here.



Anything you feel like sharing about differences of American and British? OwO


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## Deleted member 111470 (Jan 31, 2021)

Stray Cat Terry said:


> Anything you feel like sharing about differences of American and British? OwO


Hmm.. apart from some words not having a "u" like favourite vs favorite, I prefer how American English sounds. For example, in some places of the USA, people don't say the "t" when it's after an N. They say "inernet" instead of "internet". They might also say "aluminum" instead of "aluminium".

For the front cover of the car, people in the usa say "hood" while in the uk it's "bonnet".


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## Stray Cat Terry (Jan 31, 2021)

Rimna said:


> Hmm.. apart from some words not having a "u" like favourite vs favorite, I prefer how American English sounds. For example, in some places of the USA, people don't say the "t" when it's after an N. They say "inernet" instead of "internet". They might also say "aluminum" instead of "aluminium".
> 
> For the front cover of the car, people in the usa say "hood" while in the uk it's "bonnet".



Ooh yeah!

I tend to go like "That aluminum bonnet I saw from the internet is preddy awesome!"

Hybrid pronunciation and word choices XP

I know it's not that hard to grasp the meaning of what I say, but it's no doubt an odd usage of words and pronunciations >p<


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## Fallowfox (Jan 31, 2021)

I'm an English person from the Home-counties, who speaks 'Queen's English'. 

There is no single British English though. 
Review this Scots English version of the Lord's prayer for example:

Wir Faither in Hivin,
Yir name be keepit in awe,
Yir ring begin,
i the warld as in Hivin.
Gie us ilk day wir breid for the day,
An forgie whit we are awin tae Yirsel,
As we forgie ithers whit is awin tae us.
An dinna trachle us sairly,
but free us frae the Deil;
fur the Croun is yir ain,
An the micht an the glorie,
Warld upo warld.
Sae be it.


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## Firuthi Dragovic (Jan 31, 2021)

American English here.

The only one I ever remember that hasn't been covered yet is emphasis on certain letters being silent.

*Sc*h*edule* vs *s*c*hedule* for instance.


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## Netanye Dakabi (Jan 31, 2021)

NetanDakabi said:


> lasso gennin weegit crank time ah verse like proper kings tongue aye





Stray Cat Terry said:


> OwO..?? Pardon?


people become a little bit aggitated when i talk in a manner of accurate english speech.


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## Telnac (Jan 31, 2021)

I speak American English but one could argue that there isn't even just one form of American English too. There are a myriad of regional dialects. I'm an ex military brat so how I pronounce certain works is determined by where I lived at the time they entered my vocabulary. For example, I pronounce the "o" in "over" with a short "u" like when pronouncing "oven" rather than the long "o" like when pronouncing "Odin." Apparently that's a pronunciation specific to parts of Virginia where I lived briefly as a child. And yet I pronounce the first "o" in "overlord" with the long "o" because I lived in California by the time I learned that word. That fact has seriously confused people I've run across who are good at picking up where you're from my which dialect you speak, because I speak with multiple dialects simultaneously.


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## Punji (Jan 31, 2021)

A professor of mine once told me a story about a time when he looked for the oldest American dictionary he could find. He said the one he found was suggested to be one of the first, and in it the author stated he had intentionally misspelled some words so they would be easier for the average person, on the belief that most Americans were stupid and would struggle with proper English spelling.

Personally I use a mix of British and American English. I add my Us where they belong but for some words I spell them however I feel like spelling them. Usually this is British but sometimes it's not.


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## Fallowfox (Jan 31, 2021)

Fanny has a pretty different meaning in British English btw. :}



Punji said:


> A professor of mine once told me a story about a time when he looked for the oldest American dictionary he could find. He said the one he found was suggested to be one of the first, and in it the author stated he had intentionally misspelled some words so they would be easier for the average person*, on the belief that most Americans were stupid and would struggle with proper English spelling.*
> 
> Personally I use a mix of British and American English. I add my Us where they belong but for some words I spell them however I feel like spelling them. Usually this is British but sometimes it's not.



