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English Usage US vs. UK

Loss Leader said:
"I've up and knackered my lorry, wot," is not english. It can't even be translated into english. It expresses concepts that english-speakers do not have the social foundation to grasp.
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Really? I would have thought that it would translate rather nicely into "My truck is [expletive starting with 'f']".
 
Morrigan said:
His usage was also correct.
By your logic, if I post a news story that occurs in the UK, I should write "I'm really sceptical about this" or "that lift didn't work correctly" or else I'm being "incorrect"?
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No-one corrected American english spellings or grammar.

The comparison with an American Parliament is faulty, since such a thing doesn't even exist.
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Senate and Congress together with the presidency, as your legislative body, correspond to the Parliament in the UK and Commonwealth countries. Bear in mind, for example, that the Wesmisnter system has an upper and lower house and the cabinet (led by the PM) are the key decision makers.

Therefore if I apply your logic, I can call your government a parliament. But you immediately claim it to be wrong. Point proven.

;)
 
Tricky said:
I was driving from my flat to the petrol station to clean my windscreen when I heard a noise from the gearbox. I went to raise the bonnet, when I saw that my tyre was flat, so I had to pull the spare out of the boot.
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Were you lucky enough to have your spanner and your torch with you?
 
If there were any justice in the world, sometime during the 1920's, the British should have realized that their primacy was permanently over and quietly and gracefully faded entirely away.

Having them still here is kind of like having Al Gore hanging around the White House. It's embarrassing for everybody.
 
True, but the French are just as bad as us and it'll happen to the US at some future point too - just like all the other historic superpowers.

You're just the young whipersnappers, that's all......
 
Architect said:
No-one corrected American english spellings or grammar.
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"Lift" isn't a variant in spelling or grammar, it's an alternate word in use in UK English but not US English. So the analogy holds. In fact more so, since loads of people in the UK are perfectly well aware that a theatrical screening means "in a cinema".

So he was right both in terms of his own culture, and in terms of being understood in an international context.

He shouldn't be expected to find out what a cinema is to make his point, any more than you should stop using "outwith", which is a purely Scottish word. And yes, I was guilty of pointing that out to you a while back, in a pointless nitpicky derail. Which is exactly what you did in the referenced thread, with respect.
 
Architect said:
No-one corrected American english spellings or grammar.



Senate and Congress together with the presidency, as your legislative body, correspond to the Parliament in the UK and Commonwealth countries. Bear in mind, for example, that the Wesmisnter system has an upper and lower house and the cabinet (led by the PM) are the key decision makers.

Therefore if I apply your logic, I can call your government a parliament. But you immediately claim it to be wrong. Point proven.

;)
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I'm not sure whether you're unclear on the profound differences between our Federal government and yours, or if you're trying to make a rhetorical point that fails. An American theater and a British cinema are fundamentally far more similar than a President and a Prime minister.
 
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With respect, I disagree. What you're saying is that it is acceptable to use an American term which is incorrect in the context of a UK story, which would primarily be of interest to Brits. If he had made a comment about, for example, a London "elementary school" then it would be exactly the same, notwithstanding the fact that most of us have an idea that this is probably broadly equivalent to a UK primary school.

To go back to the point about the US parliament, hiding behind the federal nature of the American is unhelpful, notwithstanding the rather obvious point that the UK operates on a broadly federalist basis in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. We call the German Bundestag a parliament, for example, despite a federal system operation there too. Yet I have one poster above suddenly handwaving and saying "no,no, you can't say we have a parliament, it's all tooootally different".

I'm not disagreeing that I was being pernickety, but find the OP's indignation terribly amusing under the circumstances.
 
Architect said:
With respect, I disagree. What you're saying is that it is acceptable to use an American term which is incorrect in the context of a UK story, which would primarily be of interest to Brits.
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Yes, but in this case he wasn't using a purely American term. There is a difference between 'showing theatrically' and 'in a theatre/theater'. As already noted, 'theatrical release' is commonly used in the UK, and 'showing theatrically' is an extension of that.
 
Big Les said:
...snip...

He shouldn't be expected to find out what a cinema is to make his point, any more than you should stop using "outwith", which is a purely Scottish word.

...snip...
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To carry on with the pedantic theme - outwith is NOT a "purely Scottish word" - it may well be a word in some Scottish dialects but it is also a word in some English (northern) dialects as well.
 
To be honest no, the only instances of "theatrical release" I'm immediately familiar with in the the UK are occasional voiceovers in American trailers. Perhaps you can give me some examples of some home-grown material?
 
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Architect said:
To be honest no, the only instances of "theatrical release" I'm immediately familiar with in the the UK are occasional voiceovers in American covers. Perhaps you can give me some examples of some home-grown material?
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Plenty of examples if you put the phrase 'theatrical release' into google, and search only in the UK.

How about this one:
143 Election for sections 134 to 140 not to apply

(1) A person carrying on a trade which consists of or includes the exploitation of original master versions of films may elect for sections 134 to 140 not to apply in relation to expenditure if—

(a) the person incurs expenditure on the production or acquisition of an original master version of a film,

(b) the original master version is a certified master version,

(c) its value is expected to be realisable over a period of not less than two years, and

(d) the film is genuinely intended for theatrical release.
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From the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005.

Is use in law good enough?
 
Darat said:
To carry on with the pedantic theme - outwith is NOT a "purely Scottish word" - it may well be a word in some Scottish dialects but it is also a word in some English (northern) dialects as well.
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It may be worth remembering that Scots preserves some English words no longer is wide usage in the south, such as "aye".
 
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