Both sides of the Atlantic have their foibles and things which are non-standard. Many times on American movies I hear (from supposedly educated characters): "if I would have gone, she would have been happy" instead of "If I had gone...". Conversely in England, many people say: "...she would of been happy".

Both of us completely mangle the grammatical form "this house is different from that one", with many English people saying "different to" and Americans saying "different than".

Not only do the English and Americans have differences in the way they talk, but the Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians also have subtle shibboleths which mark them as different.

Language is not a static construct, it is an evolving means of communication. Several hundred years ago, participle adjectives (bored, boring, interested, interesting, spell-bound, spell-binding) as well as the present continuous (present progressive) were frowned upon as corruptions, now they are the stable of English everywhere. Likewise, a few years ago use of "do" as an auxiliary (I go not > I do not go) was fiercely debated among linguists. Now, I cannot make a question without it, and it is even contracted (don't) which was the cardinal sin for linguists of centuries gone by.

Stephen McLean Mar-04-2012

3 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse