Can You Tell if a Writer is from the UK or the USA Based on Their Writing?
Posted by New_Revolution7625@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 252 comments
Hi everyone, I’m an English learner and I’ve been reading books and articles by both UK and US authors. To be honest, I can’t really tell the difference between them just by reading. However, when I watch British TV series, I notice that the vocabulary and style seem quite different from American series, even beyond just the accents.
So, my question is: Can native English speakers usually tell if a writer is from the UK or the USA based on their writing alone?
As an interesting example, I’m currently reading Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. Lee Child is a UK author, but the stories are set in the US. When you read these books, can you tell that the author is British?
Yuunarichu@reddit
Apparently you guys use apostrophes and not quotation marks… 😔🙂↕️
MoreCowsThanPeople@reddit
When I was little, I used to read Harry Potter. I remember in one of the books, Ron Weasley says "Happy Christmas" to Harry Potter and I got confused because I've always said "Merry Christmas". It turns out that in the UK, they say "Happy Christmas".
5432198@reddit
I read Harry Potter when I was really young and was confused by snogging. I thought they were doing eskimo kisses for some reason.
sim-o@reddit
It's happy Christmas unless you're saying happy new year after, in which case it becomes merry Christmas and happy new year
commanderquill@reddit
Wouldn't it be easier to say "Happy Christmas and New Year" then?
bathes_in_housepaint@reddit
Maybe, but it’s even easier to say “Happy Holidays”.
Bike_Chain_96@reddit
Nah fam, that's too woke. Can't have that
justonemom14@reddit
Seriously, though. In the bible belt you're likely to get the stink eye for saying happy holidays. It's very political.
Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit
Fuck me now I’m going to spend the day thinking of phrases like that in the American lexicon lol.
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
Oh, god. I'm from China. In China, Teachers always teach you to say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Christmas". In fact, if you say "Happy Christmas", people would think you're silly or don't know basic English.
I didn't know it was "Happy Christmas" in the UK until now.
theraininspainfallsm@reddit
Both happy and merry Christmas is said in the UK. So either one is fine.
simonjp@reddit
We say both / either. They both work.
spongeboy1985@reddit
A lot of the British English were edited out of the early Harry Potter books by Scholastic but were kept in the latter ones.
Throwaway46034792@reddit
Big thing to me is how they spell color/colour
Suppafly@reddit
For the most part yes, even if they try to Americanize the spelling and such they often have details that don't make sense for Americans.
ReasonLast9206@reddit
Yes, but not always right away. We have some different spelling conventions and vocabulary and slang. "Britishisms."
If I am reading a book by a British author, I will rarely even notice or care about these differences. But I find it incredibly distracting when I'm reading books in translation and they go heavy on the Britishisms because the translator wants it to sound as colloquial as it does in the original. Not things like "colour" or "boot" but "Me mum was sat on the couch watching telly when I got back to Kiev at 2am." What country are we in?!
adansby@reddit
Another interesting difference is the phrase “Going to hospital ..” UK vs “Going to the hospital” USA. To my American ears, it just sounds odd.
However it’s perfectly fine for an American to say “Going to school” without add “the” in front of the building type. Just another language oddity.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
It is more subtle in UK English, "going to hospital" suggests you are receiving treatment. Going to the hospital suggests you are going to a specific one, or visiting a patient. US English would have a similar thing with "going to prison" vs "going to the prison" as a comparison. Or going to school vs the school.
I am going to hospital to have my broken leg looked at
vs
I am going to the hospital to visit poorly Aunt Mary
Trimyr@reddit
Unless that's what you call your left leg, I'd wager you've never properly visited Aunt Mary.
adansby@reddit
I appreciate your explanation.
makeuathrowaway@reddit
A few related tells I sometimes see from Brits:
“In hospital” instead of “in the hospital”
“poorly” used as a descriptor in place of “sick” or “ill”
“doctor’s surgery” instead of “doctor’s office”
JeromeXVII@reddit
The “ugliest” for me is when it comes to international sports and they say something like “Sweden lose vs Germany” when we’d say “Sweden loses…”
I do respect that it’s just a simple language difference but whenever I read it during the Olympics or World Cup I always cringe a little
marshallandy83@reddit
It's the same for band names too. I recently read an American review of the band Korn in which they repeatedly wrote "Korn is", which is similarly grating to British English speakers.
ljb2x@reddit
How else would it be written? Korn is a singular band thus the use of is. Now if it was something like, "multiple bands, including Korn, are..." that'd make sense.
TheMainEffort@reddit
It seems like in the other way, you are treating it like “(the members of) korn are…”
So in that case the subject of the sentence is the members of the band Korn, not Korn, the single entity.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Because they are a group of people, is the logic.
BingBongDingDong222@reddit
For Americans, I think it's whether the name itself is plural or singular. "Pink Floyd is" but "The Beatles are"
BingBongDingDong222@reddit
What's weird is that to my ears at least, it's "The Beatles are" but "Pink Floyd is" and I'm not sure why.
marshallandy83@reddit
In hospital, in college, in school, in prison.
We use these terms to describe someone being in the "system" that the building represents, rather than just in the building itself.
For some reason, USA English decided to add the definite article to the hospital one.
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
We usually include the definite article in those contexts here, so it's not necessarily an Americanism (although I've found the English style becoming more common in recent years).
lizardmon@reddit
Probably because to Americans a hospital is not a system or government run institution. For most of history it was a privately run singular, independent, facility. It's only in the last 40 years they have become "systems" and God knows they ain't government run.
DuplicateJester@reddit
Same vibe with "going on holiday" vs "going on vacation". Americans have holidays and take vacations and days off.
Mouse-Direct@reddit
I used to read a ton of fan fiction. Granted, this is not pro-fic edited by professionals but nothing made laugh harder than very American characters like Dean Winchester or Stiles Stilinski saying they would “Pop round to the chemist for some paracetamol” or being grateful their cafeteria could “do a decent curry.”
spork_o_rama@reddit
"Air con" instead of AC. "Takeaway" instead of "takeout." "Cinema" instead of "movie theater." "Going to uni" instead of "going to college/school." "Pram" instead of "stroller."
1174239@reddit
"car park"
"lorry"
"journey" instead of "trip"
"return ticket"
"off-license"
LionLucy@reddit
Interesting. I always took "stroller" to mean what we call a pushchair - a pram is a big one for younger babies where the baby is lying down, facing the person who's pushing.
s0xylady@reddit
Americans use stroller for both!
guiltypleasures82@reddit
Someone making spaghetti bolognese for dinner is a dead giveaway!
icyDinosaur@reddit
Wait, are spaghetti bolognese not a thing in the US or named differently?
It's one of those dishes I expect to find basically everywhere in Western Europe outside of Italy.
that-Sarah-girl@reddit
We know what bolognese is, and we eat it. But we don't say the full name often. And we never ever say spag bol.
