Standard British English vs. American English

I don't understand what Americans have against the letter 'u'.

 

I don't understand the love Brits have for the letter "u".

 

I speak in an Americian English way, but it's mixed up a bit. My mom's from Guatemala and the other side of my family is mostly italian/hispanic. So because I grew up around so many weird accents I speak a weird mix.
Oh and just to confuse it that much more a family friend helped me learned how to spell and he was from the UK and taught me to use the "u" in my spelling. Took me years to get out of that habit and now I live in Australia and have to remember to use it all over again. Fun times.

 

I use both interchangeably. I spell it colour and favourite with a 'u' though.

 

I use it interchangeably. This is due to American English being slightly easier for me to pronounce but I try to use Standard English pronounciation as much as possible as it sounds more beautiful than U.S. English, no offence.
Talking about hate for certain letters, why is it American's have trouble with the letter A?
It's 'can't' not 'cean't' if you catch my drift:icon_wink

I like Eddie Izzard's bit on American vs English:
Eddy Izzard American vs. British English Sketch - YouTube
"Herbs, because there's a fucking H in it!":lol:

 

Because they're suposed to be in the words that you've all just decided to remove them from.

 

I don't think either is better because neither one is very phonetic. (if ididnt spellthat right just proves my point). Pronunciation is weird in English and American, for example color and colour are the same, but flour doesn't sound like colour, it sounds like hour. British pronounce the h in herb, yet if I'm not mistaken (and I totally could be) they don't pronounce the h in hour. I feel like if you aren't going to spell words how they sound, than it doesn't make any difference.

 

Canadian English, which is ever so subtly different. I tend to use spellings atypical of even that, however, which are more familiar to the English.

 

When writing, I try to use British spelling as much as I can. As for speech and accent, I try to memorise the phonetics in our English textbooks, which by the way use Received Pronunciation, and the manner in which the words are pronounced in aural exercises.

 

I would say I use both, but I like British English better

 

I agree. Although I do favor American English because that is more familiar to me, the two are pretty similar and neither is all that phonetic

 

Ask Noah Webster. It was actually a deliberate attempt to separate American from British English back when the US was still a new nation.

It's probably just my bias, but American pronunciation seems a little bit more phonetic than the British Received pronunciation, so I've been curious if it's easier to learn American pronunciation. In my travels in Europe, it seems American English is a little more popular.

I'm also curious if my papers would be crucified if I used American spelling and punctuation when I study abroad in Australia.

 

Australian english, which is only slightly different from british. We have some cool words, like stoush, and some cool sayings, like "dry as a dead dingo's donger" =P

 

Being a Brit, it's British English all the way. Plus, u gets a lot more love in words like favourite, rumour, colour, etc.

 

It may not always show (sometimes, when your on the internet, you fire things off quite fast to keep up with a conversation), but I am a English Major. I voted that I use both interchangebly, and the reason is because both are technically correct. I also love to write, so if I have a british character, I will have them use british grammer.

For example, sometimes, instead of saying something was gone, they will say something had gone. It is the kind of thing that most people would overlook, but in reading books by british writers, you pick up on subtle differences.

of course, I say color, not colour. SUCK IT, YOUR QUEEN LOOKS LIKE A MAN!

 

British English all the way!

In regards to the 'U' thing, that's how things were originally spelt before the U.S changed the spellings of words like colour. If you say the words out loud, the 'U' definitely makes sense, way more than without.

Let's be honest, you wouldn't be there if it wasn't for us. Our Queen does not look like a man, she's fit as fuck.

(Bear in mind, this is only banter and nothing more!)

 

I use American English, and truthfully until right now I have never really thought about it.

I was actually talking about this with my dad two days ago, and we didn't really know the answer. Please don't think I am a jerk for asking this, but what does the Queen actually do?

 

Haha! She's only a public figure these days, she doesn't do that much really and has little power. I personally just respect her for having to live a certain way with no choice in the matter, she can't do normal things and never has been able to. This is her job > :smilewave

 

The English we use is mostly British, we were a British colony after all. But the accent is a huge mix sometimes and doesn't sound like British or American. I do prefer the British English though. But Afrikaans is probably still the easiest language...