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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > Words Americans do not use
Words Americans do not use  [message #75171] Fri, 16 November 2018 23:16 Go to previous message
American_Alex

Toe is in the water
Location: New York, upstate
Registered: October 2017
Messages: 98



I'm reading through the story "The Bully and the Bullied", which is set somewhere in a northern rural location in the US. I'm up to chapter 3, and already the word "bloody" has been used twice. Americans DO NOT use this word, unless they are trying to sound stereotypically British. Never in the US, and rarely even in Canada. Using British vernacular in an "American" story is improper, and should be avoided.

Certain other "Britishisms" should also be avoided when trying to sound like an American. Words like "pram", "roundabout", "petrol" and "boffin", exclamations such as "brilliant", "oi" and "cor" are also never used in American dialogue. Certain 'Northern' or Celtic terms like "bairn", or "ceilidh" will confuse most Americans. Certain grammatical forms like "the caller has hang up" or "in hospital" are also distinctly British, and not American. Certain loan words from French, like "aubergine", "abbatoir", "fete" or "palais" likewise are never used in Amercan vernacular.

Going further, there are certain terms which would confuse nearly any American. "Lollipop lady", "fruit machine", "rock trousers", and "Hoxton bonnet" come to mind, mostly because I've just recently learned these expressions. British standard spellings also sometime differ; sometimes slightly, as in center/centre, to the more extreme like in jail/gaol. A quick way to make these sort of issues minimal would be to set your spell-checker to American standard English, if only to check your accuracy.



"Able was I ere I saw Elba"
 
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