Canada_Haunts_Me@reddit
Do we? Bolognese is a specific recipe for meat sauce that includes carrots, celery, and a touch of cream, and I'm not used to that here in the US. My understanding is that folks in Commonwealth countries refer to any standard red sauce with meat as "Bolognese" whether it actually is or not.
that-Sarah-girl@reddit
You can get an authentic bolognese at some of our more modern restaurants. And some home cooks will bother to google an authentic recipe.
But also America has an equivalent to the UK "spag bol." Spaghetti with meat sauce. It was on my elementary school lunch menu on the 80s, and continues to be a popular family dinner choice.
WrongJohnSilver@reddit
If you have spag bol, you really need a doctor to check that out.
Proud_Calendar_1655@reddit
In the US we mostly just say spaghetti, spaghetti and sauce, or spaghetti and meatballs in conversation.
The only times I saw or heard spaghetti bolognese in the US was on restaurant menus for places that want to seem just a little bit fancy.
ktswift12@reddit
Wait I’ve never heard of bolognese used interchangeably with a red sauce. Those are very different sauces to me, but maybe that’s because I live in a city with a large historical Italian immigrant population? Bolognese is never served with spaghetti around me either, always with a rigatoni or something similar.
spork_o_rama@reddit
Even moreso if it's "spag bol."
Mouse-Direct@reddit
Yep, came to agree with spag bol!
AmericanMinotaur@reddit
Whenever I read fan fiction I always look out for if the author uses British or American spelling to try to guess where they’re from. Not for any reason, just because it’s fun.
Mouse-Direct@reddit
Agree. There are more Australians than you’d guess. 😄
AmericanMinotaur@reddit
I don’t know enough about Aussie slang to identify them like I can Brits. Do you know any that would be a giveaway?
Mouse-Direct@reddit
Aussies are sneaky! You’re reading along thinking it’s a Brit (“realise,” “colour”), and then all of a sudden, Sam and Dean are putting their “togs” on to hit the swimming hole! 😆 (When we all know Sam and Dean would have swum in cutoff jeans.)
The difference is in what Aussies don’t say — they don’t use “courgette” (but they will call a bell pepper a capsicum, oddly) and their swearing is completely different (no “bollocks” or “bloody” unless the characters are really old). And they put ketchup on everything!
AmericanMinotaur@reddit
Good to know! I’ll keep an eye out.😉
buck_nasty123@reddit
I can tell if they use "maths" instead of"math", they say "university" instead of "college", "year _" instead of "_th grade"
AmerikanerinTX@reddit
Basically always! Not just with Brits either, but basically anyone not from the US or Canada. There are just certain cultural nuances that give them away. Off the top of my head, here are some I've come across:
Black Americans not speaking any AAVE at all, without an explanation. OF COURSE not ALL Black Americans use AAVE, but most do at least to some degree. I read a story about the American South, and there was zero use of AAVE. Turned out the author was Swedish.
Holding a different worldview than Americans typically do. If the story expresses that England was the good guys who ended slavery based purely on moral righteousness, that's a pretty dead giveaway. Very few Americans view the British as the heroes of the slave trade.
Expressing either an outdated or fetishized view of Native Americans. Material made by Germans presents Native Americans as some mythical beings who are spiritually connected to Germans. And they mix all the tribes together, as if they were all the same.
Logic_is_my_ally@reddit
There are many "tells" like words used, spelling, punctuation even. In a book it might come down to terminology if the book has been edited for the American market though. One of the best reasons for having a complex language that isn't always obvious (like American English) is that it can be used to identify someone is not American through subtle differences that even the observer might not immediately recognize but they could tell you it's not natural American.
NorwegianSteam@reddit
If they're using words like humour or aluminium then it is clear they're not American. Aside from stuff like that, it will really be an I know it when I see it situation.
FWEngineer@reddit
For me it was the Chronicles of Narnia. I literally didn't know what a wardrobe was, as an American kid. I had heard the term, but thought of it more as a chest you might keep by a bed, but in the book it obviously wasn't that.
Then there's other terms, like using a lift instead of elevator, or riding in a saloon, estate or lorry. Washbasin instead of sink, tap instead of faucet, the list goes on.
ginger_bird@reddit
I could tell Chron8cals of Narnia was written by a British person the same way I could tell Lord of the Rings was written by a British person.
Suspicious-Froyo2181@reddit
This was precisely what turned me off of Ted Lasso. British characters, but they rarely used the little turns of phrase that I heard in actual British shows. You could tell the writing was done by an American or at least done strictly for American audiences.
IAmBecomeDeath_AMA@reddit
Judging by flair, you’re from Georgia and you’re turned off by a show being written for you? Just trying to understand.
Suspicious-Froyo2181@reddit
Authenticity trumps being pandered to, imo.
IAmBecomeDeath_AMA@reddit
It’s an American show with an American star, American writers, and a foreign setting and cast.
IMO there’s a difference between pandering and writing errors. Are you of the opinion that in order for a show to not be “pandering” every detail needs to be correct? If true, then there are very few shows that don’t pander, and most of them are nature documentaries.
Suspicious-Froyo2181@reddit
Okay. Then watch it. Or don't. Whatever frosts your cupcake....
BadKarma667@reddit
Words like mum, flat (vs apartment), takeaway (vs take out), holiday (vs vacation), and petrol (vs gasoline) are also a pretty clear indicator that the writer isn't from the US.
Crusoe15@reddit
Aluminum? Um what makes you think Americans don’t have that word? I’ll grant you we pronounce it different but it’s still fairly common. Humor is also fairly common, just spelled and pronounced differently.
Savingskitty@reddit
Why would an American writer write Aluminium though?
No one said we don’t have the word humor. They’re saying we don’t use the word humour in our writing.
The post is about recognizing a writer as not being American, not how common words are here.
Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit
No, they're saying the style of humor is different. What we think is funny and what the British think is funny are often seen as not being quite the same.
Savingskitty@reddit
Is this schtick? It’s schtick, right?
gabrielsburg@reddit
That's their point. Spelling it as "humour" or "aluminium" would be strong clues the writer isn't American.
ninjomat@reddit
Spellings are the king of stuff a US editor will change before publication though
Darmok-on-the-Ocean@reddit
It's also easier with some genres. It's pretty easy to know if comedies are American or British.
Ok_Dog_4059@reddit
Agreed, often certain terms like boot and bonnet vs hood and trunk will give it away but those don't always exist and it would be hard to tell.
KR1735@reddit
There are spelling differences, but that doesn't tell you if they're from the UK (only that they aren't American). I live in Canada and they, like the UK, spell it neighbour, labour, humour, and are more likely to get into a queue than a line (though most call it a "line up").
Otherwise yeah it's a vocabulary thing. A "flat" in the UK is an apartment, whereas a "flat" in the US is a tire that's lost its air. "Mum" or "mummy" in the UK is your mother, "mum" in the US is a flower (chrysanthemum) and "mummy" is a preserved corpse. "Lorry" in the UK is a truck. If you say "lorry" in the US, people will assume you're referring to a woman's name (i.e., Lori or Laurie).
