donutsweeper | Help with wording

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Help with wording

UK peeps, a question on wording (that I'm too embarrassed about to post over at

dw_britglish .)

For a US character I would say that, after receiving a a life-altering injury, a character is barely capable of going to the bathroom by himself. Bathroom, in this case, would mean the ability to use the toilet and wash up and whatnot.

Would the UK wording be "use the w.c. (or is it WC) by himself" or simply toilet or lavatory or....? Help!

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very true. and all the euphemisms can be really confusing. Think about all the ways you can say that someone died... passed on, etc

Exactly.

And then there's all the things that you Americans have taken and changed or missed bits out of. 'I could care' is one that particularly bugs me because it doesn't make sense. The English version 'I couldn't care less' does. *g*

it's weird how there are such differences in the language that way. UK vs US, with also Canadian and Australian changes too.

I've never heard anybody say "I could care" meaning "I couldn't care less." Huh, maybe it's a regional thing? Or something new? Although I have heard "I could care less," which makes no sense.

hmmm, I guess I've only heard 'I could care less' and "I couldn't care less" too. I suppose they mean the same thing, but it's odd how they sort of don't as well

I've heard "I could care less" in American tv/movies, and like unfeathered said, it makes little sense. If you could care less, surely it implies you do care a considerable amount?

well, if you're thinking about it logically.... I guess you're right.

But it can also mean "I could could care more, but I don't"

I've always been other the impression that 'I could care less' is just a mutation of the phrase, either through mishearing it or simply slurring or dropping the 'n't'. It happens sometimes, just in speaking situations. Like you might say 'a whole nother' which isn't something you'd write, but when you're speaking it sounds better. Like in French you say 'il y a' instead of 'il a', simply because it sounds better. The 'y' doesn't mean anything.

We have a bad habit around here to say 'I seen' instead of 'I saw' or 'I have seen', which seems to be a local dialect issue. It drives me nuts. Along with 'libary'. You cannot get a book from the libary, because there is no libary.

My mother is always going to 'pass the vacuum', because she's French-Canadian and that's how it translates.

As a Canadian, the spell-checker hates me. 'Theatre', 'favourite', 'towards'.

I love language and etymology. Hence the little rant there.

I love local phrases. Or they drive me nuts. When I moved to MN I couldn't get over the fact natives say "Can you borrow me a book?" instead of lend. Or the fact they say "I'm going to the store, do you want to come with?" dropping the 'me' that I would have put at the end.

Can you use a UK spellchecker instead?

I don't know if Firefox has a UK spellcheck option. I should look that up. In Word, I can't get the UK dictionary to stick. As soon as I close the programme, it switches back to the US dictionary.

I love looking up local slang for when I write characters. It really helps bring them to life. I remember struggling with Kirmani's voice until I changed some of his wording to a more Chicagga accent and it worked a whole lot better.

there's a Canadian English dictionary addon! Here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3653

Sometimes people can go a little nuts with local slang though. I hate when NY characters say 'youse guys' or things like that.

Thanks!

Totally agreed on that. I always wonder how far to press translating accents, too. I try not to go overboard with Rose, but I do tend to use 'fings' and such when she's upset. I once played two French characters simultaneously for an RPG and I always chose to translate one of their accents and the other one I only did it occasionally. I have no idea why. Characters choose for themselves sometimes I guess.

subtle things like that are good. And make sure you're using the right terms. Ianto would use the stairs or wait for a lift while Rayk or Harry Dresden wait for an elevator- that sort of thing.

Nothing throws me out of a fic faster then using the wrong term like that.

Apropos of nothing, but is Word taking it's settings from Windows here? If you are in the UK and need to keep your Windows settings you might do better telling Word to use UK English as an additional dictionary.

Really? I've heard it all over the place in songs and tv! And that seemed to be what was meant!

in songs and tv

I wonder if it's one of those things that just hasn't made it to the middle of the country yet. Trends in language and... well pretty much all trends here seem to start on the coasts (where the media are centered) and work their way in.

I don't know, I grew up in NY and don't really know the phrase "I could care" either.

Do you really think that language works that way- NYC and LA as starting points and seeping in to the rest of the US from there?

Well, I was thinking if it was something really quite new--like in the past year or so--it might not have made it to either of the places you and I live now, yet.

When I was a kid I somehow got the impression that the middle of the country was several months to a year or two behind California in fashion (if it reached us at all). And there have been a couple of times when friends in California taught me new slang or usage that was happening there, and it was a few months before I noticed it being picked up by national media and then appearing in my local area. But I suppose with the internet that's all bypassed now, and it might go the other way as well. This is with slang, though, I don't think it necessarily applies to more formal language, which is much slower to change anyway.

I don't know, really! It might just be my kooky theory. :)

it makes a lot of sense- culturally they are they hot spots. The midwest and south are often kind of skipped over in the mindset of those types- there used to be this cartoon of the US, where NY and NYC were huge and the east coast too, there was this smushed little bit that was the midwest and then there was CA that took up most of the south and west.

I've seen that map! It's pretty funny. I just noticed a comment in somebody's journal that her friend in NYC called the whole middle of the country "Ohindianidahutah" or something like that. *g* With the media centered on the coasts, it's understandable. I don't mind, like Xander, I like the quiet. :)

I couldn't find the one you're talking about, but have we discussed this one before? I know travels_in_time and I have...

http://www.lukecole.com/Electoral%20Maps/Maps6.htm

Then there's this - hee

http://www.georgeglazer.com/archives/maps/archive-nyc/nyersideasm.html

Oh, and this is what Texans really think. *g*

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/172-texas-is-bigger-than-everything/

You showed me the Jesusland one before- I'm apparently in the US of Canada! Which I'm oddly okay with!

The NY one's similar to what I was thinking, but that TX one is hysterical!

Makes sense! *g*

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