Questions tagged [north-american-english]
Questions about English used in the United States and Canada, but usually not Mexico.
16
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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From Black Friday to Cyber Monday!
Sources available on line say that the expression “Cyber Monday” is just a few years old, dating its coinage to 2005:
The term "Cyber Monday" was dreamt up in 2005 by a marketing team at Shop.org,...
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Vowel shift in Michigan accent?
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Michigan because my grandparents live there. By today’s standards, they have very heavy accents, with full Canadian raising and the northern cities vowel shift. ...
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"Cash me ousside" girl's speech
Danielle Bregoli, a.k.a. the "Cash me ousside" girl, became a meme after she appeared on the Dr. Phil Show. (See also: http://www.tmz.com/person/cash-me-outside-girl/)
Is Bregoli's speech an affected ...
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American English: "Should have came ..."
So I'm watching Palmer, and Coles, a white, middle-class US American male, just said I shoulda came and visited you (refering to Palmer, who got out of prison earlier that week). The movie plays in ...
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I don't understand what a character says in a TV programme
I'm a non-native English speaker and English is my second language. I've been watching an episode of one of my favourite children's TV programmes for a minute and I already don't understand what one ...
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What do you call the open area outside of a building as depicted in the picture?
I find it hard to name the place other than "an open area outside of a building." It doesn't matter if it is in the front or on any other side of the building.
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over the years/thoughout the years/for years
What are the cases in which each of those is used? Can you give more detailed examples and differences in meaning and usage than the ones I found below if there are any?
Here's what Google says:
...
- 604
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Is “be confident in your capacity” grammatically correct?
I'm trying to learn some new English recently, is this sentence grammatically correct?
Be confident in your capacity.
Does it sound weird to say? To me it seems like when saying capacity some ...
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Does General American English have the evidential predicates "think", "believe", "guess", "reckon", or "have the feeling"?
It's a feature of Southern American English, but does General American English have this feature?
Eg: I have the feeling I'm going to go. I guess I'm going to go. I think I'm going to go. I believe I'...
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What is the intonation or pitch pattern of "parties" at 0:30?
I wonder what the intonation or pitch pattern of "parties" at 0:30 around is in the clip? Why does the stress seem to fall on the both syllables, "par" and "ties"? While ...
- 111
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Is this a compound or sentence fragment?
Given the following sentence:
"As if she lived in a castle and her favourite princes and princesses had just dropped by to visit"
Is this a compound or sentence fragment?
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163
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Do some Americans in the Midwest pronounce "sorry" similarly to Canadians?
I just listened to the closing arguments from the defense team in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. At one point, Mr. Rittenhouse’s lawyer pronounced the word “sorry” in a way that to my non-native ears ...
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304
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Is it okay to use past tense when writing about a fictional story?
When talking about a book, or a fictional story we are required to use present tense. The question is:
Can we use past tense if it is a flashback?
Also, can we use past tense like in the sentence ...
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-1
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1
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128
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Usage of Comma to remove ambiguity
Soon after the military operations, an 11 member committee headed by Mr. ABC was set up to suggest measures that would enhance the combat capability of the armed forces and to also, balance defence ...
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Saw you "talking" or "that you talked"
I always had a problem using right form of a verb/subject when it comes to describing an action performed by someone. What is the most common form of following in conversations .
I saw you talking ...
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1
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Go and come as verbs and the ommitting of and
I have a question relating to the verbs "come" and "go" plus another verb. Why do americans say come sing with us (for example and not come AND sing with us (as is the norm in English English. Like ...
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