Language

I've yet to run into that at all here in the East Midlands. Out of curiosity where are you located?

I have gotten into arguments with my husband over whether or not 'I' or 'me' is the proper word to use in a given situation. He said 'I' where I said it was 'me'.

What drives me nuts is how different the actual grammar is in the UK vs US. They use commas differently, use (') instead of (") most of the time. Not to mention the (') goes INSIDE the end of sentence punctuation. I had to take a course to really get a handle on it... it really opened my eyes.

I am equally confused by UK grammar rules. Not sure how you can argue over I and me though as one is clearly an objective pronoun and Ines is subjective.

I'm in Cardiff and I hear the reflexive pronoun thing all the time from people generally and then especially in work. Not sure if it's regional or not.


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I am equally confused by UK grammar rules. Not sure how you can argue over I and me though as one is clearly an objective pronoun and Ines is subjective.

I'm in Cardiff and I hear the reflexive pronoun thing all the time from people generally and then especially in work. Not sure if it's regional or not.


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It was one of those situations where it was 'I' or 'me' and a mention of another person, 'me and my brother' vs 'my brother and I' type of thing. I always do the thing where you remove the extra bit and see which noun you should be using. It's always obvious. haha. I was doing marketing copy and writing a company wide newsletter... my boss didn't appreciate needing to check for grammar issues. Though we did have a bit of a tete-a-tete about commas after however.

Could definitely be a bit more regional. I may have had someone ask me, 'And how about yourself?' once, but definitely not something on a regular basis.

Regarding 'myself', 'himself'.....I have heard these are Irish-English leftovers from Gaelic.


 

I don't really get why people get that upset over "proper grammar". In Yorkshire-land.....the speech here, especially in older people.....could make "grammar proper" people kill themselves. But why? Roll with it.......it is what it is......

I don't really get why people get that upset over "proper grammar". In Yorkshire-land.....the speech here, especially in older people.....could make "grammar proper" people kill themselves. But why? Roll with it.......it is what it is......

Even if I don't like adopting it myself... I love the Yorkshire dialect...

"That were a chuffin good party last weekend"

Oddly I would call those designated road crossings "zeb-ra" crossings but the stripey animal will always be a "zee-bra".

And I have taken to using "zed" rather than "zee"

When the kids were small I decided it was better to call things by their American names to avoid confusion in emergencies.  Like "Stay on the sidewalk!!" would be a
more natural thing to shout than "pavement".

I've picked up a lot of Britishisms in the two years we've been here, but more the terms rather than the pronunciations. Some of the pronunciations I do use (zeh-bra, for example) are more for my three-year-old's benefit, so his friends at school will understand him! I don't know why some terms I'm comfortable with (I say "pavement," "bin," "pram" etc) but others just feel weird - like I can't say "loo" or "cheers" without feeling fake.

Native Brit here - just to say that the term 'Growler' would be problematic in the part of the south of England that I am from too - for the same reasons as pps in Glasgow have pointed out!

A co-worker of mine came into work one day particularly energetic and happy. I called her something that shocked the whole office. I only meant she was happy and energetic and full of life but it's something that means something VERRRRRRY different and disgusting here. Luckily I had awesome co-workers who were able to laugh at my word usage and reminded me of it every so often. If not, I think I would have been horrified (I slightly am to be honest). Has anyone only found out about the wrong usage of a word here in the UK after you have used it a few times? Please tell me it's not just me! :-P

A co-worker of mine came into work one day particularly energetic and happy. I called her something that shocked the whole office. I only meant she was happy and energetic and full of life but it's something that means something VERRRRRRY different and disgusting here. Luckily I had awesome co-workers who were able to laugh at my word usage and reminded me of it every so often. If not, I think I would have been horrified (I slightly am to be honest). Has anyone only found out about the wrong usage of a word here in the UK after you have used it a few times? Please tell me it's not just me! :-P

Come on, you have to tell us!  If you are truly embarrassed, make the font colour white and it will be hidden. 

Funny story:

When my French wife first came to America, her English was limited.  Her job was to take food orders at a fast food counter.  One day she asked me the name of the foam on a fizzy drink, so I told her it was head.  The next day she asked everybody if they wanted head with their drink!   

Come on, you have to tell us!  If you are truly embarrassed, make the font colour white and it will be hidden. 

I'll take a guess... how about 'spunky'?  (OMG, you didn't... did you?!?!)

I'll take a guess... how about 'spunky'?  (OMG, you didn't... did you?!?!)

I so totally did  . And I think I had been in the country at least four years by then yet never caught on that it meant something TOTALLY different...til then!

Come on, you have to tell us!  If you are truly embarrassed, make the font colour white and it will be hidden. 

Funny story:

When my French wife first came to America, her English was limited.  Her job was to take food orders at a fast food counter.  One day she asked me the name of the foam on a fizzy drink, so I told her it was head.  The next day she asked everybody if they wanted head with their drink!

Yes, it's bad! Thankfully Albatross guessed so I didn't have to say it haha!

Wooooow did someone at her work have to tell her to stop asking the customers that? Hahaha!

I so totally did  . And I think I had been in the country at least four years by then yet never caught on that it meant something TOTALLY different...til then!

I've lived in the UK my whole life and I've never heard of spunky being used to mean something vulgar.

Spunky means brave/courageous and determined. Doing a quick kGoogle search, I don't see any vulgar meanings listed for it (except in Australia it can be used to mean an attractive woman).

Spunk, on the other hand, does mean something totally different... Although the only time I can remember hearing it used in that context was in an episode of Sex and the City.


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Well... I may have said she was "full of spunk"  that morning...eek! But we were always laughing and joking in that office, nobody thought I meant it in the bad sense. Especially since after I said it she started laughing and asked me again what I said to which I repeated it and said "You know...spunky, happy, full of life!"

 :-( I never heard it in the context of it being vulgar.

I remember watching Benidorm not long ago though where a couple were doing a crossword and the clue was "American term for energetic, happy," (something like that) Which was replied with "Spunk." "What? Oh that's disgusting!"   

Apologies for bringing it up. I think k it was my worst (or best) example of language differences here!!