When someone from Britain speaks, Americans hear a "British accent"...

[Grant Edwards]

On 2005-10-07, Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:

>>>In sports (thats "sport" for you Brits):
>> 
> OK, so how do you account for the execresence "That will give you a 
> savings of 20%", which usage is common in America?

Dunno.  Like much else in English (both American and British)
"that's just the way it is".

> Then again, there's room for infinite disagreement about these
> topics.

Which makes it an ideal Usenet thread. :)

> I mentioned a while ago that I disliked the English on a
> bumper sticker I liked, which read
>
> "Some village in Texas is missing their idiot".

That would definitely be "is" and "its" in the US.

> Several people defended this, saying that a village could use
> the plural possessive "their". I personally found it odd (and
> essentially non-grammatical) not because either the singular
> or plural forms should be mandated but because this one
> manages to mix them up. So
>
> "Some village in Texas are missing their idiot"

At least that one is consistent, though it sounds "wrong" to US
ears.

> would be better (though it sounds like the kind of thing only
> the idiot alluded to would say), while my preferred choice
> would be
>
> "Some village in Texas is missing its idiot".
>
> Then again, what can you expect from a country whose leader
> pronounces "nuclear" as though it were spelled "nucular"?

Don't get me started on _that_ one.  I found it particularly
horrifying that Jimmy Carter pronounced it "nucular" -- he had
studied nuclear engineering at the naval acadamy, and should at
least be able pronounce the word.

> I suppose it's only a matter of time before they change the
> spelling just like they did with "aluminium".

:)

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