(no subject)

[doyle]

Hmm. Looking through some old BBF discussion and I saw this comment by Gyrus (whose LJ handle I forget, sorry):

(For example, I recently read a fic in which something bad happens and Giles tries to tell Buffy that there was no way she could have anticipated it. She replies, "But I should've done!" That just looks weird to a Yank like me.)

I'm sure I'm guilty of using that myself. Why's it wrong? Should it be 'shoulda' instead of should've?

...any other glaring errors any of you have noticed non-Americans making? Because god knows I could go on for pages in obsessive Brit-picking of both Harry Potter fics and Buffy fics set in England (the language thing I get, but some of the cultural stuff, the 'my character's British so they've never heard of ___' : we do have pizzas and action movies and strange flavours of chips/crisps in Britain and Ireland, I promise you)

Comments

[nikitangel.livejournal.com]

any other glaring errors any of you have noticed non-Americans making?

I see the phrase "in hospital" and "at Christmas" instead of "in the hospital" or "on Christmas". And of course, "Happy Christmas" versus "Merry Christmas", but that's a more infrequent error. Let's see, what else...there's also using the plural verb tenses for collective nouns, like: "IBM are a good company", where an American would say, "IBM is a good company". I'm trying to remember other examples of that. Would you say, "The crowd is getting restless" or "The crowd are getting restless"? Because an American would go for the first version.

There's also one that came up on Buffy, when Giles said, "Well, I know I'm back in America, now I've been knocked unconscious" or something. And American would say, "now *that* I've been knocked unconscious".

And I've heard Brits use the possessive pronoun like this: "Come over to mine tonight", while an American would specify, "Come over to my place tonight."

Then there are the specific word differences - I've seen 'jumper', 'trolley' and 'boot' in fics that are supposed to be 'Americanized'. And the difference between public and private school can get pretty confusing!

That's all I can think of for now. Interesting question!

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

And interesting answers, thank you!

I'd say 'the crowd is getting restless' but that's no guarantee: Northern Ireland grammar obeys rules all of its own.

Example. 'Those are quite good' - filter through my regional dialect to become 'them there's right'n'good'. Thankfully I know enough not to write or speak formally that way...

[nikitangel.livejournal.com]

Well, Americans don't tend to use "quite" in the sense of "very" - more in the sense of, "that's not quite right". Me, I 'talk funny with big words', so I'm not the best judge of average American dialects! An American'd probably say "Those are pretty good" anyways.

Your regional dialect reminds me of the American Southern dialect! That would be more, "Them're purdy good".

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Heh. We have a plural form of you, too (youse rather than y'all). I'm what'd be called a culchie here, I'm from out in the country, so my dialect's more pronounced.

[nikitangel.livejournal.com]

It's funny to imagine you with an Irish accent! Everyone on my flist has an American accent in my head. Even my ex-boyfriend (from England)'s voice has faded into an American accent in my head. I spoke to him on the phone once, and we both commented on how strong the other one's accent had gotten!

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you'd hear the difference, but my accent's closer to Scottish than what's normally thought of as Irish. I tried to record a WAV file of myself last week but got too tongue-tied. I hate speaking on answering machines or anything. Also, I sound about 10.

[octopedingenue]

English is so sad without a plural form of "you", I think that "y'all" needs to gain general acceptance. It's so useful! (I'm ignoring the tendency for "y'all", like "vous", to sometimes become a singular noun on its own, which leads to such mutants like "Hey, all y'all c'mover here!"

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm an American, and I sometimes say "Happy Christmas" just for variety's sake. Or, "Happy Midwinter celebration of your choice!" ;)

Plenty of things are regional within the U.S., which make it that much harder to tell you what to use. A prime example is "soda" vs. "pop" vs. the bastard child "soda-pop", vs. even, in some parts of the South, "coke". In other words, if you ask for a Coke, they'll ask what kind, since Coke means (what I call) soda. But in other places soda means soda water, or seltzer. (Warning: do not allow debate of this to occur on your journal, it will never die.)

Another regionalism has to do with the prom. I always said "the prom", as did everyone else around here, but when I went to college I met people who just called it "prom." As in, "I went to prom." But I'm not even sure where people use what, so I'd accept either in fic.

Um... things we don't say... well, Americans don't generally say "I'll ring you" – we'd say "I'll call you." Don't remember if I've seen you use any of these, just thinking aloud.

My brother found a hilarious book about American English which contained English attempts to replicate/transcribe American speech... though I'm sure we do as badly with British English. (I saw a funny bumper sticker – "We're in America. Speak Ebonics.")