Blogcritics Comments on How To Speak British

Comment by Dr Dreadful on How To Speak British

Wed, 7 May 2008 16:40:54 EDT

Almost. It's "al-you-min-ee-um".

Comment by Rob on How To Speak British

Wed, 7 May 2008 15:35:19 EDT

Don't Brits say "a-loo-min-ey-um"?

Comment by Donni on How To Speak British

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:19:24 EDT

I think that what you mean by "assbelonker" is an "ass spelunker" in the US, spelunker meaning one who explores caves, and it is an impolite way to refer to homosexuals.

Comment by STM on How To Speak British

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 22:23:02 EDT

No idea to be honest, but I've never heard it ANY English-speaking country. Perhaps it's Dutch or Afrikaans, and now in usage by English-speaking south africans. I reckon you can work out what it means though just by the sound of it :)

Comment by paige on How To Speak British

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 18:45:55 EDT

what is an assbelonker?

Comment by Matt Owen on How To Speak British

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 15:40:59 EDT

Here in Canada we have British spellings for everything. We don�t have the same expressions though. A lot of american accents sound weird to me, but then theres some that sound more or less the same to us.

Comment by Scott Hicks on How To Speak British

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:51:53 EST

for Major Bob, post no. 18. no personal attack here, but a bit more comment. It seems to me that the exposure you have to Americano is from people that are either east coast or "yankee" centric in their accent. I personally work in contact centers so I do get to hear it all. Our common mother tongue has a miraculous group of accents. your re-spellings are hilarious to read at times from some points of view. I did learn by reading though that yank accents are irish in origin possibly, I had no idea, I have been trying to wrap my noggin around different accents in the kingdom for years now. If you get the chance to listen to southern accents and Texan accents you will find a big difference in some of the things you have provided example of. While your Ah Loo Me Num for Aluminum is spot on the T that you are inferring in Missile is innacurate and should be dropped though I am familiar with the proper form of Miss Isle instead of Miss eel. Shoulder Launched Holly sounds wonderful, I should do up a monty python style comedy sketch for that at some point. Kind of fits in with beehive hairdo drag queens in drag race cars. I have never seen Arkansas referred to with an O.. The proper form from people living there or in Texas and Louisiana area would be Ahr Can Saw like Noah's Ark. I found similar confusion when I visited a University of Arkansas branch campus in Jonesboro which is the NE corner of the state far away from Texas.. They pronounced it Tex Azz with a softening on the S like in Ass. This is extremely wrong.. It's simply Tex Us or Tex uz with a soft S still, this is due to the original form of the name is not English or Spanish or even French it's Native American Tejas or Teh Hahs .. (Kind of like Hass Avocado). I do agree with your Connecticut however the reasoning from the natives on their pronounciation is the two N on Conn.. kind of Like Cahn or a Con Man.. reminds me of Conn brass instruments (brand name) like Conn French Horn. the second C is silent. The brit pronunciation is more eloquent in most cases of all of these examples however sometimes the deference is to the way a native of that locale says something due to external reasons such as it being a word of non-English origin, as the case is with Arkansas and Texas. I am very surprised of your inclusion of box and bucks, This is probably just me being west of the Mississippi river. a Box is a Bochs and Bucks are like deer to Tuck in a buck in my pocket. This of course is coming from a guy that had trouble figuring out that a quid was a pound as when dealing with most british, cornish, irish, reserved, and public/cockney styles Americanos tend to be more proper in their usage just from our unfamiliarity with slang terms. FYI most of my spellings in this post will be american spellings as that's what my spell checker is set to. I cannot properly write something in british style because a spell checker is not all that is needed for it to come out right, especially in business. My contribution to the list of things: Resume = CV or Curriculum Vitae In common form of usage in deference to vulgarity: Bullshit or simply Shit as an explicative (shit of male cow) = Bollocks (Male balls). Now there, don't we all feel better now?

Comment by Major Bob Mountwitten on How To Speak British

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 09:20:23 EST

With all due respect: This should be called, "How to Speak English". What you unfortunate Colonials speak is "Americano". Although I see that the "Yankee" accent comes from Ireland, it has become the norm, merely by weight of numbers. You no spreakee Ingrish! What is the English for Allumanim? Aluminium. How do you pronounce "Missile"? Mistle. One therefore might assume that Mistle-tow, is a shoulder launched holly! And, where is Okinsaw? (Arkansas), and, Kaneticut? (Conecticut). I can't hear any difference between "box" and "bucks". For example, "put it in the baaks", and "gimme twenny baaks". Well, really! Who spreakee Ingrish now??

Comment by Ruvy in Jerusalem on How To Speak British

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 07:09:47 EST

Just sent the link to this article to an Aussie who left for the British Army thirty years ago, and transferred to the IDF in 1970 - just before his unit was sent to Northern Ireland. He had been spoinling for action, and missed out in the Australian Army, and the British Army. Burt he fought in the Yom Kippur War and served in the reserves for a gazillion years.... He should enjoy this and be able to contribute if he is of a mind to. And yes, Chris, it is amusing to see ads for "tutors for maths" on the buy sell list I belong to. Brits can't speak their own language, don't you know....

Comment by Christopher Rose on How To Speak British

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 07:03:53 EST

And as the root word is mathematics not mathematic, surely that proves that Yanks ~~don't~~ can't count! lol

Comment by Dr Dreadful on How To Speak British

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:17:16 EST

Are you sure about glisters? I lived in England for 10 years through my teen years in the 80s and never heard that. I'm not sure about maths either, unless you mean in the "maths department" sense. .. Which you do :-) 'Glisters' is the proper word to use in the saying which is often misquoted as 'all that glitters is not gold'. It's from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. You're right: no-one says 'glisters'. It's an archaism. 'Maths' is universally used where Americans would say 'math'.

Comment by Lisa on How To Speak British

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:52:27 EST

Much of the things in Britian are the same in Canada, I've noticed, so it's not a big deal for me. Everything's spelt the same as well. And it's to that end I don't understand why anyone can still not distinguish us from you yanks :p

Comment by gse on How To Speak British

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:10:16 EDT

bees and honey - money tom - ass beating ass kick ex: im gonna tom ya wanker lies - balockes