The Student Room Group

American vs British English

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Original post by Fullofsurprises
I say. Aspects of this thread are less than appealing. I will adjourn for tiffin and a Pimms and lemon.


copacetic baby

:rofl:
Reply 61
Original post by TurboCretin
Getting precious about language is fairly natural, but in the case of English it's like trying to breed a pedigree mutt.

A small selection of words we've nicked:

'Angst' - German
'Restaurant' - French
'Vigilante' - Spanish
'Ombudsman' - Swedish
'Ketchup' - Chinese
'Mammoth' - Russian
'Dinghy' - Sanskrit
'Commando' - Afrikaans
'Tycoon' - Japanese
'Algebra' - Arabic
'Cot' - Hindi
'Shawl' - Persian
'Barbecue' - Carib
'Robot' - Czech
'Cookie' - Dutch

Even some of the most English of words - 'tea' and 'polo' - are loan words from other languages.


It's only that American English is an evolved form of British English, and that most modern languages, bar undiscovered tribal ones, have mixed together and shared words anyway.

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