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Which english do you prefer?

What is in your opinion the best english?

  • Total voters
    168
Brits put punctuation that is not part of a quotation outside the quotation. That's so logical that it settles the whole language-preference issue for me, right then and there.

So what if they stick extra vowels in words like color? I don't see that many colors anyway.
 
What, no one suggested Irish-English!?! :p

Irish-English example: "How do you know him? We would have been in school together".

Correct English translation: "We went to school together"

Nice. :eek:
 
I'm a US American and I prefer (British) English. Mainly cause I am obsessed with the English culture. And lets face it, the Brits are better:D Isn't that right, xUKHCx?

I LOVE ENGLISH PEOPLE:cool:

Colour
Favourite
Neighbour

Ooo - and their accents, I LOVE English accents. If an English person talks to me, I melt.
 
I'm British-born, but have been in Canada since I was 5.

I spell with all the extra vowels, and the "funky" spellings like aluminium, tyre, and -ise on the ends of some words, rather than the "American" -ize.

It drives me completely bonkers to see "American" spelling at some Canadian-based websites I visit, and on more and more signs. It also drives me nuts that I have to deliberately misspell colour in order to change the colour of text in message boxes ;) .

I see it as just more "proof" of the Americanisation of Canada.
 
I live in NZ so I'm used to british english, so i guess that would mean i prefer it over american english :p

But people in NZ don't have British accents...

xUKHCx said:
Well technically you omit them but on this note we all had to use American to get on this site MacRumo(u)rs
Click to expand...

LOL I kept going to a site that told me "error" when i first started visiting this site... then i realised that it was because i added the "u"... now i just click it from my bookmarks :D
 
dynamicv said:
What's this British English thing? I speak English, from England. It's not quite the same as English as spoken in Scotland or even English as spoken in Wales. Therefore there is no British English.
Click to expand...

We all learn Queen's English to write, which I guess is British English.
 
I'm quite fond of some of the developments in American-style punctuation. There's something idiosyncratic but also elegant in the period placement that I quite like.
 
lofight said:
Really, if this is true, my teacher really isn't a good teacher. He says that all English speaking people use lettre, but that it's changing to letter..
Click to expand...

As others have said, lettre isn't used but I'm wondering if it was just a badly chosen example - or a misunderstanding in your notes since British English does use metre rather than the American meter, centre rather than center, litre rather than liter.

There are some fascinating books out there on the historical of different dialects of English - both within the UK and between the UK and North America.
 
lofight said:
Really, if this is true, my teacher really isn't a good teacher. He says that all English speaking people use lettre, but that it's changing to letter..
Click to expand...

I have never, ever seen anyone using the spelling "lettre" instead of letter in England. I think your teacher is confusing this with other words like centre and metre.
 
I think the OP meant litre/liter. Not letter/lettre.

I prefer British English (isn't that like saying english english? :p) The language used in the United States is atrocious.. you see spelling errors everywhere, even in major newspapers, magazines, etc. Don't even get me started on how the average person spells.

My realtor can never say 'Realtor' .. she always says "Relator"

I saw a real estate office once.. with the title "Reality Estate Services" instead of Realty!
 
Tom B. said:
My favourite is English English, but as for American English, it can be good (New York), or completely ****ing awful (Alabama), or somewhere in between. I prefer Australian accents to most American accents too.

P.S.

British = Aluminium

American = Alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooominum
Click to expand...

You have to really try to get yourself surrounded by rednecks nowadays. Easy on Bama. Its home to a lot of us here. Also, I find New York english absolutely dredful. LA is about perfect American English. (as long as you don't go to a Mall or ask a Mexican)
 
I prefer British English. Though I write in American English by habit, and because I'll get grilled by teachers and such.
 
Applespider said:
As others have said, lettre isn't used but I'm wondering if it was just a badly chosen example - or a misunderstanding in your notes since British English does use metre rather than the American meter, centre rather than center, litre rather than liter.

There are some fascinating books out there on the historical of different dialects of English - both within the UK and between the UK and North America.
Click to expand...

I think that's because all those words are derived from the French who do the thing with the reversed 're' and your teacher is totally wrong. There isn't now, nor ever has been, any spelling of the word "letter" as "lettre" in the UK.
 
RHD said:
I think that's because all those words are derived from the French who do the thing with the reversed 're'.
Click to expand...

indeed.

English is made up of basically three languages, although two dominate more: French, German, and Latin.

Germanic speakers created the dominate portion of the language, but the Norman invasion injected a good deal of French into it as well. during the Norman reign, the germanic portions of the language were for the lower class while the aristocracy used French. naturally they intermingled. and the class difference can still be seen in some cases where we have two words for the same thing, one french, one german. the german is typically considered the 'cruder' version overall. latin came into play due to the church and its widespread use of written works since they could afford it, but its not felt much today.
 
Doctor Q said:
Brits put punctuation that is not part of a quotation outside the quotation. That's so logical that it settles the whole language-preference issue for me, right then and there.
Click to expand...

This is one matter of style that leaves me torn inside. This issue is my Martin Luther. ;)
 
Of course people are going to prefer their own, and of course more people on this site are going to prefer british over american because the people on these forums are like 90% British/Australian/New Zealander or otherwise Europeans that learn british english in school.

I don't know how spelling words differently makes Americans lazy. We're lazy for other reasons. If our language is lazy, the brits' is pretentious.
 
PlaceofDis said:
during the Norman reign, the germanic portions of the language were for the lower class while the aristocracy used French.
Click to expand...
The nicest example is in the realm of food, where meat "on the hoof" is called by the Saxon name (pig, cow, sheep) because the serfs herded the animals, whereas by the time it had been butchered and presented to the Norman aristocracy as cooked food, it had acquired a French name (pork/porc, beef/boeuf, mutton/mouton).
 
skunk said:
The nicest example is in the realm of food, where meat "on the hoof" is called by the Saxon name (pig, cow, sheep) because the serfs herded the animals, whereas by the time it had been butchered and presented to the Norman aristocracy as cooked food, it had acquired a French name (pork/porc, beef/boeuf, mutton/mouton).
Click to expand...

easily one of the best examples. thank you, i was coming up with a blank for examples. :D
 
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