Read enough and eventually you figure it out.
dangercookie614@reddit
I can tell due to word choice. I recently read a book that took place in the US, yet the author used "revise" instead of "study." Ding ding ding, Brit alert!
diabolicvirgo@reddit
Our dialogue is more straightforward and blunt.
“He’s a tad bit daft/schewpid.”
“He’s dumb/stupid.”
BigBlaisanGirl@reddit
Yes, by spelling and terminology usage. For example, calling a shopping cart a trolley or calling the elevator a lift, and putting extra letters in places they don't belong like "favourite" and "cheque" are dead giveaways.
GracefulYetFeisty@reddit
Sometimes a non-US author will have a good editor to “fix” or Americanize the spellings. But, the differences come through in other ways.
There’s at least two instances I can think of, one a New Zealand author and one Australian, who write books set in the US. And there’s always a “tell” - usually something doesn’t sit right, often something is just off geographically, like the descriptions of how long it takes to drive between cities, or the discussions of tornadoes, or flavors of unique American foods. It’s never anything huge, and it’s not in every book they write (both are prolific authors).
But no matter how good their research and how good their editors, something almost always comes through that makes me smile and go, “oh, right, she’s not American”
TheyMakeMeWearPants@reddit
I remember in the Hitchhiker's Guide series, when Wowbagger was insulting everybody, in the UK version he called Arthur "arsehole", but in the US version this was inexplicably changed to "knee-biter", which was such an odd phrase I figured it had to be some kind of UK-ism that I was unfamiliar with. Turns out, nope, it was just a bizarre editor choice.
commanderquill@reddit
Why on earth is there a US version of HGTTG? It's already written in English, and you can't really translate British humor.
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
It's a fairly common thing, same thing happened with the Harry Potter books and some Roald Dahl ones. I've always thought it came across as quite condescending towards Americans personally.
lizardmon@reddit
Eh, they need to fix UK slang. Especially in a children's book. Can't have them read something that says "Harry put on a jumper..." and have the kid go look up the word in an American Dictionary and see it means a person who jumped. Trainers and biscuits are other examples.
It might be a little different now but definitely back in the 90s when there was far less cultural cross pollination, this would be necessary.
Canada_Haunts_Me@reddit
A jumper is still an item of clothing here, just very different from a sweater (and it would be quite silly imagining Harry wearing one).
devilbunny@reddit
And apparently jumper/sweater was one of the ones that she gave in on quite quickly when the American editor explained that a jumper in the US was the same as a pinafore dress in the UK.
Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit
Yeah it's a dress. If you want American kids to think Harry went and put on a dress then keep the original word.
Bike_Chain_96@reddit
But they kept the bit about Filch punting them across the staircase swamp
iamasecretthrowaway@reddit
Which is hilarious bc Roald Dahl books such conditioned me to accept adults doing that sort of thing to children with no real repercussions. If Trunchbull shot puts them out her window, then I wouldn't bat an eye at Fitch dropkicking them across the hallway.
Bike_Chain_96@reddit
These examples explain why I had the visual of him dropkicking them, and also not batting an eye at it
commanderquill@reddit
I'm American and I agree with you. Sure, I don't always get the joke but eventually I will if you'd just let me read it in context a few times, or give me the chance to search it up. Damn. The whole point of reading is to hear a different perspective!
icyDinosaur@reddit
Most of the time, it's publishers fearing that readers will be alienated. The first Harry Potter book even got a stupid title change ("Sorcerer's Stone" instead of "Philosopher's Stone", despite the latter being a specific historic concept) because the US publisher thought it was too archaic. JK Rowling at one point said she regrets the change and mainly accepted it because it was her first book and was just happy that they wanted to publish it in the US at all.
This also happens in other languages with multiple varieties, and authors have varying opinions on it. Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt used some German words and terms used only in Switzerland and got rather annoyed when he was urged to change them. He actually included a reference to that in his play "Romulus the Great" about the last Roman emperor. There is a brief dispute there about said emperor using a Swiss term; Dürrenmatt has the emperor state "I decide what is classical Latin in my house" as a swipe at this particular criticism/tendency.
WulfTheSaxon@reddit
The weirdest thing is when they bother to “translate” words like rubbish > trash, cupboard > cabinet, or Autumn > Fall. Just because American English has another word for something doesn’t mean the other word isn’t also used and understood.
HidaTetsuko@reddit
I would hate anyone to “Americanise” my spellings. Americans can go deal
nadandocomgolfinhos@reddit
And we want to read what you intended to write.
HidaTetsuko@reddit
What I intended to write is what I wrote
WrongJohnSilver@reddit
Then wear that jumper with pride.
Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit
Yeah, wouldn't it look great on Harry?
nadandocomgolfinhos@reddit
Exactly. And it’s shitty of an editor to think we are so small minded that we can’t handle * gasp * a different perspective with slightly different vocabulary.
Never mind that when I traveled to another state we couldn’t understand each other because of our regional accents and dialects. I lost my car keys, panicked and reverted to my childhood, blue collar Boston accent. It sounds like “khakis”. People were confused, I was panicked so my lizard brain was in charge.
Deep southern speech is gorgeous, and rich with imagery that I have no connection to. People had to explain what they meant.
Baltimore? Omg. I don’t even know what that is. Perhaps a language I’d like to learn one day. I cannot comprehend it unless the person makes the effort to use the more standardized English.
I think we could have the same conversation about every city in the UK.
Off on another random tangent, my daughter followed Australian twin gymnasts on YouTube so we all became very familiar with their speech patterns. It was cool that my kids have been exposed to so many different variations of English and they have a better understanding than I ever did that the world extends beyond our neighborhood. Growing up my world was small and TV was the only way to see something different.
shelwood46@reddit
"Chicken burgers" is a big tell (we call those chicken sandwiches)
Otherwise-OhWell@reddit
Unless we're talking about ground-chicken formed into patties, which we all call chicken burgers, not chicken sandwiches.
lilapense@reddit
I forget what I was reading, but it was about high schoolers and even though it really didn't focus on their individual schedules something felt off about how the characters seemed to like... be specializing in subjects, for lack of a better way of describing it. Learned the author was British and it suddenly clicked that the author was writing these (American) high schoolers as if they were taking a levels.
mwhite5990@reddit
With books I can almost always tell. Usually there are some words, phrases or cultural references that will give it away.
dumbandconcerned@reddit
Absolutely. If they take a “lift” up to their “flat”, take a “taxi”, go on “holiday”, “fancy” their coworker, etc etc
quirkyknitgirl@reddit
I frequently notice that even stuff that gets the major things fixed (apartment vs flat, elevator vs lift, etc) there are little vocab things. Like whilst — not a word I think I’ve heard any American use in regular conversation outside of maybe academics or historical cosplay folks. Thrice is another, or fortnight. Is it possible some people use those? Yeah, of course, but incredibly unlikely for an average person.
There’s also some hilarious misunderstandings of geography and culture. I was reading some kindle dark romance that had this setting of a small town that somehow managed to support multiple biker gangs and international organized crime groups. In Montana.