This sounds a bit like British propaganda. ;D


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## Stray Cat Terry (Jan 31, 2021)

Telnac said:


> I speak American English but one could argue that there isn't even just one form of American English too. There are a myriad of regional dialects. I'm an ex military brat so how I pronounce certain works is determined by where I lived at the time they entered my vocabulary. For example, I pronounce the "o" in "over" with a short "u" like when pronouncing "oven" rather than the long "o" like when pronouncing "Odin." Apparently that's a pronunciation specific to parts of Virginia where I lived briefly as a child. And yet I pronounce the first "o" in "overlord" with the long "o" because I lived in California by the time I learned that word. That fact has seriously confused people I've run across who are good at picking up where you're from my which dialect you speak, because I speak with multiple dialects simultaneously.





Punji said:


> A professor of mine once told me a story about a time when he looked for the oldest American dictionary he could find. He said the one he found was suggested to be one of the first, and in it the author stated he had intentionally misspelled some words so they would be easier for the average person, on the belief that most Americans were stupid and would struggle with proper English spelling.
> 
> Personally I use a mix of British and American English. I add my Us where they belong but for some words I spell them however I feel like spelling them. Usually this is British but sometimes it's not.



Ooh! Both your informations help a lot!
Now I guess it's not really that weird to have diverse pronunciations and accents?

Thankies! It kinda relieved me UwU


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## TemetNosce88 (Jan 31, 2021)

American English speaker. I can see mixing British and American slang or words being a possible issue. If someone is using British spelling and words, I know enough to be able to 'translate' what they mean, so it's not much of an issue. Mixing the two together might be tricky, though. Though overall, I think I have more trouble understanding Southern American English more than I do British English. Could be that I watch a lot of UK television, though.


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## hologrammaton (Jan 31, 2021)

a man with an English accent could probably talk me into many things


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## Yakamaru (Jan 31, 2021)

THE BRI'ISH ARE COMING!

I use a mixture of both.


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## Deleted member 134556 (Jan 31, 2021)

I use American English, mostly


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## Fallowfox (Jan 31, 2021)

hologrammaton said:


> a man with an English accent could probably talk me into many things


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## TyraWadman (Feb 1, 2021)

I had a _very _British English teacher in grade 2. Rolled her R's too. That's when I started spelling Colour instead of Color, because if I didn't, it was considered wrong. Then when I started doing Colour instead of Color with other teachers, it was marked wrong. I thought I was crazy until I eventually learned they were both technically correct.

I was raised english, but my mother kept her accent so while I was never taught Korean, I guess I emulated her accent too much and it just comes out sometimes.


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## Faustus (Feb 1, 2021)

Interesting fact: the guy who discovered Aluminium wanted to call it Alumium, but the name was rejected because it wasn't Latin.


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## Faustus (Feb 1, 2021)

Come to think of it, pretty soon it's unlikely to matter as everyone will be speaking in acronyms, abbreviations and emojis anyway


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## Fallowfox (Feb 1, 2021)

TyraWadman said:


> I had a _very _British English teacher in grade 2. *Rolled her R's* too. That's when I started spelling Colour instead of Color, because if I didn't, it was considered wrong. Then when I started doing Colour instead of Color with other teachers, it was marked wrong. I thought I was crazy until I eventually learned they were both technically correct.
> 
> I was raised english, but my mother kept her accent so while I was never taught Korean, I guess I emulated her accent too much and it just comes out sometimes.


This is pretty rare in British people.


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## Jackpot Raccuki (Feb 1, 2021)

I am Brit boi.
I love spelling colour and armour.
I say Chips over “Fries” and Crisps over Chips.

I tease my American BF a lot as he does with me and my accent.
Apparently it’s strong when I’m angery which isn’t surprising from where I’m from.



Punji said:


> A professor of mine once told me a story about a time when he looked for the oldest American dictionary he could find. He said the one he found was suggested to be one of the first, and in it the author stated he had intentionally misspelled some words so they would be easier for the average person, on the belief that most Americans were stupid and would struggle with proper English spelling.


Somehow I instinctively knew that’d be true.
At least he was right about one thing.


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## Faustus (Feb 1, 2021)

Fallowfox said:


> This is pretty rare in British people.


Yes, it's a Scots affectation.


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## Fallowfox (Feb 1, 2021)

Faustus said:


> Yes, it's a Scots affectation.



Something else I notice is that a lot of people think British people don't pronounce the 't' in words. 

'wa-er', 'bri-ish', 

But this is only done in some distinctive regional accents...and there are other regional accents where hard 't' sounds are introduced where the rest of us *don't* say them, such as Yorkshire accents where 'th' becomes a hard t.


