British English vs American English

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British English vs American English

This is our friend, Laura. Laura!

She's from the UK and she's an English teacher. Yep.

How long have you been teaching?

5 years, roughly.

She's a professional English teacher.

Anyway, as an English learner I have a lot of questions about the English language

and I'm going to ask these two a lot of questions today.

Especially (because) she's from America, and she's from England, so...

American English vs... English... English? English English.

Just English. Just English.

Okay, British English.

So one of the things I always get confused by is grammar, of course

and especially tense.

When I was in school, I was taught that you can't really

use words like "already" or "yet" with past tense.

So I'll just go ahead and read these sentences for you guys

so can you tell me which one is more natural for you to say?

He has already left. He already left.

He already left.

Yeah, for me probably "He's already left" so "He has already left."

And my teacher told me that you CAN'T say "He already left."

Why would they say you can't say that??

That's a common thing.

That's what my teacher told me.

I'm going to read this sentence again, so tell me which one's more natural.

Can I have a bath? Can I take a bath?

Which one would you use?

Take a bath. You say "Take a bath."

Have. Have a bath. Yeah, right?

Can I have a bath? I used to say "Can I have a bath?" too.

Rachel says "Take a bath" always. Yeah.

You also say "Take a nap" right? Take a nap? Yeah.

I'm gonna have a nap. Yeah, "Have a nap."

I don't think that's very common in America.

So for these... it's not wrong, but it's not common.

So because it's not common, I started using "Take a bath." Yeah.

Take sounds kind of strong.

TAKE. I'm gonna TAKE this bath!

I feel like you can't "have" a bath. Like, "Can I have a bath? Thank you!"

Just have the water in the bath.

I'll just take it all with me.

That's the impression I got when you first told me, "Can I take a bath?"

Like, how possibly can you "take" a bath? I'll just carry this out.

I'm gonna go have a nap. It's more gentle.

It sounds very proper. ~I'm going to have a nap~

I think all those British English things sound very proper to us.

That's interesting. Their way sounds more proper and politer?

Except "I was SAT by the fire." We don't say "was sat."

My teacher would say no to Laura.

That's wrong grammatically.

It's my dialect.

So how do you say "was sat"?

You don't say "was sat." You have to say "was sitting."

It has to be "was ____ing."

Yep. "I was doing..."

I'm on Rachel's side. Why are you bullying me?

So that's a dialect?

Yeah, according to reddit.

Okay. If you're from Norfolk that's how you talk.

Oh, another one. This is- I hate this one.

You know, everyone uses Microsoft Office and Word to write things and

every time I type the word "travelling" it always corrects my English.

It says I don't need two L's.

It only needs one L.

I've been in a similar situation where I've been typing something up at work

and it comes up like [THIS IS WRONG.] And I'm like... what??

So I go on google and I'm like, is this really wrong??

And google's like, "Eh, you can use both. It doesn't really matter," you know.

But like, Microsoft Office is like [NO.]

And it underlines the word with that wavy red. That angry red.

[YOU ARE WRONG.]

I've added so many words to my dictionary.

Every time it's like [NO.] I'm like YES.

I don't care! This is how I'm gonna do it.

I just get really annoyed every time I have to add those "new" words to the dictionary.

This is something that we say both ways in Japan.

セーター and ジャンパー Sweater and jumper.

What's (a) sweater? This is a sweater!

So this is (a) sweater?

Yeah, that could be a sweater. But here, I'll show you a British jumper.

You know Bridget Jones.

When she has that Christmas jumper and it's got like a snowman or a reindeer on it or something

and Darcy has like a mat- No.

That is a jumper.

That's a sweater.

In UK this is (a) jumper?

That's a Christmas jumper.

This is a sweater to me.

Yeah. You guys are wrong.

But one thing that I really agree with you on is

Trousers. Yeah.

We just don't use the word trousers. That sounds so old-fashioned.

We're old, apparently.

No, you're just British. It's fine.

I'm neither. I'm just a learner.

When I first heard Rachel say "pants" to me it was still underwear

so it was really weird.

Are pants underwear in Britain?

Men's underwear. Yeah, men's underwear.

Another one I get confused by is this one.

Do you say "at the weekend" in America? Nope.

Do you say "at the weekend?" Yeah.

Specifically if you want to say the weekend, how do you say it?

What are you going to do... this weekend?

This weekend. What are you gonna do this weekend? What are you gonna do next weekend?

What are you gonna do for the weekend?

So you're not going to use "at." No, not "at" in American English.

I'm pretty sure.

And another one that's super annoying is the spelling differences.

How do you spell "center/centre," Rachel?

How do you spell it?

We do that when we want to be fancy.

English is naturally fancy.

We spell it the British way when we want to be fancy. Interesting.

So America uses the British way of spelling to make it fancy sometimes.

Do you use the American way of spelling to make it fancy?

Sorry. Maybe not.

I teach American English, so when I first started teaching

I used to have to check EVERYTHING.

Like, "Wait, is this the American way or is this the English way?"

And then, this and this.

Even now I'm like confused in my brain which one is which.

I do that too with Jun's English sometimes.

Like sometimes if Jun says something the same way so many times

and I forget to correct him

then it just like imprints in my brain and I'm like, "What's the normal way to say it?!"

"Can I say it like this??"

Can you believe this?! She blames me on... what?!

You're native!!

When I was in college I was staying with the foreign students

and one of them asked me "Where is the torch?"

So, what's "torch"?

To me a torch is this.

That's... that's wonderful.

I literally thought he was looking for this.

A torch to me is actually what you would like walk through a cave with.

Like a stick with alcohol soaked-

I said to someone-- it wasn't you, it was somebody else--

I'm pretty sure he was American, and I was like

"Do you have a torch?" because we were gonna go outside and he was like

".........Where would I get one??"

And I was like, "I dunno, doesn't your phone have a torch?"

And he went, "......No????"

And I was like ???

So this is a torch. Yeah.

Flashlight. Yeah.

It's called a fla- PFFF

--a flashlight!

Okay, last question.

I'm gonna ask you to read these brand names. Can you read out loud for me?

I've never heard that!

But, like, I'm sure other people in England say AH-di-das as well...

I'm sure it's not just me.

Anyway, UK, you say AH-di-das.

You stress A. And America, you stress I.

Ah-DI-das. Yeah.

British people, please tell me you also say "naik"!!

It's not just me!

I've got some "naik" shoes. Yeah!

And could you do me a favor before I end this video? Okay.

I'd like you to pronounce this vegetable's name.

Just for me, because I really like the way you say it.

That's right. That's how you say "tomatoes".

But if I say it in a Norfolk way, it's a to-mah-uh.

Okay, I give up studying English. I'm done.

Thank you so much.

I'll give up learning English.