Now there are crimes and gangs in just about any place of a certain size but things like the mafia aren’t really gonna be headquartered up in the middle of nowhere. (No hate, Montana.)
ReadinII@reddit
Not right away usually. But if certain words or phrases are used it can suddenly become very obvious.
MehBerd@reddit
Though those of us for whom git means "a software version control system" would not necessarily call that example very obvious.
chtrace@reddit
I think it depends on the audience the writer is writing to. I've read several of the Reacher novels and you can tell he is writing to an American audience and I was surprised when I found out he was British. While other books/pieces I have read you can pickup on language hints (the que was short) and names/policies of local gov't in their stories.
But all in all it doesn't matter to me, I am just looking for quality reads.
Silt-Sifter@reddit
There are certain idioms and expressions that I've only come across when reading a piece from a UK or even Australian writer. I can definitely tell.
webbess1@reddit
There are subtle word choice differences. Some words exist in both countries but are used more in one over the other.
"Mind the gap" in London vs "Watch the gap" in NYC.
Brits are more likely to say "autumn," while Americans are more likely to say, "fall."
Brits are more likely to mend things that are broken while Americans are more likely to fix things that are broken.
Brits tend to use "shall" and "whilst" more than Americans.
Msktb@reddit
One major thing I'll always notice is that Brits often have different subject/verb agreement than Americans with collective nouns. British English often puts the plural verb where Americans put a singular.
The legislature have passed a bill / has passed a bill.
The cast were rehearsing / was rehearsing a play.
If you click the bell, YouTube claim / claims you will get a notification.
Saying university instead of college is also a dead giveaway, or saying you've been sat/stood somewhere for ages.
whatafuckinusername@reddit
YouTube is a weird example, it’s a company, a business entity, not really a collective noun
Msktb@reddit
I used it because I've heard it on videos from British folks and it stood out as different.
DrBlankslate@reddit
Another giveaway: Brits revise for exams; Americans study for them.
bedbuffaloes@reddit
British stop for the night while Americans stay the night.
The British revise for a test, Americans study.
Americans go to the bathroom, British go to the loo/toilet/WC.
Americans cook things in the oven or on the stove, British use the cooker.
Diapers/nappies, dish soap/washing up liquid, washcloth/flannel, maxipad/sanitary towel, yeast infection/thrush, UTI/urinal infection, stroller/pushchair, resume/cv, couch/settee, kitty/moggy, realtor/estate agent, apartment/flat, rent a car/hire a car clearly I could go on forever.
caln93@reddit
The proper usage of who vs whom. The vast majority of the US has never properly used whom and has no idea how it works. Myself included. If you ever see a whom in a book, it is British. Along with other terms and phrases like whilst, and fortnight.
MulysaSemp@reddit
Sometimes. But they sometimes do create " American" versions of books, where an editor changes things. But there are a few words and spellings that are obvious. Small things, like measuring distance between towns in terms of distance rather than time, can also add up.
catetheway@reddit
Yes but I’m an American who’s lived in England for 7 years.
RawAsparagus@reddit
Gray is a color. Grey is a colour.
Can you tell which would be written by an American and which is written by a british person?
PhysicsEagle@reddit
No one in America eats biscuits after the morning. If someone does in a book, it means they’re referring to what we would call a cookie, and that the author is British.
Bonzo4691@reddit
"while" (USA) vs "whilst" (UK)
PicklesMcpickle@reddit
If you mention boxing. Boxing Day, measuring anything other than cup spoons stuff like that. I've never heard of anyone ever from all of my days in America doing anything for boxing day ever.
A fortnight. Specifically not the video game. That's going to say UK. Not
Spelling.
Gunther482@reddit
Yeah it’s pretty easy to tell with certain spellings as many have said. The “er” in words like Brit centre vs American center or the “u” in words like Brit colour vs American color.
Or words that aren’t really used in the US like petrol as we just say gas, gasoline or fuel in the US. Or flashlight vs torch. If an American hears the word torch they are going to think of an actual wooden torch with fire at the end of it. Cinema vs Theater and University vs College are a couple other obvious examples.
badseedify@reddit
Mum vs mom for mother. Mum is British, mom is American
y0da1927@reddit
Only if the publisher allows you to know.
All the vocabulary and spelling choices that might be a tip off can be changed in editing.
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
Will they make an effort to eliminate the hints?
Opus-the-Penguin@reddit
Very often, yes. The most notorious example would be the Harry Potter series, where even the title of the first book was changed. Once inside the book, the US edition changes "car park" to "parking lot," "the baker's opposite" to "the bakery," "lot" to "bunch," "shan't" to "won't," and "her lot" to "her crowd." That's just in the first 7 pages.
Tip to readers: Order your UK-authored books from Canada or the UK so you can get the book that was actually written.
SnowOverRain@reddit
If only they'd changed knickerbocker glory to something more American. Took me decades to figure that one out.
DrBlankslate@reddit
It took me forever to figure out what Brits mean by a "jumper." In the US, a "jumper" is something babies wear.
y0da1927@reddit
Sometimes. An easy example was Harry Potter where they even went so far as to change the name of the first novel because they thought an American audience would be less interested.
The book is set in Britain so I personally don't know why they bothered, but they scrubbed all the normal vocab and spelling choices you would normally use to spot an English author.
iamasecretthrowaway@reddit
I haven't seen it mentioned yet - although I might have just overlooked it - but the education system is a dead giveaway. Sometimes nonAmericans writers will use obvious words - calling it primary instead of elementary, for example, or saying uni ever - but other times it's more subtle. Like a misunderstanding of when/what homecoming is. Not understanding fraternities and sororities. US cafeterias and bus systems (especially versus public buses) seem to trip a lot of people up. Someone going to a small, suburban or rural school would absolutely not ride the bus (or train) to school with adults going to work. Or with students attending other schools (except in the instances when middle and highschool might share a bus, but they're in the same district).
Speaking of districts, school students don't tend run the entire gamut of wealth. You wouldn't have billionaire kids going to class with kids living in poverty. Districts are mostly geographical. Like by neighbourhood. Wealthy ppl tend to live in wealthy communities.
Sometimes you can tell the writer isn't American bc their impression of American schools is so heavily rooted in American media, which is sort of funny to think about.
GaryJM@reddit
In Never Go Back, Lee Child has a rural Virginian ask Reacher, "are you taking the mickey?", which is a phrase that I imagine very few (if any) Americans would use.
pirawalla22@reddit
Take a mickey was relatively common slang in early/mid 20th century America. I have heard it many times on older TV shows and films (like from the 50s/60s). Not sure when that book was written or set, though.
GaryJM@reddit
From the context, it's not that usage.
bedbuffaloes@reddit
You slip a mickey. One does not take a mickey. One was slipped a mickey.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
It is rhyming slang (Mickey Bliss = Piss) which the origin is obscure even to Brits I imagine. Who Mickey Bliss is or was, and obviously "taking the piss" isn't a phrase in America for insulting someone either.
shelwood46@reddit
Yeah, here that would mean giving someone knockout drugs
sakmentoloki@reddit
Spellings will be different on certain words. For example. Color vs colour. Or organised vs organized
WrongJohnSilver@reddit
Robins.
