Mix British English and American English - considered good language?
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tob ...@telia.com (Torbj?¶rn Svensson Diaz)
If I write a text where some words are spelled in American English and some in British English, would that be disturbing for the reader?
And can I for example use a British word as lift instead of elevator, but still write realize instead of realise? And what about exprecissions? Is it bad English to mix British and American exprecissions?
As it is now, I mix them pretty often. That's beacause here in Sweden we learn us British English in school, but the movies I see, the books I read and the sites I visit on the Internet is mostly in American English.
Am I "forced" to chose one of them, so to speak?
Best regards, Torbj?¶rn Svensson Diaz
a ...@asarian-host.net (Ann)
Yes it would. It would drive me nuts!
It depends if you want us to understand what you say. There are many Amercian expressions that mean nothing to me and similarly things I say that an American wouldn't understand. So you need to decide whether you want Americans of Britons to understand.
Also if you mix expressions then the meaning may be misunderstood.
For example, if you were writing in totally American style and you talked of being pissed, I would know you meant 'angry'. Whereas if the writing was in British style I would know that you meant 'drunk'.
If your style is mixed, then how will I know which you mean?
Ann
Polar sme...@mindspring.com
It could depend on your target audience. If you're writing for hard-core Brits, who would take umbrage at the faintest, sulfur-laden whiff, of Yank-speak, why then be guided accordingly. If OTOH, they are mellowed-out, "globalized" Brits, then let it all hang out.
Finally, if writing for Americans, not to worry; 99-44/100% of them won't be able to read the text whether in British or American spelling. And the othe 66/100% [1] won't be upset.
[1 Anybody else remember where 99-44/100% came from?
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Polar
"Pat Durkin" p...@hotmail.com
Ivory Soap. It floats.
"Pat Durkin" p...@hotmail.com
If you are writing a serious piece, you have to consider your audience.
Most people would wish for you to pick a style and then to stick with it, (with the occasional lapse into the alternate type marked with quotation marks, or parentheses and _sic_ ).
Most lay persons would tolerate any number of alternate spellings, or might enjoy feeling superior in counting the ways in which "they" would do it better.
If you avoid obvious slang and obscenities, you should get along quite well in writing for Americans. And if you should accidentally pick on an idiom that causes some confusion, do as most people do when trying to communicate: Write it a second and third time, each time differently.
If you are writing more than one paragraph, most readers will either understand that the writer is not a native speaker, and will progress into the piece, or will stop and go on to more easily comprehended material.
( I notice in speech that some people not only say a thing 3 times, they say each iteration in a progressively louder voice. Maybe you could put your second version inside quotation marks, and the third in italics.)
"Pat Durkin" p...@hotmail.com
I didn't see anyone correct your word, "exprecissions", and I do it here only because it appears related to a few other words. I think you mean to say "expressions".
Your word is quite evocative of "imprecise, imprecision, imprecations" and "excisions", and reminds one that in olden days, before people started trying to standardize the spelling, the "ss" appeared very often in places where we now use a single "s", but I couldn't predict when one would choose. These are apparently correct words, resulting from my search for recission (erroneous, done just for laughs.) in Merriam-Webster Online.
1. rescission 2. recision 3. recession 4. remission 5. recisions 6. rescissions 7. recessions 8. resection You appear to handle the English language in a very capable manner.
tob ...@telia.com (Torbj?¶rn Svensson Diaz)
Thanks a lot, it's really nice to hear that from a native speaker.
/Torbj?¶rn Svensson Diaz
"Barbara" b...@worldpath.net
snipp?©d Shirley (I learned that here) you 'make the eagle scream'!
I know at least 77/100% of them and they read text very well.
I was under the impression that it was Mark Wallace! 143% and counting!
Babz Bi-pondal
Polar sme...@mindspring.com
Bingo!
That was before people (some people) caught on to the gimmick used by pop soap mfgrs; trapping lotsa air bubbles in soap, so it would dissolve more quickly, necessitating new purchase.
The congnoscenti went to hard-milled soap, sans luft.
Same PR sell re: toilet paper. "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" is a slogan that resonates from the days when TP was hawked on TV as "softer". Actually, they put far fewer sheetson a roll, and rolled it more loosely, so when you did "squeeze the Charmin" it felt, uh, "soft".
What fools these mortals be...
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Polar
"Mark Wallace" mwallacenos...@noknok.nl
Can I stop counting, now?
My feet are getting cold.
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Mark Wallace
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For the intelligent approach to nasty humour, visit: The Anglo-American Humour (humor) Site http://humorpages.virtualave.net/mainmenu.htm
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Mason Barge masonbarge.nos...@aol.com
[...] It had something to do with pornography, right?
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Mason Barge "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like." -- Abraham Lincoln
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