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## Faustus (Feb 1, 2021)

Fallowfox said:


> Something else I notice is that a lot of people think British people don't pronounce the 't' in words.


Yes, in some accents it's replaced with a glottal stop, but in others (such as the so-called 'BBC accent') it is very noticeable. Conversely, in many forms of the American accent, the hard T is almost absent except when making an emphatic, and commonly sounds more like a soft 'd'.

You can really hear the difference in a lot of movies where Brits and Americans share a scene.


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## ben909 (Feb 1, 2021)

So

is it

meth-ane

or

me-thane


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## Faustus (Feb 1, 2021)

ben909 said:


> So is it meth-ane or me-thane


Either is correct because language is a science of consensus. If enough people pronounce and understand a word in a particular way, it's correct. I believe the original pronunciation would have been meth-ayn, as it's descended from methyl, but pronunciations change over time. If they didn't, the word 'Knight' would be pronounced more like 'k-nicht' (that is, the German word 'nicht' with a strong K sound at the beginning.)


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## Yastreb (Feb 1, 2021)

I try to favour British English, just for consistency and because that was what I learned first. But I don't worry too much about it.


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## Pomorek (Feb 1, 2021)

I've been told that I can pull off rather convincing American accent, so this has to be it.

I keep having trouble with "gray" vs. "grey" though.


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## Punji (Feb 2, 2021)

Pomorek said:


> I've been told that I can pull off rather convincing American accent, so this has to be it.
> 
> I keep having trouble with "gray" vs. "grey" though.


A for American, E for English.


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## Faustus (Feb 2, 2021)

Punji said:


> A for American, E for English.


When I was a kid, I thought it was 'E' for the colour, and 'A' for the little weird alien bloke from the X Files


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## Kumali (Feb 4, 2021)

Faustus said:


> language is a science of consensus. If enough people pronounce and understand a word in a particular way, it's correct.



This is really the important thing. I'm sure that if OP and I were speaking in person, I'd have no problem understanding regardless of accent or vocabulary differences. Your written English is excellent, and I would imagine that most people speaking their native language with a non-native speaker who's that accomplished would overlook slight differences. (At least I'd hope so.)

There are quite a few vocabulary differences between British and American English when you really dig deep into it. There are words that are spelled differently (though of course that doesn't matter in speech): besides the plethora of words ending in -or in America or -our in Britain (color, flavor, harbor, favor, rumor, humor, honor, the list goes on and on), there's curb/kerb, check/cheque, jail/gaol, and others I'll probably think of as soon as I finish writing this.  Then there are words that are pronounced differently in the two countries, like "garage" (ga-RAZH in America, GAIR-aj in Britain). Then there are the words that mean different things in the two countries, like "chips," and then there are the things for which there are different words (the "trunk" or "boot" of a car, "highway' or "motorway," "truck" or "lorry").

All of that said, though, if we were chatting here in America and you dropped a British-ism into your speech, either in word choice or pronunciation, well, who cares? I lived in Europe for a few years and hung out with English, Scottish and Irish people all the time as well as many non-native English speakers, with all the differences in our various versions of English, and we never had any problem understanding each other. So really, I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep reminding yourself of Faustus's words of wisdom up there.


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## Jaredthefox92 (Feb 10, 2021)

I believe in terms of characterization, it depends. Some characters of mine are delightfully British, others like Grief are intentionally "American". In real life, I can suppress my southern twang and actually speak to a lot of Europeans on a daily basis, but I don't mind British accents (heck that is one thing that makes Warhammer fun.) So long as I can understand you.


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## §AnimeDestroyer22§ (May 29, 2021)

i may hate england but their way of spelling things is better


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## Fallowfox (May 29, 2021)

§AnimeDestroyer22§ said:


> *i may hate england* but their way of spelling things is better


:{
I mean...we do suck at Eurovision.


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## §AnimeDestroyer22§ (May 29, 2021)

Fallowfox said:


> :{
> I mean...we do suck at Eurovision.


Eh. Eurovision sucks anyway.


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## Fallowfox (May 29, 2021)

§AnimeDestroyer22§ said:


> Eh. Eurovision sucks anyway.



I enjoy it being bad. :}
The kookier the better.


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## Jaredthefox92 (May 29, 2021)

I'm told by my British friends in my Discord that they dig my southern twang accent. So I would say American, not that I hate British accents. In fact one reason I like Warhammer.


