Lost in Translation--US vs UK English words

[Jock Scot]

Just to interpret one expression for you: "gardening leave" is paid leave whilst usually under suspension, although it could mean, paid leave whilst more work is found. A common description used outside the football(UK) world, but for the same reasons.

[ForresterModern]

OC

As the original OP I think that was well worth the effort of bringing the tread backto life for a bit. Thanks.

j

[OC Richard]

Well "gardening leave" sure sounds better than what would be the US equivalent, "suspended" or "paid suspension" or "paid leave".

Now one thing that's not words but grammar is "verb phrase ellipsis" as in:
"I have done."
"I will do."
which sounds odd to Americans.

Here we either cut the phrase shorter, or make it longer:
"I have done that/I have done it"
or..
"I have".

The distinctive British ellipsis shows up in the Harry Potter films and books from time to time.

There's actually an entire book on the subject of different US/British vocabulary:

British Self-Taught,
With Comment In American
by Norman W Schur.

[sathor]

I'm reading "Ruby and the Stone Age Diet" right now, and it has a few of those word differences. Busking does sound better than begging, and I seem to remember something about a garbage point or something similar, not completely sure what that is.

[Lachlan09]

I know this isn’t strictly word differences as such, but one thing I’ve noticed in American films and TV programmes (programs ?), particularly teenage actors on the Disney Channel, is the word “second”, as in “Wait a second”, seems to get pronounced “seckint” rather than “seckund”.

Is this a general thing in America, or regional or a young persons’ fad ?

[OC Richard]

I know this isn’t strictly word differences as such, but one thing I’ve noticed in American films and TV programmes (programs ?), particularly teenage actors on the Disney Channel, is the word “second”, as in “Wait a second”, seems to get pronounced “seckint” rather than “seckund”.

Is this a general thing in America, or regional or a young persons’ fad ?

Well, strictly speaking "second" wouldn't end with a d-sound or a t-sound, because English has a feature called "unreleased final stops".

Say "pop". The p at the beginning and the p at the end are completely different. The initial p is plosive, capable of making a popping noise in a microphone or blowing out a candle at close range, but the final p is not "released", but swallowed in a way.

When I say "second" I notice I that my tongue is in the position for d/t at the end. D and t have the tongue in the same position, the only difference between "dog" and "tog" is that the vocal chords are switched on at the beginning of "dog" but switched off at the beginning of "tog".

In any case, my tongue is at the d/t position but that stop in unreleased, in other words I don't actually pop out a d or a t.

To hear the difference between a released intitial t and an unreleased final t say "tot". Now, if you're self-consciously saying it you might artificially pronounce the final t like the initial t, but in actual conversation that would sound odd, and the final t isn't actually spoken.

(t/d, k/g, and p/b are pairs of stops, the first in each pair being voiceless, the second being voiced, in word-initial position. They are unreleased in word-final position. Funny things happed in word-medial position to these stops: the medial t in "bottle" turning into a d or a tongue flap in most American dialects, but turnining into a glottal stop in many British dialects etc.)

[Chas]

I once had a picnic with some American friends. The conversation turned to childhood memories. I stated that I had been a fan of "Muffin the Mule"

After the stony silence and icy stares, one of the American ladies said "You are aware that my child is sat here listening to you?"

It took some while to convince her that Muffin was a marionette type puppet in the shape of a mule and had been on television.

There weren't any picnics for a long time.

Regards

Chas

[macwilkin]

I once had a picnic with some American friends. The conversation turned to childhood memories. I stated that I had been a fan of "Muffin the Mule"

After the stony silence and icy stares, one of the American ladies said "You are aware that my child is sat here listening to you?"

It took some while to convince her that Muffin was a marionette type puppet in the shape of a mule and had been on television.

There weren't any picnics for a long time.

Regards

Chas

They obviously hadn't seen "Tunes of Glory". (Pipe Major Maclean tells RSM Riddick to "away home & watch your television -- Muffin the Mule is on at 5 o'clock.")

T.

[sathor]

One I just noticed today,
US vs UK
practiced practised

Dump, garbage pile, etc... vs rubbish tip

[Lachlan09]

litre - liter
metre - meter