In America, this refers to the American Robin which is a lovely, popular bird with a red breast regularly seen in urban and rural environments.
In the UK, this refers to the European Robin which is a lovely, popular bird with a red breast regularly seen in urban and rural environments.
But they're very different birds despite that.
And so you'll often end up seeing American robins in British places, or European robins in American places, and people keep missing that they're the wrong robin.
LoudCrickets72@reddit
The spelling of certain words (US/UK): Color/Colour, Flavor/Flavour, Center/Centre, While/Whilst, etc.
SunStarved_Cassandra@reddit
The first time I discovered that British people still use words like whilst and shall, I laughed because I thought they were trying to sound like Oliver Twist as a joke. This was at work, and people thought I was an asshole. I was not trying to be offensive, I truly didn't know.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Even so, it does come across as a little old fashioned or formal in the UK still. Whist or shall done for more emphasis than everyday.
LoudCrickets72@reddit
Technically, in American English, "shall" is still the grammatically correct form of "will" when used in first person. Example:
"I will go to the gym tomorrow," technically should be "I shall go to the gym tomorrow." But very few people actually talk like that outside of a formal setting.
And for "whilst," that's very British, but as an American, I still use it from time to time in formal writing.
the_vole@reddit
First of all, great work! Your English is terrific. I know it’s a tough language to learn, so the fact that I wouldn’t know you weren’t a native speaker by your post? Awesome.
But there are a lot of words that will give it away. Truck/Lorry, Sidewalk/Pavement, Underwear/Pants, Pants/Trousers, Yard/Garden and so on. A number of folks have mentioned the British “u” that we dumped into the harbor with the tea, but there are also some other spelling differences. Curb/Kerb, Tire/Tyre, and I’m not sure if the Brits still call Jail “Gaol” (I don’t think so?) but on the whole, it’s the same language, but there are some giveaways that we can zero in on and know for sure
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
Thank you. To be honest, I put it into some software to make it more readable before I posted it (I don't want to post something full of mistakes and misspellings ).
the_vole@reddit
I kinda wondered if you did that, but I wasn’t gonna call you out or nothin’. There are hundreds of little traps that you can fall into with English and the only way to get them right is to just know them. It’s kinda bonkers that this weirdo language is the lingua franca of the world, when it’d be so much easier if we all spoke something that actually makes sense, like Spanish. (I don’t know Spanish, but I’m p sure it’s basically all phonetic, except for LL making a “y” sound and one or two other things that I can’t remember. J sounds like H, I think? Maybe?)
Spanish also has the ñ, which I find to be the sexiest of all the letter sounds.
But anyway! After running your post through the robot, did you understand why things were corrected the way they were? Anything confusing? Also, I’ve tried to pepper in some uncommon lexicon in this reply, just for funsies. Wink emoji!
commanderquill@reddit
I swear to God if I had to speak a gendered language on the daily I'd quit. I also very much love the SVO order of English.
English has a lot of weird exceptions and quirks because of the way it was built, but it is by and large a very simple language for basic communication. You only have to memorize one order of words for a simple sentence, you don't have to change those words depending on who you're speaking to, and you can write everything exactly the way you say it (I'm not talking about spelling, but more that there are languages in which the written language is practically a different dialect from the spoken one, and there are words which are written but not said). Meanwhile, other languages have words that can change order in a sentence, so you have to memorize a few versions just to be confident that you'll always understand it, the sentence will change depending on who you are, who you're talking to, the familiarity between you two, the social class difference, etc., and there is nothing that is said which is inappropriate to write. Furthermore, English letters are common in most languages, and when there are exceptions it's generally just in one or two letters. Most common languages have about the same number of sounds that English does. Imagine if you spoke English with only 26 letters but the worldwide language was Urdu with 36.
All this to say: English has a very shallow learning curve compared to most other commonly spoken languages. It does steepen quickly, due to its eccentricities, but when your concern is being understood rather than being perfect, it is a language with a very simple structure to follow.
the_vole@reddit
That’s a very good point! It’s usually pretty straightforward to understand even the most broken of English. Also, I’m absolutely with you on gendered language. I took two years of German in college, but for the love of god, I could never remember if a sandwich is a he, she, or they.
(Or most other nouns.)
icyDinosaur@reddit
As a native German speaker who learned one and a half other gendered languages (French, and Dutch which dropped its gendering along the way but still distinguishes de and het), I feel like the main issue is that searching for rules is the wrong approach.
We're always taught to just learn words with their article. I don't have to think about whether the sun or the moon is masculine or feminine in French (a common mistake for German speakers, since they're inverted between German and French) because in school, we just learned the vocabulary as "le soleil = the sun" and "la lune = the moon" rather than just "soleil = sun".
That said, most of the time you don't have to worry about it and messing up genders is one of the most common mistakes of non-native German speakers. As long as you're consistent with it, your sentence is a bit odd but understandable. Some words even change genders as you travel (e.g. a text message is feminine in Germany and neutral in Switzerland), and we still understand each other.
WrongJohnSilver@reddit
So, fun story about English, the reason English grammatical gender is so simplified is because of Vikings settling in England. You had Celtic languages with one set of gender rules, West Germanic Saxons with a different set of rules, and the North Germanic Vikings with yet another set. Eventually, everyone, from trying to be understood by each other, said enough, I don't care if the table is masculine or feminine, it's a frigging table, and everyone knows what I'm talking about without a gender attached.
And it stuck.
the_vole@reddit
That’s how they tried teaching me, too! It just never, ever stuck. I will say, I did a few days in Berlin around 15 years ago and every time I tried to start a conversation in German, everyone would reply to me in English. I was kinda disappointed, but at one point, we went into a newsstand so I could buy my nephew an issue of the Sesamstraße magazine, and the sweet girl behind the counter humored me. She complimented my GF’s purse, and I said something kind to her in return, and I walked outta there feeling like a million bucks.
Love the language, loved the city, wanna go back real bad, but I don’t have that leeway at the moment. And what little German was left in my noggin 15 years ago is essentially gone.
Also, my gosh, the Tiergarten at night! The lights are kept waaaay dimmer than they would be here. And there are bunnies everywhere. Like, it was a whole vibe thing. Loved it.
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
You can find the text was much improved from the output. Sometimes I order the AI gives me explicit reasons why they rephrase it.
the_vole@reddit
Aha! You didn’t run that comment through translation software. Would you like me to let you know where your mistakes are, or would that just be annoying?
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
Do you mean you want to see the original post, the version before the AI editing?
the_vole@reddit
No, I meant your previous comment has a lot of errors, and if you’d like me to explain them, I’d be happy to.
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
Yes, please. Even such short comments would give me away LOL.
the_vole@reddit
You can find the text was much improved from the output.
