English Grammar, Spelling and Vocabulary

[Darrell71]

Ah, glad to see I'm not in the wrong here. But ugh, why would they keep on saying it like that? It bothers me to no end.

[Courtenay]

Well, sometimes there are legitimate variations in grammar between different dialects of English (and I'm sure the same goes for other languages). One example I can think of is that many people in England (and this seems to be throughout the country, not just regional) say things like "I was sat over there." You never hear that at all in Australian English; we would always say "I was sitting over there." So it always comes across as a jarring grammatical error to my ears. But I've heard it enough times over here, including from otherwise well-spoken and well-educated people, that I can only assume it's widely accepted as correct. (And I'm sure there are some who would think "You was sat over there" is correct too. )

I think obviously the only solution is that the rest of the Anglophone world should take Australian English* as the universal standard. That'll sort everything out.

*New Zealand English is acceptable too, so long as we can still tease them for eating fush and chups.

[pete9012S]

Why do New Zealand and Australian people sometimes sound alike to people not from those two countries?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... A_EpA35n-8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Courtenay]

Well, our accents are very similar — a NZ accent is much like a not-so-broad Aussie accent. It's the vowel sounds that give away which one it is. New Zealand English has a few vowel sounds that are very like South African English — the short "i" (as in fish) is flattened to somewhere between a short "u" and "e" (hence "fush and chups" — they think we say "feesh and cheeps" by comparison) and the short "a" (as in pat) is often more like an "e". For example, I once heard a New Zealand businessman on the phone saying he was going to discuss things with Muck, Chrus and Gevin — i.e. Mick, Chris and Gavin — before concluding with "Must desh."

And yes (only just saw the YouTube link), there's also the short "e" sounding like a short "i" — although that ad exaggerated it a bit. As for all the jokes about how New Zealanders pronounce "six"... let's just not go there.

[Daisy]

I agree that "You was" etc. is not good English and I feel it is more or less confined to the South East. I lived in Kent for several years where I came across it a lot, but hear it much less here in the Midlands. To my ears it does sound uneducated but I'm not sure if that is a fair judgement.
Local accents do seem to have their own variations of what we accept as standard English and it's probably because of first radio and then television that "wrong" English has become more widespread. In the end, it becomes accepted, I suppose.

[KEVP]

I have a feeling that if an English person was telling you they were taught to say "you was" in school, they are pulling your leg, using the famous English sense of humour. (Since English humour is often very dry, sometimes non-English people have a hard time realizing that the English are joking)

"You was" is characteristic of a lot of working class American speech. For example Black American Vernacular English, or Italian-American English. And also seems to be characteristic of some working class British speech. Among a lot of young people in USA and UK, there is an attempt to seem "urban" or "street", which is why they affect these "street" dialects.

[Rob Houghton]

Around Birmingham many people would say 'you was' or more often 'was you' as in 'was you going the shops?' (also often missing out the 'to') but I was brung up proper so I say 'were you going to the shops?'

I always find it quite jarring when I hear someone say 'I was sat in the garden' or 'two people were sat on that bench' etc. I've always been brought up to say 'sitting'. Its something I find a bit sloppy, but as Courtenay says, many well-educated and well-spoken people do use the phrase.

[Darrell71]

I have a feeling that if an English person was telling you they were taught to say "you was" in school, they are pulling your leg, using the famous English sense of humour. (Since English humour is often very dry, sometimes non-English people have a hard time realizing that the English are joking)

That certainly wasn't the case here, as they were using 'you was' in formal writing too, which was being read by many non English people, and thus bound to raise a few eyebrows. No one would knowingly make themselves look stupid, not just once, but over and over again, would they now? And the person in question doesn't really seem to have much of a sense of humor either.

I have no problem with using it in informal writing, if it's a colloquial thing, but I simply can't just accept someone using grammatically incorrect English in a formal situation.

For example, I once heard a New Zealand businessman on the phone saying he was going to discuss things with Muck, Chrus and Gevin — i.e. Mick, Chris and Gavin — before concluding with "Must desh."

[Courtenay]

This monumental spelling mistake right outside a school cracked me up just now...

[Daisy]

Oh dear... that's a good one... someone didn't step back after he'd finished, to inspect his work!

[Eddie Muir]

Wonderful, Courtenay.

[Rob Houghton]

everyone knows it should be spelled 'Skool'

[Eddie Muir]

Quite right, Rob.

[Daisy]

[Moonraker]

"You was here" can be heard around different parts of the country. I have heard it commonly spoken in London, Essex, East Anglia and the Midlands. It is a regional variant of our grammar and I welcome it. Lord Sugar is possibly the most wealthy person to speak in this way!

How dreadful if we all spoke in received pronunciation.