British-isms Part 3 - Pronunciation & Spelling Edition
It is quite strange to be celebrating Thanksgiving in England - Laura had to take a day of holiday to be off today!
We are mostly relaxing today and will be eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal with our fellow displaced Americans (and a few Canadians and South Africans) tonight.
In the meantime, we thought today would be the perfect time to share some additional British-isms with you. We hope this keeps you entertained while you wait for the turkey to be ready!
Here we go with round three of British-isms we've picked up on!
(For rounds one and two, click HERE and HERE)
Let's start with some silly pronunciations, shall we?
21. In America, we pronounce the store that sells office supplies as "Office DEE-po". In England? "DEPP-oh". Laura has to admit that she usually lets out a small giggle whenever she hears this one. (And, working in an office environment, she probably hears this one more than the average person.)
22. In America, most houses have a garage, generally pronounced as "ga-RAJH". Here? "GARE-ejh".
23. While Chris was reading a Dr. Suess book with some British children a few months ago, we noticed that it had been British-ised a bit in that it used £s instead of $s. However, the editors made one big mistake: the book still ended by rhyming something to "x, y, & z". Unfortunately, (and unexplainably) the Brits pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as "zed".
24. Following on that, the letter "H" is pronounced as "HAche". (So WEIRD!)
25. Some more "H" weirdness: while in the States we leave the "H" silent when referring to delicious things such as basil and rosemary, the Brits pronounce the "H" in "herbs" and will correct you if you leave it off.
26. And not to start a controversy, but according to Chris, the British pronounce that word "conTROversy".
And now on to spelling...
27. A spelling that affects Laura's everyday life due to its presence in the name of her department: "programme". Why the need for two extra letters?? Who knows. But no one ever said England was efficient...
28. Following on the thread of extra letters, you all probably know that Brits use an "ou" when a simpler "o" will do in America, but did you know how easy this habit is to pick up? Laura finds herself writing "colour" and "favourite" without even thinking about it. What is happening to her?
29. Unfortunately, the Brits don't just replace "o"s with "ou"s, they also sometimes replace "u"s! Case in point: "houmous". WHAT?
30. Another spelling change that has been easy to pick up? Using "S" instead of "Z". Zs are basically non-existant in England. Organisation, realise, cosy, capitalise...the list goes on. This is another one Laura has started doing without realising it. (Our American-English spellchecker is freaking out right now at our use of "ou" and lack of "z"s!)
So there you go. Happy British talking and spelling. Enjoy your turkey!