_First off, “You can find” gives you away as a non-native English speaker. I understand what you mean, but something more like “I’m sure you noticed the comment was better after I had an AI correct it” would be way better.
The word “text” is not commonly used, aside from referencing passages from a book or a file on a computer. Refer to it as your comment, or “what I said.”
Examples: “you can see that my comment was better after I used the AI.”
“You can see that what I said makes more sense after I used the AI.”
Also, “much improved” isn’t grammatically correct. Lose the word “much” and you’re good._
Sometimes I order the AI gives me explicit reasons why they rephrase it.
_Ok, this is a toughie. You’re so close, but that sentence has some severe problems.
“Order” is too formal. An army general or an upset parent might give orders. But when you’re talking about AI, it’ll do what you ask it to. You don’t need to order it.
“Sometimes, I tell the AI to...” ......to what? Subject (I) verb (tell) object (the AI.)
You could just say “sometimes I ask the AI why it made those corrections” or similar._
You’re probably never going to go wrong while keeping language casual on the internet. Unless you say derogatory or offensive terms. Then you can go intensely wrong.
(Also, I’d like to formally apologize to all ESL teachers and high school/college English teachers who’re reading this. I know you can do better than I did, but I have some time to kill and I work for free. Thank you guys so much for all you do.)
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
Thank you very much for helping me improve my English.
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
Generally not in this day and age unless it's a direct quote/place name or they're going out of their way to seem old fashioned (the same sort of people who insist on the old "British Billion" over the normal one)
the_vole@reddit
I have no idea what you mean by that last part, but I would love to hear more! (Big fan of you Scots. I did a hot weekend in Edinburgh 15 years ago and I loved it there.)
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
About billions? You know how you and I would call a thousand million a billion? The older use in the UK was a million million, a small minority of people still insist that's the case.
the_vole@reddit
But wouldn’t a billion be a thousand million? I’m sorry if I’m coming off as daft (British word!) but this is all new to me
WrongJohnSilver@reddit
In a lot of other European languages (along with older British English), a billion is a million millions, not a thousand millions. The word used for a thousand millions is usually some variation on "milliard."
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
I agree with you, and in my head it's the more logical way of doing things (with the bigger number being a trillion), but for some reason that's what they went by over here once. It comes up in older versions of the British edition of Trivial Pursuit.
the_vole@reddit
Word. While I’ve never come across this in my 42 years, I’ll now know for the future. Thanks for being a helper!
I bet single malts are way less expensive over there. Scotch is my favorite spirit by a pretty wide margin.
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
Honestly it depends on the exchange rate at the time (along with our very high alcohol taxes), you can often find the stuff cheaper abroad.
the_vole@reddit
That seems crazy! That being said, those alcohol taxes probably pay for a lot of social services that us Americans can only dream of.
I’m gonna spend the next 20 minutes looking around in r/scotland.
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
Enjoy!
Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit
There are much subtler things too if you're aware of them.
There are different tendencies in British and American English as far as using simple past tense versus present perfect tense in the same situation.
Another subtle example is that an American is far more likely to say they took a shower than they had a shower. The UK percentage saying "had" is much higher.
ngram - compare took a shower to had a shower
steviehatillo@reddit
“I’ve got” instead of “I have” is a big one. Seems Brits tend to use whatever tense that is more often.
Yosemite_Sam9099@reddit
I spend a lot of time helping British writers adjust scripts for US audiences. The places where the most work happens: British allude to things. ‘I could eat’. Whereas an American writer would say ‘I’m hungry’.
pirawalla22@reddit
My first reaction to "I could eat" is that it's something said by an old Jewish New Yorker.
maclainanderson@reddit
I've frequently used the phrase, "I could eat". I use when I don't really need to eat but I wouldn't mind eating
Jernbek35@reddit
Americans do say this, but it’s usually the answer for if someone asks you “Are you hungry”? “I could eat”. Fairly common.
kinkachou@reddit
I can tell it's someone from the UK writing very quickly based on the superfluous "U" in words like colour or flavour, or the use of "S" instead of "Z" in words like apologise or analyse.
There's also the extra L in UK English like travelled or cancelled.
Another easy tell is if they use grey instead of the American spelling of gray.
Probably my favorite example of the differences between UK and American English came when I was reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The protagonist went into the basement with a torch at one point, so I was thinking of a literal stick on fire and not a flashlight as it would mean in UK English.
There's also a passage about someone dying at a "zebra crossing," which I thought was hilarious that a random zebra killed someone, not knowing that it actually meant a pedestrian crossing.
sgtm7@reddit
LOL. I use grey and gray interchangeably, simply because I see it spelled both ways so frequently.
pirawalla22@reddit
I do too, and I also use traveled vs travelled interchangeably
terryjuicelawson@reddit
You mean superfluos, surely?
ljb2x@reddit
What gets me about gray/grey is that a lot of us don't notice/realize the difference and then there's the fact that in some instances (like back when I did web design) gray and grey are actually different colors!
Jernbek35@reddit
Well shoot, I use Gray and Grey depending on what I feel like typing. I also always use two Ls in Travelled and cancelled.
SevenSixOne@reddit
When I was a kid, I went on a walking tour of some historical underground tunnels. The tour guide was English, and told us all to "take a torch from the box" on our way inside.
I got excited imagining walking through this dark place with a flaming stick, like a caveman... then was disappointed when I got to the box of "torches" just looked like this :(
sgtm7@reddit
LOL. I use grey and gray interchangeably, simply because I see it spelled both ways so frequently.
New_Revolution7625@reddit (OP)
Yeah, in China we call it '斑马线'， which means 'zabra line'. It must be translated from British English.
gagnatron5000@reddit
When Jack reacher asked one of his team mates for a "torch" and they handed him a flashlight and it turned out Jack actually did just want to illuminate something, I immediately went "oh, the writer is British."
terryjuicelawson@reddit
I can only presume the term carried over from things that illuminate (same with lamp?) from fire to electricity. It is interesting as it would never cross my mind that someone would use a torch these days, as in a burning stick, and it lead to confusion.
gagnatron5000@reddit
From my research it's from the Latin torche which emerged in French in the 1300s. It refers to cloth woven tightly to be lit aflame.
Nottacod@reddit
Yes, there is always the odd term that gives it away.
Dr-Arcane@reddit
Usually when they take a torch out of the boot of the lorry, I can make a good guess.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Ah but a lorry doesn't have a boot!
maxman14@reddit
I read a book recently in which the main character is explicitly American. ...And yet he uses words like 'bloody,' 'bugger,' and 'shite.'
Vidistis@reddit
It depends, but there are some very clear signs.
I read a short story by a UK student once, and it was quite funny because the narrative took place in the US and the characters were American, but there were so many British-isms.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Very mixed in the UK in reality, if anything if a writer was 100% metric including very human measurements (like describing a person's height in cm, or distance in km rather than miles) I would assume it was maybe Australian or translated from non-English.
JoeCensored@reddit
Spelling of certain words. British spellings include a lot of superfluous letter "u". Colour, and glamour vs color and glamor, for example.
