by sonnyboy 114 Replies latest jw friends
'you folks' 'glean' 'old timers'. It was like listening to the theocratic version of Starsky and Hutch listening to the taped American dramas at the assembly.
Regular Americans generally do not sound like this. WT speak is WT speak.
I would say, "You guys or ya'll" for you folks ." "I get from this." for glean. "Elderly; retirees or older people." for old timers.
Do any other Britishers get a childish giggle when they hear an american using the phrase "blow off"?
I've never heard anyone use the phrase 'blow off'. If I heard someone say that, I would think they're talking about oral sex. I've heard people say, "He or she blowed me off," which means they were ignored or not taken seriously. It could also be used for oral sex in the right situation.
I think it's kind of funny to hear Brits say "piss off", because in the US piss only means urine or to urinate. I'd also like to add that some of the phrases that people think are "American" are not spoken by the average citizen; they're Hollywood creations or song lyrics. No one really says, "Baby got back", and I've never heard anyone over the age of 18 say, "Get 'er Done." And NO ONE speakes in Snoop Dogg izzleish. Maybe these things are said by 15 year olds, but not by the average person.
Here in Boston we say
Piss-off or fuck-off
Screw it, fuck it or to hell with it
Good enough for government work or can’t see it from my house
“We had a pissa time at the party” would be we had a good time or bad time depending on how it was said
This is a fine mess or that’s a fine how do you do
No problem
No shit? or no shit!
Oh ya!
that was a wicked good game
I do hear some people say, "He/she blew me off." Meaning, he/she stood me up or backed out of a date or didn't show up for an appointment to go somewhere or do something.
He/she blew me off could mean he/she gave me oral sex, too.
It would seem that in many cultures people use descriptive word combinations as other ways to express a common phrase or concept. Examples:
He gave me the brush off. = He rejected me.
Flake off! = Go away and/or leave me alone!
There was a whole thread about different ways of saying, "passing gas." I guess the action is an unpleasant but humorous fact of life and people love to find different ways or more polite ways to express it.
I remember when my sister and brother in law started studying with the jws they told me not to say, "I am pissed off. " I meant: "I am very angry." I didn't know the phrase was considered uncouth. I had heard it my whole life to mean angry.
I prefer US spelling - like, why the hell do the British put a 'u' in color? (colour) Waste of a key stroke, waste of toner, waste of paper...
Theater is '..errrr' at the end, not '...rrre' as in 'theatre'... so why spell it differently?
And what do the British have against 'z' as in to 'Americanise' or 'Americanize'? Give us the 'zzz' for a 'zzz' sound, not a bloody 's'!!!
And on Z, give us Zee, not Zed for gwards sake!! Went to an evil empire presentation the other day... the Microsoft guy said 'DMZee', but the others said 'DMZed'... not the same thing at all...
Pavement? That's a material not a thing... a sidewalk is a thing on the side of a road that you walk on ...
And who drives a carriage? So why have 'dual carrigeways'? Can't remember the US word... is it 'divided road'?
Anyhow... Webster did a great job fixing up the English language after the mess the British made of it!!!
Cheers, Max!!
I prefer US spelling - like, why the hell do the British put a 'u' in color? (colour) Waste of a key stroke, waste of toner, waste of paper...
Ok - am sticking neck out here. I see the absent of letters from ENGLISH words as laziness (ooooh - now THERE'S a ZED in its proper place)
Webster did a great job ;fixing up the English language after the mess the British made of it!!
Gobsmacked.
Theater is '..errrr' at the end, not '...rrre' as in 'theatre'... so why spell it differently?WHO is spelling it differently - from the ENGLISH I mean?
we gown get us some take out, y'all have a good time now!
"I'll be back" "I have no recollection of that"
"MacDonalds" "Fries" "Fast food" "Junk food" "Shopping Malls"
"Collatoral damage" "Acceptable loses" "Friendly Fire" "Take that hill"
"The fifth admendment" "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" "Gangsta Rap" "Breast implants" "Lawsuite"
I see the absent of letters from ENGLISH words as laziness (ooooh - now THERE'S a ZED in its proper place)
LOL! Good to see a Z!! But dunno where the ' ' came from, but HTML's British/Swiss isn't it?... ;-) (mmm... edited agin... wondering where the funny looking HTML code has gone to... mmmmm.... and where's the sapce coming from... grrrr...) Anyway... now your neck is out... :-) that's the thing with British language... it's a moral thing, a statement of 'standards', and a status thing... not just a means to communicate clearly and effectively... but a way of demonstrating one's virtue and industriousness... So, the effect of proving how unlazy the British are is a whole lot of keyboard operators putting billions of 'u' characters where they ain't needed each year! Life's too short! Gobsmacked at praise to Webster for making sense of the ad hoc English spelling and grammar rules that what's-his-name arbitrarily determined for the OED? Just check out how many ways Sheiksbeir spelled his own name! Neither rhyme nor reason there! (It's just a bloody language, and half the the Poms speak it as good as the other half play cricket!! :-)) ...and at least Webster had a system and a plan! Cheers, Max (Edited to note that Max is about to go and watch The Bill...always an interesting sociological insight... :)
It's amusing to be sitting on the tube listening to a group of americans saying they need to go to Lie-Chester Square when everyone knows it's pronounced Lester.
Ignored One.
