Mad kitty!

"CATherine" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 15:54:42 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:



Yowie wrote:


I always find it weird to hear the American term "I'll write you"
rather
than saying "I'll write *to* you". I don't know when the dropped
"to" or the
"to the" in your case above first started to be thought of as
correct
grammar in American English, but to these Commonweatlth English
ears, it
always sounds wrong.

What I find even weirder is the comparatively new "I could
care less", when what is so clearly meant is "I could NOT
care less"!

Or, "lucked out", meaning something positive. It always seemed
backwards to me. But a lot of teen slang over the last 20 years has
used words backwards in their meanings.

--
CATherine

That's true, like using "bad" or "phat" for "good". However, it goes
back a lot longer than 20 years. My high school class held its 50th
reunion last year, and when I was in high school, a lot of kids used
"spastic" to describe something good. Since I had a couple of spastic
cousins, I couldn't bring myself to use it, and it made me
uncomfortable.

Joy

"CATherine" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 15:54:42 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:



Yowie wrote:


I always find it weird to hear the American term "I'll write you"
rather
than saying "I'll write *to* you". I don't know when the dropped
"to" or the
"to the" in your case above first started to be thought of as
correct
grammar in American English, but to these Commonweatlth English
ears, it
always sounds wrong.

What I find even weirder is the comparatively new "I could
care less", when what is so clearly meant is "I could NOT
care less"!

Or, "lucked out", meaning something positive. It always seemed
backwards to me. But a lot of teen slang over the last 20 years has
used words backwards in their meanings.

--
CATherine

That's true, like using "bad" or "phat" for "good". However, it goes
back a lot longer than 20 years. My high school class held its 50th
reunion last year, and when I was in high school, a lot of kids used
"spastic" to describe something good. Since I had a couple of spastic
cousins, I couldn't bring myself to use it, and it made me
uncomfortable.

Joy

"CATherine" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 15:54:42 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:



Yowie wrote:


I always find it weird to hear the American term "I'll write you"
rather
than saying "I'll write *to* you". I don't know when the dropped
"to" or the
"to the" in your case above first started to be thought of as
correct
grammar in American English, but to these Commonweatlth English
ears, it
always sounds wrong.

What I find even weirder is the comparatively new "I could
care less", when what is so clearly meant is "I could NOT
care less"!

Or, "lucked out", meaning something positive. It always seemed
backwards to me. But a lot of teen slang over the last 20 years has
used words backwards in their meanings.

--
CATherine

That's true, like using "bad" or "phat" for "good". However, it goes
back a lot longer than 20 years. My high school class held its 50th
reunion last year, and when I was in high school, a lot of kids used
"spastic" to describe something good. Since I had a couple of spastic
cousins, I couldn't bring myself to use it, and it made me
uncomfortable.

Joy

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
I'm quite fascinated by the difference between American and English.
I'd
like to hear more examples of the differences.
Sidewalk - pavement
Faucet - tap
Hood - bonnet
Trunk - boot
Vacation - holiday
Humor - humour, now this looks to a Brit like it might be pronounced
"hoomer" instead of h-you-mer. Same as color. Looks like Kollar.

I really do relish the experience of sharing/asking my USA friends on
this
group about pronounciation. Where else would an American tell me
honestly
and without taking offence. (see offense!) Nowhere.

Tweed

Fascinates me, too. The term that always confused me when I was first
on
newsgroups was "garden/yard." I honestly thought about everybody in
the UK must
have nice, neat rows of green beans and carrots and such right out
their back
door, because everybody let their cats out the back door into their
"garden."
Someone from the UK flamed me good one time for using the word
"dander."
I learned a lot from UK posters, and some words are in my vocabulary
permanent
now. Like "moggie." There was a horrid creature from the UK that used
to be on
the cat groups who called me "harpic." I'd never heard that one
either! I
thought it must have angelic overtones.

Sherry

Yes, I find the differences fascinating too. And when you bring
Australia into the mixture, it gets even more interesting. I've noticed
that a lot of Aussie terms are the same as the English, but they have a
lot of their own too. Luckily, I had several Aussie Internet friends
who warned me about some of the differences before I visited Australia.
Otherwise I might have shocked the Aussies a time or two - and that's
pretty hard to do. G

For instance, in the U.S., we "root" for our favorite team to win. In
Australia, one wouldn't do that unless one were making an Aussie version
of "Debbie Does Dallas". ;-) Aussies "barrack" for their team. Also,
in Australia, you don't say "I'm stuffed!" after a big meal, because
that word is the approximate equivalent of the "f" word.