British spellings reverse "er" to "re" often. Theatre vs theater. And use the letter "c" where Americans use "s". Defence vs defense.
AmericanMinotaur@reddit
I can tell if British spelling and vocabulary is kept (although since some of the other anglophone countries share that stuff with Britain, it technically just signifies that it’s not American English, rather than being definitively British English. I mostly see it in post online though. I’m pretty sure that publishers adapt British books to American English when they’re printed in the US.
chicagotodetroit@reddit
"Year 11" vs "11th grade" is a dead giveaway.
Rex_Lee@reddit
Yes, as soon as they start talking about putting stuff in the boot, or opening up the bonnet, or getting on the lift
JamJamsAndBeddyBye@reddit
I think realizing “kerb” was not a typo in a book I was reading by a British author was one of the most jarring moments of reading in my entire life.
lawndarted@reddit
Reacher books are consistently entertaining. I've always wondered why Reacher says Tyre and Kerb because I've never seen them written that way by American authors.
British English might say "wrexham are going to advance" where american English would say "wrexham is going to advance".
ljb2x@reddit
Because those aren't words in American English. Lots of British English things translate easily enough (flavor/flavour or analyze/analyse) even though the spelling is wrong to us. But tyre and kerb are so far off from tire and curb loads of people don't recognize them. I had an Indian professor in college who wrote tyre on the board for an example and the whole class was confused and had to question what that was.
pita4912@reddit
In writing dialogue “um” vs “erm”
FakeNathanDrake@reddit
That always confused me growing up and reading books written by English authors. Young me couldn't comprehend someone saying "er/erm", even in an English accent, I would've thought "eh/ehm" if anything.
Nah, turns out since the majority of them drop their Rs in their accents that seems to be what an R sounds like in their heads.
palmettoswoosh@reddit
Sometimes. In older history books you can tell. British historians tend to write in a long slow build up. American historians tend to be more matter of fact with their writings. Like American historians will have their subject of the chapter or paragraph laid out from the beginning. British historians will have it more drawn out.
When I say older writers I mean ppl like dangerfields era.
TsundereLoliDragon@reddit
Yes, it's pretty obvious unless they're intentionally trying to hide it or write in an American style.
Miss_Might@reddit
I can tell based on their spelling of certain words.
Crusoe15@reddit
Some spellings are different, that makes it easy. Also so words are really only used in one country vs the other. We have different words for the same thing. Imma big reader so it’s easy for me to tell
KreepingLizard@reddit
Punctuation’s placement relative to quotation marks is usually the biggest tell if it hasn’t been Americanized.
InterPunct@reddit
American writing is more direct and therefore uses relatively more Anglo-Saxon-based words. British writing uses a wider vocabulary with more Latin and French-based words.
A complete generalization with absolutely no data to back this up, lol.
therealdrewder@reddit
When the story features orphan children being raised by horrible relatives you can be sure its British.
LionLucy@reddit
Apart from a Series of Unfortunate Events
therealdrewder@reddit
True, although I'd argue it was made to emulate a British novel.
LionLucy@reddit
Yes it's definitely in a long British tradition!
OhLordyJustNo@reddit
When I read “go to hospital” and similar phrases immediately know it is a British author. In the US we say “go to the hospital.” Brit’s tend to drop the “the”
Serrated_Banana@reddit
Several times I've been reading something that is set in the US and they'll mention VAT. Immediately world breaking for me.
mrsrobotic@reddit
Yes, I can tell - there are usually some giveaways. For example in the "Good Girl's Guide to Murder" series which is by a British author but set in Connecticut in the US version, there are still a lot of Britishisms that don't fit. Certain words like "corridor" which are used infrequently in the US or phrases like "going to ring her" instead of "going to call her."
But I watch a ton of British TV and read a good amount of British authors, so I may pick it up more.
WhichSpirit@reddit
If they're writing in UK English, it's pretty easy to tell. Sometimes they'll attempt to write in US English but a few words still slip through. I pegged one of my favorite authors as Not American because they used physiotherapist rather than physical therapist (I don't recall if they intended the book to be set in the US since it was a superhero world).
Outside of the language thing, it's also easier in certain genres. British comedy tends to be meaner (for an example, look at the characters of Trevor in Ghosts and Julian in Ghosts UK).
machagogo@reddit
Yes. Lots of giveaway words.
If they write color or colour or any orlther of the u/no u words.
Also random slang and other words like trunk/boot, hood/bonnet for cars.
MrSillmarillion@reddit
The word 'whilst' is the biggest give away. Americans use 'while'.
cohrt@reddit
It’s pretty easy when they use British spellings or terms like mum or boot.
Evil_Weevill@reddit
If they spell words like "color", "honor", and "favor" with an extra u (colour, honour, favour) that's a pretty dead giveaway.
erissays@reddit
Depends on how good the author is at affecting the vocabulary and tone of the other culture. If a story is set in the US but they're using "bin" to describe a trash/garbage can and "chips" to describe fries, that's a pretty clear sign they're British and vice versa for American writers. The education systems of each country are also quite different, and a ton of writers stand out because they fundamentally do not understand how to talk about the other country's schools and schooling environments without immediately outing themselves as a cultural outsider.
But there's a ton of writers who are great at blending in, either because they've lived in the other country for a period of time and/or have done a good amount of research, and for them if you notice at all it's more a subtle difference in writing style (Brits tend to trend towards more precise and "proper" stylistic choices while Americans tend to trend more towards an informal writing and dialogue style, though obviously this is not universal).
nowordsleft@reddit
I’ve been reading Lee Childs recently myself. He does a really good job at “hiding” his Britishness but there are a few sentences (in the first couple books at least) that sounded a bit odd to my American ears. I can’t really remember the exact sentences now, but when I remember when I read them I thought “that must be how the British would say it”, “an American wouldn’t use that comparison”. If I hadn’t already known he was British it probably wouldn’t have been enough for me to suspect he was. I probably only picked up on it because I already knew he was British so I was kind of looking out for those types of things in his writing.
Proud_Calendar_1655@reddit
Most obvious for me is dialogue punctuation.
In American books it will be: “Hello,” he said.
While in the UK it’s: ‘Hello,’ he said.
bloopidupe@reddit
I was reading an author who is British but set her books in NYC. She would use certain words that would ruin the fantasy and gave away her nationality. Ex. "He was wearing his entire baseball kit". What is a kit!!! (I know what it is, but that's not normal). There were other examples, but just small words that were unusual would stand out.
Vachic09@reddit
It depends on the date and whether I get enough words that are different between dialects. The spelling of certain words diverged at a certain point in our histories. There are also certain word differences between different English speaking countries.
Mmmmmmm_Bacon@reddit
Only when the British writer misspells things like colour, labour, theatre, things like that. And then sometimes they mix up their dates and months too.
Haha, just kidding, love you all over there! ❤️
SevenSixOne@reddit
I am not familiar with the Jack Reacher series, but I just looked up some preview selections on Google Books, scrolled down to a random page, and could tell within a page or so that the author isn't American just because something about the wording seemed "off" to me.
