Linguistics

[resonant]

I'm compiling an American-to-British phrasebook (because reasons Sherlock). You can find decent dictionaries online (nappy, lorry, etc., etc.) but I'm not so much finding speech patterns -- word choices, syntax, where an American says 'on' and a Brit says 'in,' that kind of thing.

Oddly enough, most of what I've got here (that didn't come from Arctic Monkeys songs) came to my attention because I'd be reading a story in a fandom with an American canon, and I'd hit a phrase that made me go, "This author must be British." (The drawback of this is that some of it might be Australian or something.)

Anybody want to offer input? Here's what I've got (American on the left, British on the right).

Brits use a lot of 'got,' but I can't quite formulate a rule.

to see if you had my number -----> to see if you'd got my number

(also Americans say 'gotten')

Brits don't like to let helping verbs hang out alone.

"You'd eat a horse." "I have." ---> "You'd eat a horse." "I have done."

"That joke gets old." "It must." ---> "That joke gets old." "It must do."

The two dialects handle prepositions differently.

"in the hospital" ---> "in hospital"

"lives on Baker Street" ---> "lives in Baker Street"

Different vocabulary.

"we went to college together" ---> "we went to uni together"

"toss it" or "throw it away" ---> "bin it"

There are a number of things that Brits treat as plural that Americans treat as singular.

"the band wasn't very good" ---> "the band weren't very good"

"I'm no good at math" ---> "I'm rubbish at maths"

"the jury wasn't paying attention" ---> "the jury weren't paying attention"

Comments

[kindkit]

This is one I'm intrigued by, and if someone has more info about it I hope they'll chime in:

After "to need" or "to want," BrE (sometimes?) uses the -ing form of the verb where AmE uses the -ed form.

"He wants his head examining" --> "He needs his head examined."

Or, in a real example from series 3 of Cabin Pressure on the subject of airline safety videos:

"Anyone who needs the operation of a whistle explaining to them deserves to drown." --> "Explaining" would be "explained" in AmE.

[wychwood]

I think you're right that the -ing form is the standard in the UK - that's definitely what feels "right" to me. I can't think of a logical reason for either pattern, though; it feels to me as though the US variant has a kind of silent "to be" in it, "he needs his head to be examined". Something to do with gerunds or participles or something? Who knows...

[arduinna]

(US Northeast here)

Huh. Would the UK version really be "he wants his head examining" and not "his head wants examining"?

The second one makes grammatical sense to me, and works as an alternative to "he needs his head examined", even though I don't think I'd ever say it.

The first one, though, looks totally ungrammatical, or at least that there's a lot missing. It sounds like it should be transitive, but there's nothing there to fill it in. ("He wants his head examining the possibilities for supper, but instead it just aches". Or something.)

[kindkit]

Yes, although "wants" might be "needs" (it means needs in any case) depending on the speaker. I've both seen it in print and heard it often.

[arduinna]

Language, man. So wacky, so cool!

[wychwood]

I agree it sounds kind of weird when I try and analyse it, but that's definitely the form of the construction that I would use! That specific phrase is a bit informal, obviously - it doesn't mean anything medical, it's an accusation of (colloquial) insanity or foolishness. "And then he went swimming while it was snowing! That boy needs his head examining."

[arduinna]

Oh, sure - the equivalent really is the equally colloquial "needs his head examined", for the same sense, nothing remotely medical about it. I'm fascinated by the construction, and very happy to have learned it!

[resonant]

Part of that may be regional in the US -- in the South where I come from, we'd say, "Your sweater needs washing," but here in the Midwest, people say, "Your sweater needs washed."

But the syntax of 'needs the operation of a whistle explaining to them' is something I would never hear in the South.

(A contemporary American would probably never use 'want' to mean 'need' as in your 'wants his head examining' example, either. It shows up in hymns sometimes, and sounds so strange to my ear -- "Bread of heaven, bread of heaven/feed me till I want no more.")

[jesse_the_k]

Grew up in up & down East Coast, adult life in North-central US.

"Your sweater needs washed" seems common to areas settled by Germans and Scandinavians.

[resonant]

Well, central Illinois certainly qualifies.

Though this makes me wonder what influence the huge Lebanese population has had on the local dialect.

[kindkit]

What part of the midwest? Because I lived in Minnesota for my childhood and big chunks of my adulthood, and I never heard anyone use a construction like "Your sweater needs washed."