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British English vs American English and an Uber Cool Blog About Words

I really need to go blog-hopping and see what my tens of readers have been up to lately. It’s been a very offline week for me, though. So if you are wondering why I haven’t checked out your blog lately, that’s why. I’ll be back!

Festive rosemary and mini marshmallows. Photo by Tui Cameron
Festive rosemary and mini marshmallows. Photo by Tui Cameron

I wrote an article about a restaurant today and came up with a line that amused me. Wanna hear it? OK. Here ya go: “What the decor lacks in taste, the cuisine makes up for in flavour.” Yeah, I wrote “flavour” ‘cuz it’s for a British-based company.

When writing for British publications, I try to make things easier for my editors by using the proper words and spelling for the UK: eggplant/aubergine, zucchini/courgette, jewelry/jewellery, curb/kerb. One that especially cracks me up is that “fanny pack” is “bum bag” to the Brits. Not that I talk about fanny packs much, but still – in England, “fanny” is slang for a lady’s intimate parts, so I try to avoid it.

I recently saw the new Harry Potter movie and was annoyed that they had Hermione call out, “Mom,” instead of, “Mum,” and that the characters wished each other, “Merry Christmas,” instead of, “Happy Christmas.” I mean, c’mon! It’s set in England. They’ve got British accents. Can’t they just be themselves? And even though P.T. Barnum once remarked that, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public,” I still think people – even us Americans – would be able to figure out what they meant. Sheesh!

Speaking of words and etymology, I found a magnificent blog called Playing in the Word Farm by a guy named Stan. He recently posted about words that are related in surprising ways. Did you know, for instance,that ‘cybernetic,’ and, ‘governor,’ are closely related? How about, ‘galaxy’ and, ‘lettuce,’ or ‘Greek,’ and ‘gringo’? Interesting, eh? Check out this link to read all about it.

A word of warning: Unless I chicken out or get too busy, I plan to update my version of WordPress to 3.0.1 in the next day or two. Hopefully there will be no glitches. If there are, and my blog disappears or looks wonky, don’t worry – I’ll be back!

Tui Snider
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2 Comments

  1. Oh, British spelling – a major (well, maybe more minor than major) problem in my expat life. Today, I had to take a typing test for a job interview, and on top of making sure to type fast and correctly, I had to make sure to use “s” instead of “z” and add a “u” to appropriate words. In normal life, thank goodness for British English spell checker!

    • mentalmosaic mentalmosaic

      C. in Oz: I hear ya on the Brit English spell checker. It’s the slang that can still trip me up if I am not careful. Hope you get that job! :) ~Tui

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