I couldn't tell that the author is British specifically from the writing alone, and I couldn't point to anything specific that flagged it as not American... but there were some word choices and sentence structures that were simply not the way an American would express that thought, if that makes sense.
SleepLivid988@reddit
Humour/flavour vs humor/flavor. Mum vs mom
mellonians@reddit
If the spellings have been changed from UK English to American English or vice versa it can be difficult, especially if you're not particularly looking for it. There will be give aways but you have to be looking for them. It's not just spellings, it's the names of things too like "phone booth" and "phone box" and especially parts of cars.
Then there are the subtleties.
An example would be the phrase "there is a bar across the street" a Brit would never say this but it's a perfectly valid sentence and I wouldn't notice it in text unless I was looking for it. A Brit would say "there's a bar over the road", if of course it wasn't a pub!
atsinged@reddit
In truth it's not real hard with written English, even though we can understand each other near perfectly there are a lot of differences in spelling, word choice and grammar which might send us scurrying off to Google a word (crescent wrench vs. adjustable spanner sent me to Google once). All the differences rarely present any difficulty in understanding each other, accents and dialects in spoken English are far more difficult and telling.
sgtm7@reddit
Crescent wrench is what I have called it as an American. Did you mean you had to look up adjustable spanner wrench?
guiltypleasures82@reddit
Yup, especially if it wasn't heavily edited by an American. I read a lot of fanfic and I can always tell. Even if you avoid the obvious tells, there are more subtle ones like sentence structure, using words like keen or saying "have a go." Often details on the school system or legal/criminal stuff are off if that's a plot point.
_Smedette_@reddit
Spelling is a big clue, but a lot of US publishers will switch to US spellings for domestic distribution.
Some phrases and vocab will give things away (eg: “sleeping rough” vs “homeless”; “hoovering” vs “vacuuming”; “mobile” vs “cell”; how plural verbs for group nouns are used).
I’ve also read things that are set in US cities written by non-American authors and they get things wrong like it snowing in LA at Christmas or Boston lacking Italian influence in its food.
cdb03b@reddit
Yes.
First: spellings of many common words will be different.
Second: common words often have different meanings. Fore example pavement in the US is the asphalt road, pavement in the UK is the cement pedestrian walkways alongside a road or street (what we in the US call sidewalks). So the context clues of these things will indicate nationality, though are often hard to discern.
butt_honcho@reddit
Bill Bryson has entered the chat
Divertimentoast@reddit
Generally, yes.
111unununium@reddit
I listen to audio books and the accents usually get very it away pretty quick
bryku@reddit
There are specific words and phrases that are different between Americans and the English, so those are normally a give away.
Something else I ha e noticed is that people from the uk tend to have longer introductions. Be it the beginning of a YouTube video, News segment, movie, book, or chapter it is often longer than the American counter part.
Derplord4000@reddit
Mostly based on the vocabulary. Things like "the loo" or "lift" would never be uttered by an American to refer to the bathroom or elevator.
dangleicious13@reddit
Pretty sure he lived in the US for ~20 years before writing his first book.
TheSheWhoSaidThats@reddit
Yes, unless the author is intentionally trying to mimic American or British writing when they aren’t originally American or British. Some spelling is different, and many idioms and other phrases are different. Some words have slightly different meanings that still make sense in context, but the usage is particularly British or American. We usually understand each other though, generally.
AtheneSchmidt@reddit
The use of vocabulary, locations, word choice, and spelling are all pretty good identifiers for whether the author is from the US, UK, eleven Australia.
shelwood46@reddit
Very much yes. I read almost solely cozy mysteries, in English, and you can not only tell where the author is from, you can immediately sniff out the cases where the author is not from the country they set the story but is trying to pretend to be. It's not just idioms and word usage, it can be little things like having plants grow that would never grow in a certain place (like an outdoor citrus tree in Maine) or one where the conceit was that the characters were travelling around the US and staying in "guest houses" -- which really aren't a thing in America. Also they often get the geography wrong, travel distances and such, and the food wrong, like Americans eating baked beans for breakfast (never!). As an American it's easy for me to spot the goofs in American set stories, I'm sure the same is true for Brits with UK stories.
Endy0816@reddit
Sometimes.
Personally, I'll sometimes adjust my vocabulary to fit.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
yeah, i can usually tell where the writer is from (to a certain extent) based on word choices. It's not an issue, it's just something you notice.
Sometimes publishers/writers will intentionally change those words to avoid these issues. This especially happens in children's literature and is less common in books intended for adults.
I haven't read the Jack Reacher books so I can't comment on that.
uhhohspagettios@reddit
Aww man I thought you said they weren't an issue
Suitable_Tomorrow_71@reddit
Sometimes. Frankly I don't give a shit 99% of the time because that's about how often it doesn't matter, and also I don't understand why people keep asking pretty much this exact question.
craftycat1135@reddit
Words like lift instead of elevator, solicitor instead of lawyer, uni/university instead of college, biscuits instead of cookies, football instead of soccer, flat instead of apartment, crisps instead of chips. Words that end in "or" like harbor or color being spelled colour or harbour. Brits will say things like going to hospital and an American would say going to the hospital. Little phrases like that.
Hi_Im_Ken_Adams@reddit
It’s mostly in spelling and terminology.
So terms like “pub, smashing, sorted, trousers, or mate” are dead giveaways.
TheRtHonLaqueesha@reddit
Yes, by looking at the spelling and vocabulary. Nappies vs. diapers, tyre vs. tire, etc.
ghostwriter85@reddit
Yes / No
It's easy to tell who the book was written for (Brits vs Americans). It's harder to tell where the author is from.
This is mostly an issue with British authors who are explicitly trying to write for an American audience. A good American editor can scrub out the obvious give aways.
It would be exceedingly rare for an American author to try and write directly to a British audience given the relative size of the two markets.
liberletric@reddit
Yes, spelling and vocabulary/common phrases give it away.
You need an accumulation of factors though, because it often happens that somebody from the US might just like a British word or phrase and start using it themselves, or vice versa. So sometimes -- especially in a short text like a reddit comment -- it can be ambiguous. But I can't imagine getting through an entire book and not knowing if the author was British or American.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
If there are obvious spelling differences like using “ou” in “humour” or “colour” or “aluminium” or not using z in some words then it’ll be obvious.
Otherwise it is hard to say. Maybe they describe a pub and that clues you in that they are a Brit. But is that a US author imitating a Brit or a Brit just being a Brit.
Then you have Brits writing for an American audience.
So sometimes yes and sometimes no. Not a really satisfactory answer but it is usually the case.
ChessedGamon@reddit
For the most part no, other than a few expressions or spellings that give them away
DOMSdeluise@reddit
vocabulary and spelling
New_Stats@reddit
Yes, it's in the spelling more than the word usage
The UK uses the suffix ise the US uses ize. Colour/color, harbour/harbor ect