Do Americans speak English?

Ross1234 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:04

5UB said:
Surely though? It must work the other way round? If they can be classed as English for the same reasons we could be classed as Americans?

No becuase the americans originated from the British.

Inquisitor · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:05

5UB said:
Surely though? It must work the other way round? If they can be classed as English for the same reasons we could be classed as Americans?

What? Who said Americans are English :confused:

They speak the English language, but we don't speak the "American language" because there's no such thing. No language originated there (except perhaps whatever the natives spoke before it was discovered by the Europe).

gurusan · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:06

5UB said:
Surely though? It must work the other way round? If they can be classed as English for the same reasons we could be classed as Americans?

I was rolling my eyes at your grammatically incorrect sentence.

G-MAN2004 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:06

A friend from the UK, who is at uni in the US, says she gets marked down in essays for spelling words the British way. I wouldn't have thought they'd have been that bothered about it.

gurusan · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:08

G-MAN2004 said:
A friend from the UK, who is at uni in the US, says she gets marked down in essays for spelling words the British way. I wouldn't have thought they'd have been that bothered about it.

That is either BS or she has crappy teachers. She should bust out a copy of the OED or something and show them of all the acceptable spellings.

baz047 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:08

You would think at least that they would understand...weird.

To be fair though, it would probably be the same hear if an American student came here.

gurusan · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:09

I'm an American student and usually spell things the American way. I've not ever had a problem from a professor.

Ross1234 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:09

baz047 said:
You would think at least that they would understand...weird.

To be fair though, it would probably be the same (hear) here if an American student came here.

gurusan · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:11

G-MAN2004 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:13

gurusan said:
That is either BS or she has crappy teachers. She should bust out a copy of the OED or something and show them of all the acceptable spellings.

She goes to UCLA, which from what I can see, is pretty good.

She wouldn't lie either.

meghatronic · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:13

gurusan said:
That is either BS or she has crappy teachers. She should bust out a copy of the OED or something and show them of all the acceptable spellings.

That'd be a face palm moment. I'm pretty confident OED, until recently, didn't inculde -ise spellings.

I have to write American English for scientific articles. Gets annoying!

baz047 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:22

That was just a typo lol Forgive Me.

Infact, it was a test...and you passed.

Mr-White · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:25

gurusan said:

that looks nothing like ocuk

MW

me227 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:35

It annoys me when they say they speak American. It's English you fools!

Django x2 · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:45

Actually, Amercians speak, well, spell, the true English language. Unfortunately, we have the French to thank for the extra letters in some of our words (such as colour and honour). The Americans use true English in this respect.

Richdog · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:49

They speak American/U.S. English... why have you made this thread.

EvilDreams · 26 Apr 2009 at 14:59

Lucero said:
Actually, Amercians speak, well, spell, the true English language. Unfortunately, we have the French to thank for the extra letters in some of our words (such as colour and honour). The Americans use true English in this respect.

The only true English is what is spoken (and written) in England.

Django x2 · 26 Apr 2009 at 15:05

EvilDreams said:
The only true English is what is spoken (and written) in England.

No, its not. Its what 'was' spoken in England which is now spoken in America.

We adopted French colonial language sets. The true English language for spelling has been dead for a very very long time.

EvilDreams · 26 Apr 2009 at 15:08

No, that's a previous version of English.

Inquisitor · 26 Apr 2009 at 15:17

American English is not a 'previous version' of English. What is now used in America was never used in England, though it shares elements of British English as it used to be.

To suggest that a language "belongs" to a country as anything other than heritage or sentiment is bizarre to me. England is not the arbiter of what is "correct" English; British English is a dialect of a language that is now used by most of the world, and just happened to originate in England.