An American grammar question (totally off topic)

[Chavster]

North Jersey think NYC and South Jersey think Philly.

The thing is though Tom, Philadelphia (to me) sounds the same as Seattle or Cleveland. I cant hear a difference in Philadelphia, whereas NYC is very detectable. I can even hear a difference between NYC and CT, but Philadelphia (to me) has what I call a 'generic' American accent, so I guess my ears arent as finely tuned as they should be

For me, the places in America that have a very noticable accent are Boston, NYC, Miami, the whole GA/MS/AL/LA area, Texas, Chicago, Detroit, Alaska and Hawaii. Apart from those places, everyone sounds just about the same to me. But I would imagine its the same for most non-British people when they come to the UK. Most probably cant tell the difference between a Surrey accent and a Norwich accent, or a Llandudno accent and a Swansea accent, even though (to me) the difference is huge.

[Chavster]

Cha Chin on the English language thing,  you can use it on a bar bet sometime,
No  you don't but a Pink bike in the back ground has to be a Q on this board.
Every body talks funny, to us here in the Midwest US.  Aye?

Well you're the third guy to ask me about the bike I guess I should change my picture again They all look like sh1t but at least the others dont have a pink bike in the background lol

[cvasara]

That was one, quick AV change.   My wife likes the bike though. 

[tomgallagher]

I was in Brooklyn once and some guy said "You must be from Philly" and I asked how he did that and he said "You got a Philly accent" and naturally I said "What accent.?".

[Chavster]

I was in Brooklyn once and some guy said "You must be from Philly" and I asked how he did that and he said "You got a Philly accent" and naturally I said "What accent.?".

When I'm in America, people either usually make no mention of my accent, or they say 'OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I JUST LOVE YOUR ACCENT ITS SO CUTE, ITS SO QUAINT, DID YOU KNOW LADY DI PERSONALLY, OMG SAY THAT AGAIN, I LOVE THE WAY YOU SAY THAT'...and I usually just reply with 'thanks, but its you that has the accent...'.

[Chavster]

That was one, quick AV change.   My wife likes the bike though. 

I'll ship it to her as long as she leaves me positive feedback first

[tomgallagher]

I was in Brooklyn once and some guy said "You must be from Philly" and I asked how he did that and he said "You got a Philly accent" and naturally I said "What accent.?".

When I'm in America, people either usually make no mention of my accent, or they say 'OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I JUST LOVE YOUR ACCENT ITS SO CUTE, ITS SO QUAINT, DID YOU KNOW LADY DI PERSONALLY, OMG SAY THAT AGAIN, I LOVE THE WAY YOU SAY THAT'...and I usually just reply with 'thanks, but its you that has the accent...'.

LOL...nobody ever thinks they have an accent.

[Chavster]

I was in Brooklyn once and some guy said "You must be from Philly" and I asked how he did that and he said "You got a Philly accent" and naturally I said "What accent.?".

When I'm in America, people either usually make no mention of my accent, or they say 'OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I JUST LOVE YOUR ACCENT ITS SO CUTE, ITS SO QUAINT, DID YOU KNOW LADY DI PERSONALLY, OMG SAY THAT AGAIN, I LOVE THE WAY YOU SAY THAT'...and I usually just reply with 'thanks, but its you that has the accent...'.

LOL...nobody ever thinks they have an accent.

I never think about my accent, until I step foot on American soil, and quite honestly, the entire time I'm in the US, I try to speak to people as little as possible. I have a serious fear of not being understood, or being told I sound quaint or cute, or feeling like Eurotrash.

Many years ago I worked at a call centre in Nebraska. I was one of about 17 million people working there (exaggeration), and because everyone has to use a unique name when they answered a call, I was given the name 'Art'. After about an hour, it became clear that there was no way a guy with an English accent could use that name, because it sounded like 'ahhhht', so they changed my name to Donald, which still sounded very different to the way an American would pronounce Donald. By the end of my first week, the guy whose real name was Pete became Donald, and I became Pete.

I didnt know who the hell I was!

[cvasara]

Cool response,  but Like all telemarketers,  I don't care what you sound like, I think you're probably from India.    I'm still going to ask you for you home number, and we can talk about it after dinner.  I leave out the other things I usually will say, before I get, very rudely, I might add, hung up on.   

[Laser Man]

There are some other accents beside NY and Boston.  Try Pittsburgh and Texas.  And by the way, a northern New Jersey accent is different from a NY accent!

[Chavster]

Cool response,  but Like all telemarketers,  I don't care what you sound like, I think you're probably from India.    I'm still going to ask you for you home number, and we can talk about it after dinner.  I leave out the other things I usually will say, before I get, very rudely, I might add, hung up on.   

When they call, and they're invariably from India, I just hang up. Its not a race thing, its an 'I can never understand a word they say' thing, added with some 'I never want what they're selling' thing, plus some 'I'm way too busy to talk about new windows' thing. So I just hang up.

There are some other accents beside NY and Boston.  Try Pittsburgh and Texas.  And by the way, a northern New Jersey accent is different from a NY accent!

Well I said 'Texan' is my favourite accent of all, so I know there's an accent there Thats one helluva sexy accent (even though I know there are lots of different accents within Texas, they all sound the same to me). as for NJ, I have a friend living in Vegas. He is from Mahwah NJ, and his wife is from Haddonfield NJ. To me, they sound not only identical to each other, but they both sound as if they were born, raised, and never stepped more than 2 feet away from Broadway and 53rd She sounds just like Barbra Streisand, and I know Babs isnt from Broadway and 53rd either...

[tomgallagher]

I used to frequent the Starbucks in Haddonfield quite regularly. Just sayin'.

[Mr Jules]

I know what terse means, you young whippersnapper you but I was trying to think of 'terse' in conjuction with my spaghetti analogy

I dont think it matters whether the headline is suppose to be terse or not...its just that comma thing, it seems to be used all the time, and I just dont get it

And I thought it was just me who gets annoyed with the American comma headline thing.

Right. I'm signing off for the night. (darned, I just said 'right').

Here's a British comedy clip taking the pi$$ on the amount of times we say 'right'

For american viewers, it helps if you know the meaning of the British word 'bollocks'.

[tomgallagher]

Right then Jules.

[Mr Jules]

Right then Jules.

I now realise when us Brits say "Right". It's usually before we plan to do something.

"Right, I'm having breakfast"
"Right, I'm getting drinks for everyone"

But not before expressing an opinion. So you'd never hear: "Right, it's a sunny day"