British Accent

[ChasUno 101]

We'll have to agree to disagree. Scale or not, I can't compare it to a state when the English counties have no legislature and do not decide the rules of education, marriage, driving, taxation, insurance, occupational licensing, etc for their political subdivision.

That's where the USA and UK differ quite greatly. All those rules/ laws you mentioned above are centrally legislated by Parliament, thus in the UK they would be the equivalent of Federal laws. Local governments (aka "Borough Councils" manage their budget and can make/ modify some limited bylaws, similar to US counties. They can only do so within their borough, what they decide has no effect on neighbouring boroughs. In terms of "identity" a UK birth certificate states the town and county that the person was born, and even when writing an address in full, one would write street, town and county, much the same as Americans would write street, town and state. With postcodes, people rarely write counties in any more as the postcode is what the post office uses to direct mail, also similar to a zip code in the USA. As you mentioned though, the UK counties have no direct comparison to a US state in terms of legislative power, and in fact there is no direct comparison for anything in the UK that resembles the powers that a US state can have. We also don't have anything like the "circuit court" system that the US has. Most major towns will have a magistrates court (criminal) and county court (civil). Anything more serious goes right to the highest level - Crown Court.

I believe this is why some Brits find it hard to understand how the US can have Federal laws for the whole country, and then some laws (i.e. death penalty) can be decided upon by state. I'm sure there are pros and cons for both, and I guess it's what one one is used to. Obviously, for us immigrants we have to get used to whole new way of legislation and bureaucracy, all part of the naturalisation process I guess.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Maybe think of the UK like a state and the EU like our federal government. We don't especially like the Feds telling us what to do, but sometimes we are stuck with them.

Cheers Chas. Not going to argue with you because I'm rubbish at it and it's really kinda apples and oranges. It was just an opinion of mine and not important.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Nich-Nick

[Kat&Jon 85]

Sorry! That was probably my fault for accidentally hijacking the thread with my questions! Lets get back to more funny accent stories!!! I promise to not accidentally hijack the thread anymore!

BTW I would like to point out that some Americans even say To Mah Toe! I heard it mostly when visiting the Midwestern states. So there are some here who say it that way! The one that still gets me every time is Derby pronounced like DARBY... still weird to me!!!

[DJ6372 111]

How about Worcestershire sauce

Pronounced

Wor-sester-shire split into 3 seperate words, my wife (the yank) goes nuts when she hears it! I've trained her in english lol

Did hear a tourist pronounce Loughborough as Looger-barooger years ago

[scotinmass 588]

How about Worcestershire sauce

Pronounced

Wor-sester-shire split into 3 seperate words, my wife (the yank) goes nuts when she hears it! I've trained her in english lol

Did hear a tourist pronounce Loughborough as Looger-barooger years ago

I live in Massachusetts. We have the cities of Worcester, Gloucester and Leicester here and everyone knows how to pronounce them. When I first moved here my American wife tried to give me a lesson on how to pronounce all the British place names in Massachusetts. She says everyone else pronounces them wrong and she assumed I wouldn't know either! They don't call this area New England for nothing!

[DJ6372 111]

ok in the local bar last night, couple of ding dong girls found out I was English so asked me to say to-mar-to

So I said to-may-to, they were so disappointed, simple things I guess

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

ok in the local bar last night, couple of ding dong girls found out I was English so asked me to say to-mar-to

So I said to-may-to, they were so disappointed, simple things I guess

So curious what version of British accent says to-MAR-to and not to-MAH-to? Maybe you were the one who said Americans say MARS-da Instead of MAZZ-da. Not familiar with that R sound added to "ahh" sound.

Around here, I say MAHZ-da (USA). He says to-MAH-to (Brit)

Edited November 10, 2015 by Nich-Nick

[DJ6372 111]

So curious what version of British accent says to-MAR-to and not to-MAH-to? Maybe you were the one who said Americans say MARS-da Instead of MAZZ-da. Not familiar with that R sound added to "ahh" sound.