Joy

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
I'm quite fascinated by the difference between American and English.
I'd
like to hear more examples of the differences.
Sidewalk - pavement
Faucet - tap
Hood - bonnet
Trunk - boot
Vacation - holiday
Humor - humour, now this looks to a Brit like it might be pronounced
"hoomer" instead of h-you-mer. Same as color. Looks like Kollar.

I really do relish the experience of sharing/asking my USA friends on
this
group about pronounciation. Where else would an American tell me
honestly
and without taking offence. (see offense!) Nowhere.

Tweed

Fascinates me, too. The term that always confused me when I was first
on
newsgroups was "garden/yard." I honestly thought about everybody in
the UK must
have nice, neat rows of green beans and carrots and such right out
their back
door, because everybody let their cats out the back door into their
"garden."
Someone from the UK flamed me good one time for using the word
"dander."
I learned a lot from UK posters, and some words are in my vocabulary
permanent
now. Like "moggie." There was a horrid creature from the UK that used
to be on
the cat groups who called me "harpic." I'd never heard that one
either! I
thought it must have angelic overtones.

Sherry

Yes, I find the differences fascinating too. And when you bring
Australia into the mixture, it gets even more interesting. I've noticed
that a lot of Aussie terms are the same as the English, but they have a
lot of their own too. Luckily, I had several Aussie Internet friends
who warned me about some of the differences before I visited Australia.
Otherwise I might have shocked the Aussies a time or two - and that's
pretty hard to do. G

For instance, in the U.S., we "root" for our favorite team to win. In
Australia, one wouldn't do that unless one were making an Aussie version
of "Debbie Does Dallas". ;-) Aussies "barrack" for their team. Also,
in Australia, you don't say "I'm stuffed!" after a big meal, because
that word is the approximate equivalent of the "f" word.

Joy

"Sherry " wrote in message
...
I'm quite fascinated by the difference between American and English.
I'd
like to hear more examples of the differences.
Sidewalk - pavement
Faucet - tap
Hood - bonnet
Trunk - boot
Vacation - holiday
Humor - humour, now this looks to a Brit like it might be pronounced
"hoomer" instead of h-you-mer. Same as color. Looks like Kollar.

I really do relish the experience of sharing/asking my USA friends on
this
group about pronounciation. Where else would an American tell me
honestly
and without taking offence. (see offense!) Nowhere.

Tweed

Fascinates me, too. The term that always confused me when I was first
on
newsgroups was "garden/yard." I honestly thought about everybody in
the UK must
have nice, neat rows of green beans and carrots and such right out
their back
door, because everybody let their cats out the back door into their
"garden."
Someone from the UK flamed me good one time for using the word
"dander."
I learned a lot from UK posters, and some words are in my vocabulary
permanent
now. Like "moggie." There was a horrid creature from the UK that used
to be on
the cat groups who called me "harpic." I'd never heard that one
either! I
thought it must have angelic overtones.

Sherry

Yes, I find the differences fascinating too. And when you bring
Australia into the mixture, it gets even more interesting. I've noticed
that a lot of Aussie terms are the same as the English, but they have a
lot of their own too. Luckily, I had several Aussie Internet friends
who warned me about some of the differences before I visited Australia.
Otherwise I might have shocked the Aussies a time or two - and that's
pretty hard to do. G

For instance, in the U.S., we "root" for our favorite team to win. In
Australia, one wouldn't do that unless one were making an Aussie version
of "Debbie Does Dallas". ;-) Aussies "barrack" for their team. Also,
in Australia, you don't say "I'm stuffed!" after a big meal, because
that word is the approximate equivalent of the "f" word.

Joy

wrote in message
...
Jeanne Hedge wrote:

As I'm sure you've figured out by now, in the US a "garden" (place
to
grow flowers, veggies ,etc) can be part of a "yard" (grassy area
outside house). Some people don't have yards at all, their outdoor
green space is 100% garden area.

And then there are some people who don't have yards because they live
in apartment buildings, or in neighborhoods where all the houses are
so
close together that there's no space for a yard.

What would you call a "yard" (US usage) or "garden" (UK usage) that
was made completely of rocks (could be all small rocks or rocks of
various sizes)? ... (according to my cousins, where they live these
are called "rock gardens" - this has to be either the UK usage of
"garden" or they're growing rocks! ^_-)

I think it's the latter. Not that they're literally growing the rocks,
but perhaps metaphorically they are.

I don't think so. I think it's connected to the idea of Japanese rock
gardens, which can be quite beautiful.

Joy


I wonder if the UK usage of "yard" is the basis of the name of the
100% concrete outdoor areas used by jail/prison inmates for
exercise -
the jail/prison yard.

