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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Unusual conjugation of "to be" [closed]
I encountered several times a certain type of sentences (in colloquial contexts) which were clearly grammatically incorrect but seems to be widely spread and, as a non-native English speaker, I would ...
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3
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Origin of "Indent" as in inventory or request
I have recently moved to an institution run by the British government where staff use the term "indent" as a noun to refer to an inventory exercise done to work out what they need to buy.
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Is there a transatlantic split in how to truncate "obstetrics and gynecology"?
There is a medical specialty called obstetrics and gynecology. In the UK I have only heard this truncated to something like the first syllables separated by a truncated "and". This could ...
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Is the comma between the words 'that' and 'if' in this sentence incorrect?
In A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Bertrand Russell writes:
Hegel thought that, if enough was known about a thing to distinguish
it from all other things, then all its properties could be ...
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What is the meaning (and origin) of the word 'peck' in the expression 'bomb peck' (BrE)?
Someone used the words 'bomb peck' in conversation to me yesterday and I queried what they meant. I have found the expression being used colloquially online but with no explanation of what 'peck' ...
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Are all variants of English spelling basically British or American? [closed]
I am working on an English-language online resource. It seems an obvious good idea to allow users to choose a version in British English or American English spelling. However, I've noticed that spell-...
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Question about pronunciation in British accent (Modern RP) [duplicate]
In the British accent (Modern RP), the word "often" is pronounced as "ɒf.tən" with the "t" sound. What about words like "soften", "fasten", and "...
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Difference between ",' and ` in quoting [closed]
I'm designing a template language that tries to adhere as closely as possible to english grammar and HTML syntax. For example, arrays are declared by appending an s to a word rather than prepending a ...
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Usage of non-definitive answer to a definitive question
I'm having a discussion with someone currently about the use of non-definitive answers to definitive questions, and am hoping StackExchange might be able to help me with this one!
The person I'm ...
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A traffic light (1 "light" composed of 3 lights) or A SET of traffic lights (3 lights considered individually)?
Which is idiomatic in British and American English, when talking about a single post that contains 3 lights, red, yellow and green? A traffic light or A SET of traffic lights?
Dictionaries seem ...
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"learned" vs. "learnt" in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
I have seen the answers to this question, yet I am not entirely sure how to interpret the difference between "learned" and "learnt" in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Alice says &...
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How did barista enter the English language?
The Italian term barista (bartender) entered the English language in 1992 and its usage has considerably increased since then according to Google Books:
"bartender in a coffee shop," as a ...
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Feminine Forms for chaps and blokes [duplicate]
"Chaps" / "blokes" are friendly ways to address "male folks" in the UK. Do we have "corresponding" feminine forms?
"Shawties", "babes" aren'...
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Word order after "that"
Why are we not able to delete those questions which are downvoted by someone that we have no clue what was in their mind?
Is the first sentence grammatically correct? I think it is probably wrong to ...
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How are /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ realised in the Nottingham (East Midlands) accent?
I've got a sample of a few words pronounced by a Nottingham accent representative: https://youtu.be/2fCSeDEZeVU
My ear is far from perfect and this is why I'd like to ask for your help in this ...
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