mediaguru

This isn't a troll, I just remember that I used to use the word "aeroplane" and even remember learning how to spell it back in England, but at some point I switched to using and saying "airplane". When did it switch? Everyone I know, both from the UK and America says "airplane" now which has only 2 syllables. Does anyone use the 3-syllable "aeroplane" anymore? Has it died out like the way that "luggage" is being replaced by "baggage"?

anotherlimey

According to Askoxford.com, airplane is the US version of aeroplane.

Word of the day:
rhytidectomy

[rye-ti-DECK-tuh-mee] the surgical removal of wrinkles, especially from the face. Used also as a technical term for 'face-lift'. From Greek words meaning 'wrinkle' and 'cutting'.

Bob

i still use aeroplane

ImHere

I use aeroplanes too. So much easier than walking I always think

Its not an AIRplane is it.....its AEROplane refering to the AEROdynamics of the wing. Pft, yanks dont know anything do they?

DaveC

Ironic really, considering it was two Septics that were responsible for the first manned flight of a powered heavier than air machine.

snowbunny

LOL.... I'll start really worrying when the subject name changes to airodynamics

The Wright Brothers' first patent is entitled Flying-Machines! but does refer to aeroplanes, not airplanes, throughout.

http://www.first-to-fly.com/History/...ory/Patent.htm

Someday we'll be spelling "nucular".

anotherlimey

You'll need nucular weapons to stop the terristification of the middle east.

snowbunny

Statistically speaking we have halted the prolifteration of these terrible threats to our securidy.

Pulaski

I never remember hearing anyone in the UK say "airplane".

BTW I think that "lorry" is another word that is being squeezed - it is most definitely still in use in the UK, but "truck" and "trucking" (as opposed to "haulage") is becoming more commonly used.

ImHere

I regularly use the term Lorry here and most yanks look at me like ive stepped off a spaceship.

I've even had one of our yank friends trying the tongue twister "Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry"

Oh and they are AERODromes and note AIRDromes. Although funnily enough they seem to be called AIRPorts

DaveC

If you aks me, Febuary was a particularly successful month.

snowbunny

Brits look at ME oddly if I do use lorry! It sounds very different in an American accent. I find that the stare rate goes down, though, if I say "big fuck-off lorry" because they then know I didn't just learn a book full of quaint translations.

ImHere

lol nice one.

Completely off topic: this is my 100th post Woohoo! To celebrate im going to run around outside shouting LORRY, LORRY, LORRY for a bit. Sad I know, but we all need our little amusements

Englishmum

I was shocked when I first heard 'aluminium' pronounced (and spelt) here as 'aluminum'.

Just Jenney

I don't understand why so many people are surprised that English in the US is spelled and pronounced differently than it is in Britain, or that the vocabulary is different. I mean, seriously, they are two different countries separated by an ocean.

Language is fluid, flexible. It will change and adapt over time and distance. Even though I am a native US citizen, there are times when I've heard other native US citizens talk, who are from other parts of the country (especially those from the deep, DEEP south) and I can't understand them to save my life. So what?

The same holds true for other languages as well. I remember years ago befriending a couple from Argentina while on a cruise. I was living in Chile at the time, and since my Spanish was better than their English, we conversed in Spanish. During one conversation, I mentioned that I like to collect t-shirts from the countries I travel to. When I told them that I had lots of t-shirts -- "tengo muchas poleras" -- their eyes got very wide and their mouths dropped open.

With very confused looks on their faces, they asked me to repeat myself, and I said "Tengo muchas poleras... erm, camisetas" -- and upon hearing me say camisetas they looked a bit relieved and started laughing. It turned out that while polera means "t-shirt" in Chile, in Argentina polera means "a slit throat"!! Does that mean that Chilean Spanish is better than Argentine Spanish, or vice versa? No -- it just means their dialects are different.

Same goes for American vs British English. To me, lorry will always, first and foremost, be a girl's name -- not a truck. To you, hearing someone use the word pants to describe the trousers they're wearing sounds odd. YOU may think American English sounds strange, just like WE think your British English sounds strange, but it doesn't mean one is better than the other.

~ Jenney