UK and America are two countries separated by a common language, UK and US Q&A cont'd

[mathanxiety]

Started another one in case anyone wants to do it again...

smelt is a fish, smelled is smell in past tense

dove is the one I associate as correct.

spelt is a grain/wheat and you can buy spelt flour and such

spelled is past tense of spell

I've heard the smelt and spelt here in the UK and just kind of about it as the differences can be amusing sometimes. I think dived would have made me previously as it just seems incorrect to me - but then I've never heard anyone actually USE it.

I've heard both snuck and sneaked, so neither would be odd to me.

I've also heard both pled and pleaded in the states. Haven't really noticed what is said here in the UK though.

Oh, I know one. I have heard MANY people here in the UK say "I didn't want to be IGNORANT." and they meant like IGNORING someone. Not ignorant as in "not very clever" kind of ignorant. I've never heard anyone use it in that way in the states. Ignorant in the states is basically .. well.. ignorant like stupid, uneducated, however you want to put it. Always but always makes me want to giggle like mad when someone says that here.

Oh yes I know spelt is a grain :)

But yes, I hear people saying spelt as the past tense of spell and smelt for smell fairly often.

I nearly always use the -ed suffix for the past tense. So no 'learnt' here, or 'spelt', or even 'burnt' except as an adjective. Come to think of it, I believe I would only use dreamt, knelt and leapt out of the verbs that can go either way. I learned to spell in Ireland. (I always say and write 'dived'. Dove just sounds very colloquial to me.)

Alice I've never known anyone use it that way. I think they must not know what they are saying. A little like when people use Pacific as in ocean rather than specific

Alice I've never known anyone use it that way. I think they must not know what they are saying. A little like when people use Pacific as in ocean rather than specific

Exactly. I think it's used badly. I know that spelt is a grain!

I would never say 'dove' always 'dived'

Ignorant in the UK can mean rude, it's slang but a well understood usage. So they don't mean Ignorant as in ignoring, but as in rude (to ignore you).

mummytime yes most likely in that way. But they are definitely not meaning as in not very clever.... like rude by ignoring someone. I've heard it numerous times in both places in the UK that I've lived. The first few times I was but used to it now.

I would say ignorant is related to lack of knowledge rather than lack of brains. So 'ignorant' (of manners) might mean 'knowing so little of manners that someone ignored you'...

Possibly. It just seems to be used in a bit different context than in the states IYSWIM. Not quite sure how to explain it but I've never heard it used in quite the same way in the states. It's all semantics, I suppose.

steff13 Re: say 'I was stood, I was sat' - this is not actually grammatically correct in British English, but sadly seems to be more and more common! But don't Americans say 'I will lay down on the bed' which is also becoming popular over here - but it should really be 'I will lie down'.

Different to/different from - I say these more or less interchangeably, but thinking about it 'different from' is probably more correct. But I thought Americans said 'different than' - or is that just in some regions?

Yes, some people do say "lay" when they should use "lie." I don't recall hearing anyone use "different than," though, so that may be regional.

I googled "different to" vs. "different from," and the site I visited said that "different from" is the most common usage in both the US and the UK, but I don't think I've ever seen a UK poster on here use it, so I am skeptical of that.

I always use 'different from'.

The DCs use lay and lie properly but I rarely hear anyone else doing that.

There is also a growing misuse of the pronoun I where 'me' is the form to use -- 'They invited Bob and I to the beach house'. I have heard the President do this a few times..

I was stood etc is a vernacular use in some regional dialects, but it is becoming more widespread. I love how language changes and develops, but sometimes it can make teaching correct English a bit tricky.

I want to know what is the fabled Tiffin school or schools?

"I was stood" or "I am sat" always makes me smile for some reason.

Another we don't say in the US is "he took it off me", at least not to mean " he took it from me." The only way I can think of is if someone removed an article of clothing from you.

Tiffin schools are not that well known outside a certain area of SW London/Surrey. They are two Super selective State Grammar schools, a boys and a girls one.

Another we don't say in the US is "he took it off me", at least not to mean " he took it from me." The only way I can think of is if someone removed an article of clothing from you.

We were always told off for this at school - it wasn't accepted that it might have been a regional dialectical usage. It still sounds a bit ignorant to me - times change.

How about 'we were learnt [something]' instead of taught? Definitely a regional dialectical usage though.

How about 'we were learnt [something]' instead of taught? Definitely a regional dialectical usage though.

I think of 'we were learnt that', 'I learned them that', was just ignorance rather than dialect, rather like a double negative.

Is it ignorance though and not dialect? I think this is something which has been re-evaluated over the last 30 years or so. I don't say it myself, but I don't come from the part where they say it.

That explains a lot, Mummytime. The people I know who are very preoccupied with their children getting in live in that general area.

Americans don't say "whilst." They say "While we were waiting..."

That is true. :)

I agree abut 'lay' and 'lie'. When I hear people say something like, "I'm laying on my bed", I want to ask, "How many eggs this time?"