MLP prefers BrE, thank you
Your Mrs. Language Person is an anglophile. If she’s honest, she’s more properly termed a xenophile, with an unending curiosity about linguistic ways different from her own experience.
If we all are honest, dear Readers, ours is a language imported. Thus one might ask, “What would the British do?”
First, they would make the double, single; and vice versa.
‘They would write, “What would the British do,” without doubt.’
Yes, Readers, we Yanks — as with so many other things — make a big splash with quotation marks by doubling them on the outside (and making single those quotes within quotes). ‘Tis the reverse across the pond, to which reader Ms. Connie Person aptly alluded.
According to Cambridge Dictionary and MLP’s British relations, other habits of British English (or BrE, in grammar-nerd-speak) now different in American English (AmE) include:
The intractable aitch (h). Is it herb (breathe out for that first letter) or herb (silent at first)? In BrE the former is correct. Yet, as Mr. Bill Person indicated, such differences leave the conscientious linguist befuddled as to whether to precede them with “an” or “a.” Simply put, the custom in both cultures is to let pronunciation dictate. If pronouncing the “h,” use the article “a;” if leaving it silent, AmE style, use “an.”
Shall or will we? Quite simply, BrE speakers shall use the former, while Americans will choose the latter.
Was it -t, or -ed? In BrE, the past simple and past participle of verbs such as dream, learn, or burn can be spelled either way (he had dreamt or dreamed it, she learnt or learned French, you burnt or burned toast). AmE, as readers indubitably know, use -ed exclusively.
Got, not gotten. In BrE, the three forms of get are get (base form), got (past simple) and got (equivalent to -ed). AmE differs, preferring “The weather has gotten warmer,” whereas one speaking BrE would say, ‘She may have got lost.’
Have or have got. On the other hand, when it comes to possession and necessity, Brits use “have got” more than do Americans. (Fear not; Your MLP will next address “do”). In BrE a parent would say, ‘I’ve got four young sons, so we have got to go home.’ Americans generally say, “I have five; we have to leave now.”
The substitute do. In conversation, BrE speakers often add the substitute verb ‘do’ to short clauses with modal verbs. AmE speakers use the modal verb alone: “I don’t think I’ll sing tonight” (AmE); ‘I might do, but I doubt it’ (BrE).
Location prepositions. Perhaps you noticed, Dear Reader, that our beloved Mr. Holmes lived in Baker Street, not on it.
Dates and time. In BrE it’s ‘at the weekend’ (not “on the weekend”) and ‘Friday next’ (rather than “next Friday”). In UK (and most of the planet), 10/04/2016 means April 10, not Oct. 4. And if a Brit says ‘half ten,’ she means half (past) ten, or 10:30 (note: in many other countries, e.g., Germany or Sweden, “half” ten would mean half of, or 9:30, not half past as in U.K.). In BrE ‘gone four’ means after four o’clock.
Oh yes, and when referring to the end of a time period, AmE uses “through” when more often BrE prefers ‘to’ or ‘till.’ So it’s Monday through Friday here, but there it’s Monday to Friday.
Many more examples illustrate our little linguistic differences. Not entirely surprising then are the quirky looks MLP experiences when visiting the British Isles.
Yet as reader Mr. Brent Person pointed out with his entertaining smirk, “English can be understood through tough, thorough thought, though.” Heh heh.
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Mrs. Language Person and Sholeh Patrick are columnists for the Hagadone News Network. Contact them at Sholeh@cdapress.com.