Around here, I say MAHZ-da (USA). He says to-MAH-to (Brit)

Ah I think the to-mar-to and to-mah-to is a well brought up point, think local dialect may cause this, Scone is an excellent example is it scone or scowne, Grass or grarse etc lol damned english

Just to add to the fun, my wife (USC) says hood and boot in relation to car, she lived in the UK for 4 years so totally effed up lol

[oceanborn 33]

I moved to Redmond, Washington earlier this year. The region is called Puget Sound -- when I first attempted (poorly, it would seem) to say this to my new colleagues, I was practically heckled out of the room. Is it just me who would automatically pronounce that as Poohjet? As opposed to the (accurate) Pewjet. I know, I know, vowels -- but we are renowned for squashing the darn things down or ignoring them entirely.

[Jonathan and Tina 4]

I moved to Redmond, Washington earlier this year. The region is called Puget Sound -- when I first attempted (poorly, it would seem) to say this to my new colleagues, I was practically heckled out of the room. Is it just me who would automatically pronounce that as Poohjet? As opposed to the (accurate) Pewjet. I know, I know, vowels -- but we are renowned for squashing the darn things down or ignoring them entirely.

I would definitely say Poohjet, and I think it's a pretty superb word too. My Dad moved to New Zealand a few years ago, and got laughed out of several estate agent offices before learning that 'Whangarei' is pronounced something like 'Fon-grey'. It's also difficult to correctly proounce 'Whakatane' without sounding like you're trying to swear at someone. So maybe we US-bound Brits don't have it too bad.

[HGord 22]

Not being much of a coffee drinker I tend to get lots of raised eyebrows/giggles/comments from baristas when I order an Earl Grey tea in the US in my very English accent. Living up to every single stereotype there is really.

I haven't moved the US yet but I'm hoping my accent might even help me make new friends if it acts as a bit of a conversation starter. Has anyone found this?

The only thing that really bothers me is the way Americans drop the H when saying 'herbs'. My fiancé and I do a lot of cooking together so that one comes up a lot. I think it comes from having people drop the H on my name a lot because of their own regional British accents so it really grinds me! Otherwise I quite enjoy the nuances and differences in the way we all pronounce things.

P.s. I totally get the New Zealand thing - lived there for a year and had to get used to being called 'pakeha' by the Maori's I knew. Routinely laughed at for my attempts at pronouncing some of the place names.

[DJ6372 111]

Yup tea is always an interesting ask

I have it down to 'Tall Hot English Breakfast tea with room for milk please'

The 2 important things living in So Cal are the 'hot' everyone assumes you want iced tea..................yuck

and room for milk, the other assumption is a slice of lemon..............I mean come on

Ihop are favourite for serving you a mug of tea with lemon and its awful Liptons

[Boiler 45,464]

If I was to be picky I would say there is no such thing as a British accent.

[Elf 146]

I moved to Redmond, Washington earlier this year. The region is called Puget Sound -- when I first attempted (poorly, it would seem) to say this to my new colleagues, I was practically heckled out of the room. Is it just me who would automatically pronounce that as Poohjet? As opposed to the (accurate) Pewjet.

Back at the dawn of time, (okay, my junior year of college, which amounts to the same thing), my first visit to the US was to Washington State. Based on my rusty A-level French, I automatically pronounced it "Pooh-zhay". You can imagine the heckling that got me

The only thing that really bothers me is the way Americans drop the H when saying 'herbs'. My fiancé and I do a lot of cooking together so that one comes up a lot.

It's one of the few American pronunciations I'm unwilling to adopt. As the Eddie Izzard sketch explains:

And we do pronounce things differently.

Like you say caterpillar and we say caterpillar. And, er...

You say a-LU-minum. We say alu-MlN-ium.

You say cen-TRl-fugal. We say centri-FU-gal.

You say leisure. We say "lizuriay".

You say bay-sil. We say bah-sil.

You say 'erbs and we say herbs

... because there's a (adjective I cannot use on VJ) H in it.

[HGord 22]

It's one of the few American pronunciations I'm unwilling to adopt. As the Eddie Izzard sketch explains:

I just looked this sketch up on YouTube and posted it on my fiancé's Facebook haha. Too damn right.