In the Interests of Unity Between us Brits and You Yanks... (page 13)

zombie dub

I'm neither Brit or American but what annoys me is that you insist to spell the same word differently and I never know if it's british english or american english

lose with 1 or 2 O's?

choose 1 or 2 O's? etc

maybe it's not that important but can be confusing for a Swede

new born - they aren't the same words:

lose (one o) is the opposite of win, i.e. to lose a game loose (2 o's) is the opposite of tight, i.e. loose fitting clothes choose (2 o's) is present/future tense, i.e. I will choose a dish from the menu chose (1 o) is past tense, I chose that dish from the menu

sacolton

No, it's not a "dead prong" ... it's the "ground". Extremely useful.

zombie dub

grrrr double post (crappy forum software didn't show the other one until I posted this too, and the reply editor doesn't work on a mac!!)

undercover

it's not a "dead prong" ... it's the "ground".

Maybe that's Brit slang for ground...or... if you didn't have that prong, you'd be dead.

creativhoney

its not earth any more sacolton. nothing is wired to it actually. and zombie - this behaves oddly on a mac.

sacolton

The idea behind grounding is to protect the people who use metal-encased appliances from electric shock. The casing is connected directly to the ground prong.

Let's say that a wire comes loose inside an ungrounded metal case, and the loose wire touches the metal case. If the loose wire is hot, then the metal case is now hot, and anyone who touches it will get a potentially fatal shock. With the case grounded, the electricity from the hot wire flows straight to ground, and this trips the fuse in the fuse box. Now the appliance won't work, but it won't kill you either.

What happens if you cut off the ground prong or use a cheater plug so you can plug a three-prong appliance into a two-prong outlet? Nothing really -- the appliance will still operate. What you have done, however, is disable an important safety feature that protects you from electric shock if a wire comes loose.

greenie

I love in London how all the street crossings have painted on the ground "Look Left" or "Look Right" so the rest of the world doesn't get run over.

And do you really say "further afield?"

Also, I looked at that Wikipedia article and according to it, the Mason Dixon line would make D.C. and Maryland southern states...?

zombie dub

we do say further afield, yup

one thing that drives me mad is, we say (correctly) "I couldn't care less" if we could not care less about something. Americans say "I could care less" when they could not care less about something. Just is completely grammatically wrong and makes no sense! Why is this?

undercover

Also, I looked at that Wikipedia article and according to it, the Mason Dixon line would make D.C. and Maryland southern states...?

Technically speaking, that's correct, if you went by the Mason-Dixon line. And there were plenty of Confederate sympathizers in Maryland, though the state itself remained Union.

I've always considered Virginia the northern most Southern state...excluding DC of course. After all Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy...the majority of the time. When people speak of the South or the War, the definition of the South are the states of the Confederacy and sometimes the Indian Nations.

sacolton

Do Brits say "aloof"?

In the Interests of Unity Between us Brits and You Yanks...

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