Timeline for Is there a difference in meaning between "fill {something} in" and “fill {something} out” in American English?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
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| Feb 3, 2018 at 8:32 | comment | added | ShreevatsaR | @tchrist Fry and Laurie, 1987: “Would you like to fill out a form?” “Fill out a form? Fill out a form? You mean fill in a form! Has everyone suddenly turned American?” | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 21:34 | comment | added | ib11 | @Mari-LouA I agree, I made it clearer in the answer. +1 on the comment. | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 20:06 | history | edited | ib11 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 2, 2018 at 18:12 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | I think that distinction between AmEng and BrEng usage is less marked than it was in the past. Cambridge Dictionaries (British) does not assign any dialect to one variant dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/… | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 17:46 | comment | added | ib11 | @ToddWilcox No, it does not, it merely quotes the dictionaries, and points out the difference between the adverbs, as a possible reason for the seemingly existing difference. I did hear a lot "fill in" for "fill out" in Los Angeles. | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 17:42 | history | edited | ib11 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 2, 2018 at 16:52 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | It's not clear to me if this answer is attempting to say that AmE speakers are unlikely to say "fill in". My experience is that AmE speakers use both "fill in" and "fill out" and the connotations are generally exactly as the asker describes. Americans are very likely to "fill in the blanks" in order to "fill out the entire form". Students in school are often presented with "fill-in-the-blank tests". | |
| Feb 2, 2018 at 14:06 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | The (paywalled) OED does not make any sort of US–UK distinction between the two. Note that each still has idiomatic uses that resist casual substitution of one for the other. A person who was previously super-skinny but has since put on healthy weight can ᴏɴʟʏ be said to have filled out and ɴᴏᴛ to have filled in, whereas potholes in the street that get fixed can ᴏɴʟʏ be said to have been filled in and ɴᴏᴛ to have been filled out. | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 23:33 | history | edited | ib11 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 1, 2018 at 23:17 | history | edited | ib11 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 1, 2018 at 23:10 | history | answered | ib11 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |