Grammar in the UK vs the US

On the subject of grammar, should I write " Hitchens' " or " Hitchens's "?

first one's UK, second US

Can you explain what you mean by the quoting thing? Do you mean in dialog when someone speaking quotes some one else?

I listen to a lot of English panel shows. They use the verb "have" a lot. It's hard to describe the situations. It seems like it has something to do with replacing the past tense of a verb.

What the fuck does it mean for grammar to be logically sound?

A style book within arm's reach states that proper nouns require an additional 's' after the apostrophe that indicates possession.

Only Hellenic names, Jesus', and the likes do not require the additional 's'.

The fucked up thing about British English is that you use 'were' for hypothetical situations even if it is singular. For example you would say "If I were to win the award..." instead of "If I was to win the award..."

In American English, you're supposed to use "were" for desirable hypotheticals and "was otherwise."

"If I were a millionaire."
"If I was disabled..."

Wot the fuk m8 thats ridiculus

>The fucked up thing about British English is that you use 'were' for hypothetical situations even if it is singular
>you're supposed to use "were" for desirable hypotheticals and "was otherwise."
both of you go look up the subjunctive and indicative.

When someone is speaking. Not when someone is quoting someone else. I feel like "" is more popular in the US. Perhaps '' is only used in the UK. I wonder about places such as Canada and Australia.

This. Didn't realize Veeky Forums were such grammar plebs.

>both of you go look up the subjunctive and indicative.
What did he mean by this?

>both of you go look up the subjunctive and indicative.
why don't you make me you queer

the imperative

Elaborate

it was a joke you fucking moron

the imperative mood, such as you have just used

So was what I said.

Ha! Now look who's the stupid one.

oh man, i have well and truly been tricked

You have

I'm going to shower.

Amerifat here. Are these really differences between US and UK dialects? None of these examples seem particularly American or British to my ears

Who told you that lmao

You use "were" in both cases, you knob.

>grammar
>logically sound

I am not a native speaker, and in both primary school and high school I was told modern English speakers almost never use Shall and Ought.

The Alannis Morissete hit single is the only popular instance of Ought being used I can think of now.

Both use both in all examples so far as I am aware.

You are going to shower? What are are you showering?

I'd like to conjugate her verbs.

It depends on the area that you have been brought up in. People where I lived used ought and shall all the time. Ought more often than shall though.

English doesn't have a definite grammar system dumbnuts.

Yes it does...

These are all grammatical sentences. Past that, I'm not sure what exactly you're asking.

>The fucked up thing about British English is that you use 'were' for hypothetical situations

This is a general rule that would apply to any dialect of English. It's called the subjunctive mood.

American English speakers rarely ever say "If I was..." Likely the few times you would encounter that would be in some backwoods county where public education is horribly underfunded.

You mean perfect tense ? That's universal in all dialects of English.

...

What is the perfect tense? I've never really understood.

The "proof system" is the rules of composition, and the semantics is whether people find it agreeable.

Thats not how contemporary americans talk, that is a european thing.

I ran into an instance of "get a Chinese" in British English and I've been turning the phrase over in my head. Is it more popular in the UK than "get some Chinese" or "get Chinese"? It seems unusual to say "get a Chinese [food]".

>tfw I argued this in fifth grade with my teacher
>told me flat-out that I was wrong, no discussion, got the question wrong
>decided that she was a dummy, did it anyways

Maybe that's why I have so much disdain for educational systems. Yes, that's almost certainly it.

Other way around. In Europe when we speak English we say "write to you". After living in America for a few years I notice all the time Americans will say "I will write you a letter.", etc.

I quite literally just read over a publication that had used the improper form of denoting possession. It was literature published within the US, so you'd think it would follow general conventions. However, they still added the additional 's' after the apostrophe with 'Jesus'.

My point being, "regular" people don't care much for things only those of whom are persnickety in nature care for. That, or it's such a inconsequential little obscurity that people don't bother to inform themselves.

Also, I don't think your schoolteacher liked it very much that they were being questioned about a matter they should know all about, to some extent. Being told that you're wrong by a little child is quite humiliating.

Comparing US English to UK English is like comparing Middle English to UK English. You really can't compare dialects and variations of the same language in terms of their grammar usage because the grammar usage would have evolved to that variation of the language. In both cases the grammar is correct but to a different dialect of English.

