Separated by a Common Language

Jeremy H wrote me the following: I have noticed two usages which, in England, seem familiar only to journalists. One was in a headline in the Mail today: "This port ain't big enough for the both of us". I have never heard "the both" uttered in BrE. The other is "You and me both". Starting with...

Monica emailed me recently with this query: Often when I'm reading something from a British person, I'll run into a statement like this: "it made a cute face."  OK, so I'm thinking someone's talking about a cute little puppy or kitten. WRONG! Said statement is referring to an infant or child! This...

If someone were to ask you "How are you feeling in yourself?" or "How do you feel in yourself?" what would you think they were asking? I've been having a lot of medical appointments lately, and I am asked this nearly every time. (And then my BrE-speaking friends ask me the same thing when I say...

This is just a little parable about making dialectal assumptions.For some time, I've been bothered by a phrase I've been hearing a lot in shops and cafés in Brighton. It happens where there is one (BrE) queue/(AmE) line for several (BrE) tills/(AmE) cash registers (note that BrE and AmE have both...

Have you read past the scary title of this post? Glad you're still with us! The phenomenon in question is how AmE and BrE speakers differ in their preferences for avoiding repetition of complex verb phrases in main clauses. (Still here?) So which of the following would you say? (1) I ate all...

Author's note (2020): This was an early post on this blog, before I learned much of what I've since learned about AmE and BrE. Thanks to those who've pointed out its problems. I've corrected it a little below. I'm happy to say the issue is treated much better in The Prodigal Tongue. I'll put a screenshot...