Separated by a Common Language

Blog URL:http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
Blog Tags:linguistics, language, English, expat, cross-cultural, Britain, UK

Observations on British and American English by an American linguist living in the UK



Latest Blog Posts



so fun, such fun

on Aug 27, 2023

Long ago, I was asked about so fun versus such fun. Martin Ball, this one's for you! So, fun started out in English (1600s) as a verb meaning to 'trick, cheat, deceive'. You could fun someone out of their money. Then by the 1700s, it h...

sir, miss (at school)

on Aug 19, 2023 in: education

In my last newsletter, I reacted to this news story:The article is about addressing teachers as sir or miss, which happens in American schools too (I'm sure there's a lot of variation in that across schools and regions). But in the newsletter I...

mean to

on Jun 11, 2023

Reader Sam* recently wrote to me with the following: A usage that surprises me every time I hear it is “meant” in the sense of “supposed” or “should be”.  For example, in a BBC news item today the correspondent said that there w...

baggage and luggage

on May 1, 2023

results of a Google search for "luggage"I'm reading Ingrid Paulsen's The emergence of American English as a discursive variety (it's open-access, so you can read it in PDF. But note: it is definitely an academic book). The book is essentially ab...

Twitter has been my main internet stomping ground since 2009, but I've been withdrawing my labo(u)r from it since October, when it became much more volatile for some reason. The New York Times Spelling Bee has been my morning-coffee activity for...

puh-lease/pur-lease

on Apr 2, 2023

My obsession with the word please keeps leading me to new discoveries. This time: a spelling difference!One particular use of please is to be dismissive of something someone else has said or done, as in:      Please! You...

I've studied the word please off and on for a few years now.* Currently, I'm trying to finish up a study that I started an embarrassing number of years ago. Now that I've returned to it, I have the pleasure of reading all the works that hav...