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Member (Idle past 1700 days) Posts: 53 From: Reno, Nevada, USA Joined: |
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Author | Topic: Question on English Language to British Members | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Apothecus Member (Idle past 2441 days) Posts: 275 From: CA USA Joined: |
I hear Fox is particularly adept at it.
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Taq Member Posts: 10085 Joined: Member Rating: 5.6 |
But I have wondered previously whether Americans (men especially) are less keen to invoke their full vocabulary than Brits for fear of sounding sort of "intellectualyl camp". We don't want to sound british. We americans do have poor grammar. I have often wondered if it has it's roots in our history as a people who were more rural and disconnected from "centers of higher learning". Perhaps Aussies could serve as a test of my theory. Is Aussie grammar worse than British grammar?
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Larni Member Posts: 4000 From: Liverpool Joined: |
Is Aussie grammar worse than British grammar? I'm not sure about that but they have that damned question intonation?
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Apothecus Member (Idle past 2441 days) Posts: 275 From: CA USA Joined: |
I'm not sure about that but they have that damned question intonation? Australia? You only need go so far as Minnesota to get that. Ok, have a good one, then? p.s. My 7yo was down here and loves your Fett avatar. No disintegrations.
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New Cat's Eye Inactive Member |
p.s. My 7yo was down here and loves your Fett avatar Have them check out my awesome hat shown in:
Message 33
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Larni Member Posts: 4000 From: Liverpool Joined: |
p.s. My 7yo was down here and loves your Fett avatar. No disintegrations. You got a good kid there.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1055 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
We don't want to sound british. We americans do have poor grammar. I have often wondered if it has it's roots in our history as a people who were more rural and disconnected from "centers of higher learning". Perhaps Aussies could serve as a test of my theory. Is Aussie grammar worse than British grammar? I don't think it's even close to being true that Americans have worse grammar or English in general than the British. I can only assume the confusion comes from limited exposure to British people on a day to day basis, with people like David Attenborough or BBC news presenters standing in as the archetype. Trust me, that's not how the average person speaks.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
I don't think it's even close to being true that Americans have worse grammar or English in general than the British. I can only assume the confusion comes from limited exposure to British people on a day to day basis, with people like David Attenborough or BBC news presenters standing in as the archetype. Trust me, that's not how the average person speaks. I agree. And I wonder if the reverse is true, as well. I find that most Americans I communicate with or hear on TV sound better educated and use better grammer than the average British person I encounter, though they may not be representative of the average American. Although certainly not perfect myself, I have many gripes with poor grammer, and the biggest one is probably the use of the word "them" instead of "those". There are huge swathes of the British population who say, "I like them ones" or "who are them people?" It annoys me because it sounds so babyish. I rarely if ever hear Americans making that error - do they?
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hooah212002 Member (Idle past 832 days) Posts: 3193 Joined: |
I find that most Americans I communicate with or hear on TV sound better educated and use better grammer than the average British person I encounter, though they may not be representative of the average American. Good. That means you don't watch Fox news. Most of the other mainline media sources DO appear to be educated, just not Fox.
I rarely if ever hear Americans making that error - do they?
Yes. Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people -Carl Sagan For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.-Carl Sagan
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Good. That means you don't watch Fox news. Most of the other mainline media sources DO appear to be educated, just not Fox. Sometimes I do briefly tune in to Fox News, just because I need to convince myself that my previous memories of doing so were real.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2728 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Chimp.
Jumped Up Chimpanzee writes: I rarely if ever hear Americans making that error ["them" instead of "those"]- do they? Go spend a day in southern Missouri sometime. I was born in them hills. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Jumped Up Chimpanzee Member (Idle past 4972 days) Posts: 572 From: UK Joined: |
Go spend a day in southern Missouri sometime. I was born in them hills. Ah, yes. Now you put it in context, I have heard you guys talking like that. Isn't the full expression "them there hills"? Or "them their hills"? Or "them they're hills"?
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New Cat's Eye Inactive Member |
Go spend a day in southern Missouri sometime. I was born in them hills.
Ah, yes. Now you put it in context, I have heard you guys talking like that. Isn't the full expression "them there hills"? Or "them their hills"? Or "them they're hills"?
Its them there... as in those hills over there. And it can be pronounced "dem dhare".
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2728 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Chimp.
Chimp writes: Isn't the full expression "them there hills"? Or "them their hills"? Or "them they're hills"? That's from a specific quote: "There's gold in them thar hills!" It was talking about the California Gold Rush of 1849. I think it comes from Mark Twain. Honestly, in all my visits to southern Missouri, I don't remember having heard "them there" used together like that, but it has been awhile since I've been back, and Catholic Scientist is currently there, so maybe he knows something I don't. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1055 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
Although certainly not perfect myself, I have many gripes with poor grammer, and the biggest one is probably the use of the word "them" instead of "those". There are huge swathes of the British population who say, "I like them ones" or "who are them people?" It annoys me because it sounds so babyish. I rarely if ever hear Americans making that error - do they? I don't think it's right to call this an error, as many of the people who speak like this are perfectly aware of formal grammar. I say 'them ones'; I use 'us' as the first person singular pronoun in the accusative; and I say 'mesen' instead of 'myself', but none of these are mistakes. They're dialect. My personal gripes are always more with spelling, anyway. It's grammar, not grammer.
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