Makes sense to me!

Joyce

wrote in message
...
Jeanne Hedge wrote:

As I'm sure you've figured out by now, in the US a "garden" (place
to
grow flowers, veggies ,etc) can be part of a "yard" (grassy area
outside house). Some people don't have yards at all, their outdoor
green space is 100% garden area.

And then there are some people who don't have yards because they live
in apartment buildings, or in neighborhoods where all the houses are
so
close together that there's no space for a yard.

What would you call a "yard" (US usage) or "garden" (UK usage) that
was made completely of rocks (could be all small rocks or rocks of
various sizes)? ... (according to my cousins, where they live these
are called "rock gardens" - this has to be either the UK usage of
"garden" or they're growing rocks! ^_-)

I think it's the latter. Not that they're literally growing the rocks,
but perhaps metaphorically they are.

I don't think so. I think it's connected to the idea of Japanese rock
gardens, which can be quite beautiful.

Joy


I wonder if the UK usage of "yard" is the basis of the name of the
100% concrete outdoor areas used by jail/prison inmates for
exercise -
the jail/prison yard.

Makes sense to me!

Joyce

wrote in message
...
Jeanne Hedge wrote:

As I'm sure you've figured out by now, in the US a "garden" (place
to
grow flowers, veggies ,etc) can be part of a "yard" (grassy area
outside house). Some people don't have yards at all, their outdoor
green space is 100% garden area.

And then there are some people who don't have yards because they live
in apartment buildings, or in neighborhoods where all the houses are
so
close together that there's no space for a yard.

What would you call a "yard" (US usage) or "garden" (UK usage) that
was made completely of rocks (could be all small rocks or rocks of
various sizes)? ... (according to my cousins, where they live these
are called "rock gardens" - this has to be either the UK usage of
"garden" or they're growing rocks! ^_-)

I think it's the latter. Not that they're literally growing the rocks,
but perhaps metaphorically they are.

I don't think so. I think it's connected to the idea of Japanese rock
gardens, which can be quite beautiful.

Joy


I wonder if the UK usage of "yard" is the basis of the name of the
100% concrete outdoor areas used by jail/prison inmates for
exercise -
the jail/prison yard.

Makes sense to me!

Joyce

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in
message
...

wrote in message
...
Yoj wrote:

After all, if you say "in THE hospital", you must be
talking about a specific hospital, LOL!

Generally a person is in a specific hospital. G

Yes, but that's not what that usage implies. People refer to "the
hospital" to simply mean that the person is in a hospital, any
hospital.
They're not referring to a previously named one.

I'm sure a grammarian could explain this more articulately!

Joyce

I'm a Brit, and have recently been in hospital. Not in "the"
hospital,
just
in hospital. I don't know how to explain it, but we are definitely
just
"in
hospital."
The same way as we don't go on vacation, we go on holiday. And I
write
"to"
someone too.

I'm quite fascinated by the difference between American and English.
I'd
like to hear more examples of the differences.
Sidewalk - pavement
Faucet - tap
Hood - bonnet
Trunk - boot
Vacation - holiday
Humor - humour, now this looks to a Brit like it might be pronounced
"hoomer" instead of h-you-mer. Same as color. Looks like Kollar.

I really do relish the experience of sharing/asking my USA friends
on this
group about pronounciation. Where else would an American tell me
honestly
and without taking offence. (see offense!) Nowhere.

Jumper:
When a Commonwealth speaker says this, they are talking about what an
American would call a sweater
When an American says this, they are talking about what a Commonwealth
speaker would probably call a pinafore dress.

And there are the different names for foods. Makes followong recipes
quite
challenging - not only do you have to translate between imperial and
metric, and remember that Commonwealth Imperial is not always the same
as
American Imperial, but you also have to translate ingredients.

And then there are the differences in spelling, grammar,
pronunciation,
accent, and regionalisms.

I'm remembering when I rang a very fancy hotel in Minneapolis to talk
to my
friend who was away on business. I used to think I didn't have a
particularly strong Australian accent, but the receptionist simply
couldn't
understand me until I started speaking in my fake American accent. For
a
hotel that would surely get guests from all over the world, I would
have
thought my accent would not present a problem, but perhaps Australian
sounds
*particularly* strange to American ears.

Yowie


That reminds me - an Aussie friend from another newsgroup recently
visited the United States, where she spent four years driving around on
her own (She's a lot braver than I am!). She said that at one motel,
the clerk asked her where she was from and she said Australia. The
clerk said, "Your English is very good." Without missing a beat, my
friend said, "So is yours."

Joy