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I understand that English might not be a first language for some people, but for the people where it is their first language should probably go back to middle school for a year.
Who's and Whose
It's and its
To, too, and two
Their, they're, and there
Where, we're, and were
And more!
JayDee should teach a little English class here on CrackBerry
Posted via CB1007-04-13 12:34 PM - Yes I know it's technically a word but it still sounds out if place to an Englishman. "Mary is addicting John to Crackberry" is a very American usage, perhaps even a solely American usage. Nobody in the UK using English English, or just English, would say that, except people who are copying Americans they've heard, and heard recently at that. I hadn't come across this usage until I started reading articles and posts by people from the US and Canada on the CrackBerry website regularly around a year ago.
In the UK one would instead say "Mary is making John addicted to CrackBerry" avoiding the use of "addicting" altogether.
There is another problem with using addicting in the way you described in that if I said "I am addicting myself to caffeine" rather than "I am becoming addicted to caffeine" the former implies that I'm doing it to myself on purpose which isn't usually what one is trying to convey. The latter implies that as a consequence of consuming caffeine I am becoming addicted to it but that was not my intention or primary reason for consuming caffeine. That's what one would usually want to convey unless one were consciously performing some kind of experiment on oneself in order to experience the effects of caffeine addiction, making becoming addicted one's objective rather than to just enjoy the taste and stimulant effect of drinking lots of cups of coffee!
There are of course many differences between English and American English that have evolved over the years. I'm not saying they are all wrong by any means, it's the natural evolution of language. But it will always mean that for either side the other side's way if saying something that differs will always sound out of place.
Just for fun and to spark debate other quirks of American English versus English that I always notice are:
"I'm going to write him" vs "I'm going to write to him" - the former would be taken by an Englishman to mean that you are going to write the word "him" on a piece of paper and do nothing else.
"Can I get" vs "Can I have" - when ordering food and drink for example. No you can't go and get a medium rare steak from the kitchen, you don't work there. The waiter can get it for you so that you can have it!
Oh and the polite way to ask is "May I have" but to be honest "May I" is less commonly used now in the the UK as we all become little -Americans.
Oftentimes vs often - in the UK the medieval word oftentimes fell out of usage a long time ago. It's not wrong it just sounds very parochial and rural American to our ears when used today through exposure to American media. Weirdly it's another CrackBerry regular (ooh 'regular' that's next!) particularly used by Kevin, perhaps it's more commonly used in Canada?
"Regular" used as a size or type in retail, i.e. Regular vs Small - This is one that's used frequently over here now as the inevitable result of the Americanisation (note the s as opposed to the z) of high street retail in the UK. If I'm ordering food or drink from an American fast food chain dump I make a point of not saying "regular" and saying "small" or "medium" instead depending on which size the word regular appears to have done away with, just to be different. The American usage of the word regular to replace describing a specific size to me is symptomatic of the dumbing down of our language. It's as if you are being told not to bother knowing what something actually is, just call it "regular" and hope that means something to someone and don't have any expectations about what you will receive. Don't ask awkward questions, just regurgitate the predefined choices without ever knowing anything. Sometimes I wish the French or the Spanish had dominated the lands that became the USA just so our beautiful language, and knowledge in general, would be safer.
"September 12" vs "September the 12th" or "The 12th of September" - I know Americans love to abbreviate everything as much as they can but repeated abbreviations leads to a baron colourless expressionless vocabulary. An American saying "September 12" always sounds lazy to us as if he or she couldn't be bothered to say "the" or pronounce the "th" at the end of "12th". I know "The 12th of September" itself is an abbreviation of "The 12th day of September in the year of our Lord...." but out of pride in our rich language we haven't stripped it down to the bones quite yet!
And finally still on the date theme a convention quirk between both sides of "the pond" that causes confusion:
US Dates vs UK Dates or MM/DD/YYYY vs DD/MM/YYYY - Stating the month first, why? Just why?! Smallest, larger, largest that's the only logical way to express a date ending in the year using the number / number / number notation. Or if you start with the year use largest, smaller, smallest YYYY/MM/DD.
Imagine looking at a digital clock and instead of seeing HH:MM:SS it was HH:SS:MM with the seconds in the middle! That's what US Dates look like to us, totally illogical.
Posted via CB10Last edited by johnnyuk; 07-06-13 at 08:15 AM.
07-06-13 06:39 AM
"BlackBerry Z10 is better then X" or "I want to e-punch anyone who uses THEN in place of THAN"
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