A friend I know from the UK says things like "Get a Chinese", "Get a Pizzahut", "Get a McDonalds". It sounded weird to me but then I heard another person from the UK say something similar and I realized its more common than I thought.

If you were really all this interested in semantics, you'd realize how arbitrary caring about syntax or how "more correct" that some dialects are than others. This is literal autism.

*realised

>I will make sure to write you

This one is the best.

We should say "I'm gonna leave a shit." I mean who would want to take a shit, removing it from the bowl, that's disgusting!

"Have a shit" is a bit better but still not ideal. Once the feces is expelled, I should not wish to keep it in my possession.

the worst is when americans say 'i could care less'

>irregardless

another one i can't stand is 'off of'

The 'Chinese' in this sense means 'a Chinese takeaway meal'.

> I would like to get a Chinese
> I would like to get a Chinese meal

The perfect tense is a past tense, in which the action was completed also in the past tense.

> I have read this thread
> I have seen your post

In English, the perfect tense is formed with the auxiliary verb 'to have' + the verb.

Hiberno-English is the best and most aesthetic.

Would you recommend any particular text book?

I think it might be take as in undertake

Shall has a different meaning, as it implies a sense of volition rather than the bare fact of 'I will'

No, I don't think that's what I'm talking about. Maybe they drop the verb after "have" in the perfect tense in weird spots? I need to go back and watch some episodes and find an example.

>logically more sound
>grammar
dude, it's all arbitrary. no way of doing it is more logical than any other way, even an ungrammatical way.

this is an artificial rule that somebody just made up. it is not part of english.

"perfect tense" doesn't really refer to a tense, it refers to an aspectual reference.

there are theories that treat grammatical derivations as formal proofs, but I'm guessing that's not what you're referring to.

this better be bait

Fuck off Frenchy. Oxford don z master race coming through.

Are you going to get pizza tonight? Are you going to get pasta tonight? Are you going to have Chinese food tonight?
Decisions, decisions.

To me, American English just sounds lazier.

Although I think some of the examples in this thread, notably shall/will are examples of 20th/21st Century English rather than UK/US English.

This is true.

>"perfect tense" doesn't really refer to a tense, it refers to an aspectual reference.
I don't think you understand how conversations work.

It's verb agreement shit I think you're talking about. So
>Have you ever eaten a watermelon?
>I have
>You have the money?
>I have

A fair number of langauges use this (v common in Slavic languages) and some use this above yes and no (I think Gaelic and Chinese). English just has a fairly limited version that's common with the perfect tense but less common elsewhere (like you can say "I eat" to "Do you eat" but it has certain implications etc)

My favorite is 'supposably'.

a semen demon

Around here a lot of Hispanics say "put gas". It sounds ok when they say the whole thing "put gas in the car" but I would never shorten it to anything other than "pump gas". What do they say in other places?

anyone else her go on /int/'s brit thread?

their lingo is interesting.

"havin a think"

"havin a wank"

Its absolutely nothing like that at all, middle english is incomprehensible.

UK most common would be 'get petrol' I think.

You've pulled that one out of your ass I'm afraid.

The one I can't get as a Brit, however hackneyed moaning about it is by now, is 'could care less'. Think about it for a second!

Kek?

I used to live in Florida, and my classmates always referred to it as "filling up," sometimes "getting some gas."

Here in California, I normally hear "buying gas."

In the Philippines, they say "going to the petrol station" to indicate that they're getting gas. Most stations there aren't self-service, they have people who do it for you.

>I will write you
>write you

Sounding better =/= Correct

Americans:
>Fahrenheit
>Imperial
>American English

Where are you from originally?

It's a creole language anyway, who cares if one's more consistent than the other?

Subjunctive motherfucker.

showering his furry toy with his white paste

Whoever gives a shit about British vs American English should try being a Lusophone for a hot minute.
PT vs BR is more dramatic than you can imagine.

Elaborate

Actually visible grammatical differences, total lack of tu-vos distinction in BR as opposed to PT which has three levels of it (tu, você, o senhor/a dona) and accents so different that they sometimes can't understand each other.

This.

Well. Whoever spoke it first is right.

Nah, they've both been changed a lot, PT by a French ruling class and BR by tribal dialects/mass illiteracy.

Australians would typically use single inverted commas, as far as I know.