I think that's more likely - we (UK) keep the "gotten" form in "forgotten" and the archaic "begotten", though you're right that "gotten" is purely American.
Also to chime in with others that I'm pretty sure I'd say I lived on Baker Street. I live on my current road, certainly.
The biggest thing I trip over as American is the formation "go do" - either in that form or as in "go phone her", "go read a book", "go watch a film" - we would always say "go and do".
Vocabulary - tons, of course, but I just thought of "stuff", which is very un-American; it replaces "things", more-or-less. "I have a lot of stuff with me today." "Just let me grab my stuff." "There's stuff all over the sofa."
Also, related but not the same thing quite: misuse of titles. I think this may be spreading over here, too, nowadays, but I always assume an American writer when I see the form Sir Surname. The normal form is Sir Firstname, and Sir Firstname Surname is valid, but Sir Surname is just flat-out wrong.
In general, I'd avoid using too much slang. A lot of people learn some English slang and then put it in everywhere; characters saying "bloody" and "bollocks" and "bleeding" all the time, when in fact you don't hear it all that much, and often it's specifically wrong for the character. We all say "maths", but I barely use "bleeding" and only generally in specific contexts ("the bleeding obvious"). Our slang is just as dependent on class, gender, age, race, etc as US slang!
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Date: 1/13/13 10:16 pm (UTC)Also to chime in with others that I'm pretty sure I'd say I lived on Baker Street. I live on my current road, certainly.
The biggest thing I trip over as American is the formation "go do" - either in that form or as in "go phone her", "go read a book", "go watch a film" - we would always say "go and do".
Vocabulary - tons, of course, but I just thought of "stuff", which is very un-American; it replaces "things", more-or-less. "I have a lot of stuff with me today." "Just let me grab my stuff." "There's stuff all over the sofa."
Also, related but not the same thing quite: misuse of titles. I think this may be spreading over here, too, nowadays, but I always assume an American writer when I see the form Sir Surname. The normal form is Sir Firstname, and Sir Firstname Surname is valid, but Sir Surname is just flat-out wrong.
In general, I'd avoid using too much slang. A lot of people learn some English slang and then put it in everywhere; characters saying "bloody" and "bollocks" and "bleeding" all the time, when in fact you don't hear it all that much, and often it's specifically wrong for the character. We all say "maths", but I barely use "bleeding" and only generally in specific contexts ("the bleeding obvious"). Our slang is just as dependent on class, gender, age, race, etc as US slang!