American vs English English

[Jenny]

Came across this website (http://www.spongefish.com/creations/5258--Blimey-Spiffing-Wanker-and-other-useful-British-terms-/steps/1) and thought it was pretty funny..

I love the way we have different words for things.. trash vs rubbish. Can be kinda confusing :)

And the different spellings too, like organise vs organie, or favourite vs favorite. Where does the 'U' go in American spellings!? And why does America use a 'Z' instead of an 'S'

It's my understanding that Australian English is more like UK English... which kinda makes sense huh :)

[IndieSoul]

LOL that is funny :)

Aside from speaking American English, I'm from the Midwest. Here, we say words like "pop" for soda :D To me, it sounds like we're the only region in the US that doesn't have an accent. But people from the South, the West, the East, for example, say we do. Interesting, isn't it :)

[TDM]

Yup, Aussie English is like UK English but there are some American spellings the creep their way in, and it annoys me, like manuver vs manoeuvre, colour vs colour, etc etc. But, we do call chips chips, not crisps, How we tell the difference between the two, I have no clue. We just assume. Theres a fair few differences, come to think of it. Interesting thread!!

TDM

[Jenny]

I think the funniest has to be 'fanny bag' in American English, meaning 'bumbag' as we call in the UK.... i don't think people in America realise what a fanny is in the UK! :gy:

I think some people in the UK (well a friend of mine in Wales) uses the word 'pop'.. to me, 'pop' is something we might say to children to describe fizzy drinks.. but i personally have never used it.

And I most definitely do not have an accent.. i speak perfect normal English :D :bleh:

[TDM]

*risks sounding stupid* um, what's a fanny? I know what a bum bag is though, but it's not really a term we hear so much anymore.

[Katmandu40]

yeah Jenny!! What's a "fanny"?? By the way Jenny....love your accent!!!

[Wendell]

This is not exactly about American vs English grammar, but it's still appropriate for this thread because it has to do with grammatical oddities. I still remember when I came across this grammatical oddity. It's about nouns which add a letter when they become verbs. For example, the noun "panic" adds the letter "k" when it becomes a verb, namely "panick." To use in sentences, for example, the people were in a state of panic (noun), and the circus-lion on the loose panicked everybody (verb).

The same grammatical rule applies to picnic and frolic. As I recall, there were five such oddities in all, but I remember only those 3. Does anybody know of the 2 others?