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## Nexus Cabler (May 29, 2021)

I enjoy both at this point

Not in terms of accent, but rather vocabulary and synonyms, such as calling an elevator a lift, or calling Fall Autumn


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## Rimna (May 29, 2021)

American.


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## Fallowfox (May 29, 2021)

Nexus Cabler said:


> I enjoy both at this point
> 
> Not in terms of accent, but rather vocabulary and synonyms, such as calling an elevator a lift, or calling Fall Autumn



If things go really badly we can an elevator a fall.


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## Parabellum3 (May 30, 2021)

The only good language is freedom language.


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## PhoxSpark (May 31, 2021)

I like more British english but probably because I'm European. In reality I barely can differentiate them, for me english is what it is and everyone has its way to talk it.

I don't know if I use the british or american vocabulary or a mix of both...


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## Mayfurr (Jun 5, 2021)

British English here, after all I'm in one of their former colonial possessions. (Well technically, it's "New Zealand English".) 

In other words, I go on holidays, not vacation, the season before winter is autumn, not fall, and I don't pronounce "herbs" as "erbs", because as Eddie Izzard points out "_... it's got a fucking 'H' in it!_"


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## Koriekraiz13 (Jul 17, 2021)

I prefer British english, much more understandable. Plus since i'm british, the American pronunciation is weird.


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## Jaredthefox92 (Jul 17, 2021)

I prefer American, what the utter fuck is "potato crisps?" What is "fish and chips." They're chips and fries. Autumn is boring, Fall because things fall to the ground. (quite often here where I live).

As cool as it sounds in Warhammer, American English just sounds funnier with profanity. FOOKING doesn't sound nearly as funny as "fuhking".


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## Frank Gulotta (Jul 17, 2021)

The balance of which one you hear and interact with more may have an influence. But all in all I just pick and choose what I prefer

Depends also on who I'm talking to, sometimes it can lead to needless confusion


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## Xitheon (Jul 17, 2021)

My American boyfriend doesn't understand why us Brits say herb (with a "huh" sound and not with a silent h.) I told him that we say herb instead of 'erb and he said "that's WEIRD, wtf."

Bloody Americans, butchering our language and stealing all our women. *shakes fist*


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## Jackpot Raccuki (Jul 25, 2021)

I speak British English for I am British.
My boyfriend however is American English because he's well, American.

Of course things are going to be weird if I go visit him and his family because I'm far too used in speaking British.
So when I ask for Crisps, they'll likely be confused and same for Chips.
Eitherway, I kinda prefer British over American since aside from the likely bias of growing up with it, it just sounds far more better.

Plus, Americans don't say "Fucking hell", so that's a fat F.


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## Vinfang (Jul 25, 2021)

I was born in Canada. grew up learning Brit English in Hong Kong. currently living in Canada.
I went to high school in a mixed community, so all kinds of languages flies.
Much similar to how Hong Kong style Cantonese is spoken.
I get annoy at the standard keyboard spelling.


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## KimberVaile (Jul 30, 2021)

American English, cause conformity and tradition is for squares.


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## perkele (Aug 5, 2021)

British English adds too many letters you don't pronounce. They should learn to speak American proper.

Also, "aluminum" has enough syllables as it is. We don't need a five-syllable aluminum. What even is "aluminium?" You can't just go around making up crazy words, that'd be whale proppa sorted loik ah sikksisin sevens r8 oi na eh innit blud.


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## Fallowfox (Aug 5, 2021)

perkele said:


> British English *adds* too many letters you don't pronounce. They should learn to speak American proper.



>:{


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## Mike Lobo (Aug 6, 2021)

I speak American English since that's my native tongue, although sometimes I can be unintelligible to some.


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## Kellan Meig'h (Sep 22, 2021)

I speak American English but that was a long uphill struggle. My parents were from South-eastern Oklahoma so they spoke Hill Billie vernacular. when I started school, I was made fun of by my classmates and given bad grades by my teachers. It wasn't until the sixth grade before I could convincingly speak plain American English. When I get angry, I regress to what I guess could be my native tongue and I sound like I just came off of the mountain.

All y'all have a nice day, y'hear!


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## O.D.D. (Sep 22, 2021)

It's funny because British spelling tends to use more letters (colour vs. color, e.g.) but depending on where they're from in the UK their speech can sound like it's missing entire consonants

The whole turning the "t" in "water" into almost more a of a glottal stop than a "t" sound is, for some reason, intensely amusing to me


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