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17 votes
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Is British English actually better than American English?
I often hear that British English is better than American English, I've also heard people say that British English is "real english", but I'm not really sure why that is ? what makes it better in...
I often hear that British English is better than American English, I've also heard people say that British English is "real english", but I'm not really sure why that is ?
what makes it better in your opinion and what makes American English worse ?
personally, I'm indian and I find it much easier to understand American English.29 votes -
Wit, unker, git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy
30 votes -
Commonly misspelled words quiz
36 votes -
How far back in time can you understand English?
67 votes -
The complicated origin of the expression ‘peanut gallery’
12 votes -
Medieval Myth Busting - Arrows vs Armour 3, using historically accurate reproductions from 1450
8 votes -
The Berkshire mystery: Where exactly is "Berk"?
14 votes -
Former PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir has said the Icelandic language could be wiped out in as little as a generation due to the sweeping rise of AI and encroaching English language dominance
18 votes -
The genius logic of the NATO phonetic alphabet
18 votes -
ITA was a 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet – and left thousands of UK children unable to spell
32 votes -
Do not try this at home: Medieval medicine under the spotlight in major new project
16 votes -
Marked decline in semicolons in English books, study suggests
40 votes -
They don’t read very well: A study of the reading comprehension skills of English majors at two midwestern universities
54 votes -
English is not normal. No, English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language.
27 votes -
English grammar book recommendations?
Hi fellow Tilder Staters, I write professionally for my job. I've picked up plenty of tips, tricks, and strategies from mentors and managers over the years. I also have an English degree focused...
Hi fellow Tilder Staters,
I write professionally for my job. I've picked up plenty of tips, tricks, and strategies from mentors and managers over the years.
I also have an English degree focused in literature.
But I've never formally studied grammar or linguistics.
Does anyone have a textbook or theory book that they could recommend in this space? I've tried to look around a bit but nothing has caught my eye, and the subject is dry enough that I don't have the time or energy to invest in one of the boring options.
9 votes -
Conversational English in 1586
5 votes -
The English Paradox: Four decades of life and language in Japan
11 votes -
Where does punctuation come from?!
15 votes -
Debunking the myth of Hollywood's "fake" transatlantic accent
35 votes -
The Canterbury Tales, or, how technology changes the way we speak
14 votes -
How do I fix my (stupid) use of excessive punctuation?
In online forums I use far too many punctuation marks. I especially use dashes - to separate clauses that don't need a dash (and sometimes I'll add brackets like this because, well, I dunno). And...
In online forums I use far too many punctuation marks. I especially use dashes - to separate clauses that don't need a dash (and sometimes I'll add brackets like this because, well, I dunno). And sometimes I'll start a sentence with "and" when it doesn't need to be there. My comma use is wild and uncontrolled, but I feel it's a bit more controlled than these other marks.
Importantly: I do not care how other people use punctuation.
But I would like to try to fix, or perhaps just improve, my punctuation use. Like the way I just start a new paragraph at random.
I feel like my posts are the same as those flyers that use 7 different fonts, with bolds and underlines and italics (and combinations of them), and with some words in red and some in green and some in black and there's no rhyme or reason to it.
I do like a casual tone but I feel that I go far too far in the informal direction. English is my first, and my only, language. (I love Europe, but I am a bad European. "Please look after our star" we said, and most of us said it in English because most of us who said it don't know other European languages)
Do you have any advice? I'd be interested to hear about books, or videos, or courses, or podcasts, or anything at all that can help. I'd even pay for this. But not Eats Shoots and Leaves please
29 votes -
Pittsburgh smokers more inclined to say jagoff than yinz
21 votes -
In the AI era, is translation already dead?
18 votes -
Does your Irish child speak with an American accent? The change may not last forever, linguistic expert says.
16 votes -
Why does the letter 'S' look like an 'F' in old manuscripts?
22 votes -
Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture?
58 votes -
There's a better English alphabet
8 votes -
If we shoot a 140lb draw weight English longbow from a five story medieval tower, how much further will the arrows go?
13 votes -
I've got my IELTS speaking test in a few hours. Is there anyone here who has taken the test and has some tips to share?
It's my first time appearing for the test and I could use some tips. Thanks.
15 votes -
Thunderplump: Ten weird and wonderful words with Susie Dent
5 votes -
The mysterious case of the "lost positive"
8 votes -
The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed the way we use language
38 votes -
Grammagram
12 votes -
There’dn’t’ve
53 votes -
What's a word from another language that you wish was a thing in English?
I think Sitzpinkler from german is really cool. It literally means "sunday emptiness", and refers to a feeling of emptiness/boredom on a sunday afternoon. Edit: I meant sitzprinkler lol
66 votes -
Historian finds evidence for use of y'all in London from 1600s
69 votes -
Medieval Myth Busting - Arrows vs Armour 2, using historically accurate reproductions from time of the Battle of Agincourt (1415)
ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - FULL MEDIEVAL ARMOUR TESTED Other extra videos in the series: ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - ARMOUR PLATE TESTS ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - MAIL TESTS ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - ARROWHEAD MATERIAL...
ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - FULL MEDIEVAL ARMOUR TESTED
Other extra videos in the series:
ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - ARMOUR PLATE TESTS
ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - MAIL TESTS
ARROWS vs ARMOUR 2 - ARROWHEAD MATERIAL TESTSAnd they have also created a website for the project now too:
https://todtodeschini.com/youtube-projects/arrows-v-armour-2/Previous series of tests from a few years ago:
https://tild.es/h3u6 votes -
Tuna chewing: Why some say "chube" and some say "toob"
19 votes -
A very interesting video on the phonetics of English regional accents, spoken by a polyglot in the accents
22 votes -
The art of translation
29 votes -
A brief overview of Shibboleths, including their use during World War II
9 votes -
Are you getting these phrases wrong too? ("Egg corns")
18 votes -
The Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA)
6 votes -
Ten words for other people's children
11 votes -
Accent diversity is fascinating
I committed an embarrassing gaffe today. I had ordered a keyboard online from a store from the Tyneside of north-eastern England: an area with a regional accent and dialect often referred to as...
I committed an embarrassing gaffe today. I had ordered a keyboard online from a store from the Tyneside of north-eastern England: an area with a regional accent and dialect often referred to as ‘Geordie’. I habitually speak in a ‘home counties’ accent, which is sometimes regarded as a contemporary variety of received pronunciation (RP), though it sounds quite different to historical and conservative varieties of that accent. A salesman called me earlier to inform me that the keyboard I wanted was out of stock, but that they would be happy to refund me if I didn’t want to wait for new inventory. Seemingly between the accent difference and the poor audio quality inherent to phone calls I misinterpreted ‘keyboard’ as ‘cable’, insisting with increasing urgency that I have USB-C cables in plenty and that they needn’t worry about supplying one with the order. We both went about in circles for a few minutes until it dawned on me what I was doing, at which point intense embarrassment flushed over me. Oops!
Accent diversity in Britain is rich and regional. It's not hard to place where someone grew up based on their accent. Would you consider your country to be diverse in accents? Even so, are there instances of accent discrimination?
45 votes -
The history of the boycott: How one Englishman’s name has ended up in every dictionary since 1888
8 votes -
Ox
8 votes -
The long history of the figurative 'literally'—and eight great writers who used it
2 votes -
Anglish: English without the 'foreign' bits
6 votes