Questions tagged [british-english]
This tag is for questions related to English as used in Great Britain, and sometimes Ireland.
2,493
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What will be the passive voice sentences for these sentences? [closed]
How many men are there?
How much milk he buys?
There are books.
It is a toy.
Books are there.
- 11
-3
votes
1
answer
150
views
Proper hyphenation of “technologies”
The New Oxford spelling dictionary by Maurice Waite from 2005 says on p. 521,
tech|nolo¦gies
Note there's no break after “techno” despite the Greek root téchnē. Why? Could we kindly ask for an ...
user492053
3
votes
1
answer
175
views
'Go on a binge' in British English?
If said without any accompanying information, is 'go on a binge' primarily understood by Brits as meaning a 'drinking binge'?
- 107
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2
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164
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Is "bugly" used in British English?
Is "bugly" (from 'butt ugly') used in British English? And if it is, is it more common in some regional dialects than others?
- 107
0
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0
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46
views
Is "skunkworks" used in British English?
Is the originally American English "skunkworks" also used in BE? And if it is, is it still regarded as being an Americanism, or has it been assimilated into BE?
- 107
3
votes
1
answer
128
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Do compounds ending in "college" have initial stress in British English but final stress in American English?
Zwicky (1986, p. 54) claims that compounds ending in college have initial stress in British English but final stress in American varieties. Thus, Brits would say KING'S college but Americans ...
- 493
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4
answers
115
views
Can I use the adjective “existing” with a noun, if there are no existing instances of that noun?
Would the following sentence make sense, if there are no existing instances the noun?
I will go out and look for existing dinosaurs
By using the adjective “existing”, the sentence refers to ...
- 141
1
vote
4
answers
719
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Is there a word for fans making excuses for their favorite artist? [duplicate]
The example I'm thinking of is Bethesda and Starfield. Other than the graphics it's not a well designed game, but people keep making excuses for it, when smaller teams have done far more with far less ...
-2
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1
answer
58
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Usage of dash, grammar
There are two sentences :
Cat is a small animal with soft fur that people often keep as a pet.
Cat — a small animal with soft fur that people often keep as a pet.
Is the second one correct from ...
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20
votes
2
answers
4k
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What does this Peter Sellers sentence mean?
What does the sentence mean which Peter Sellers is here quoting from his grandad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mbUdsQfSq0&t=294s
(I refer to the sentence he says immediately after you start ...
- 319
1
vote
5
answers
185
views
How to be 'ornery' in BE?
I'm looking for the best BE substitute for the AmE word "ornery" in the phrase "an ornery bunch".
Complicating the task for this second-language speaker of English is that ...
- 107
1
vote
2
answers
225
views
Connotations of "that's too bad" between American and British english
I am a Canadian, but I study in Edinburgh, Scotland. I have discovered a peculiar feature of my speach that seems to surprise most people from here. When ill befalls others, I use the phrase "...
- 113
1
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0
answers
66
views
Sentence improvement too redundant [closed]
Can this be improved?
The last tale of success on a constructed new programming language is
one at the famous X, LLC.
or,
The last tale of success of a constructed new programming language is
one ...
- 115
0
votes
0
answers
55
views
If you mean 'good' then say so! [duplicate]
Why do the British, myself included, ofttimes respond to an inquiry which could be answered by "Good" or "Fine" by saying "Not bad" or "Not bad at all"?
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