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 #17 (permalink) Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:20 am Meaning of "high street" |
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| Torsten wrote: |
| As for calling from a prison cell I think the correct American phrase would be "I'm calling you from my cell" or "I'm calling you from jail". |
I hear the sentence "I'm calling from my cell" on an extremely regular basis -- and not one of the people who has said that to me was in jail. However, if by chance someone who had been jailed called me and said that, then I might ask for clarification. 
I don't hear people say "I'm calling from my mobile."
| Torsten wrote: |
| Correct me if I'm wrong. As far as I know, Sprint is a US American company and the title of their US American homepage reads "Cell Phones, Mobile Phones, and Wireless Calling Plans from Sprint". |
Don't you think it's admirable that Sprint includes the word 'mobile'? In this case, I'm not saying that Americans don't know the word 'mobile'. What I'm trying to get across is that I basically don't hear anyone use anything other than 'cell' or 'phone' when they refer to the phone they carry with them. And I think I can safely rule out the possibility of someone saying "I'm calling you from my wireless" unless they're purposely trying to sound odd. The word 'wireless' is used to talk about all sorts of wireless services -- not just cellular phone service.
| Torsten wrote: |
| Why harp on the differences between British and American English |
Why the continual resistance to my posting information about American usage?
| Torsten wrote: |
| What difference does is it make whether you say 'at the weekend' or 'on the weekend', 'public transport' or 'public transportation', 'driver's license or 'driving license', 'cell phone' or 'mobile phone'? |
Well, then what difference does it make whether you say 'look forward to see' or 'look forward to seeing'?
As regards the examples you noted, those don't make much difference. So, why would you want to hide or deny the fact that they exist? What should people make of an English test site that categorizes a standard American usage as incorrect simply because one of the founders wasn't aware that a difference existed? What should people make of an English test site that continues to categorize a standard American usage as incorrect despite the fact that information about the US usage had been posted?
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Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 8265
Location: USA
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| #18 (permalink) Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:18 am Meaning of "high street" |
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The difference between 'look forward to see' and 'at/on the weekend' is simply that 'look forward to see' is incorrect while 'at/on the weekend' is correct. It doesn't make much of a difference whether you say 'cell phone' or 'mobile phone' because both are correct. As for information about standard American language usage, the only thing I can say is "the more we talk about here on the forum, the better".
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary |
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Torsten
Learning Coach
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
Posts: 10059
Location: EU
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| #19 (permalink) Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:37 am Meaning of "high street" |
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| Torsten wrote: |
| The difference between 'look forward to see' and 'at/on the weekend' is simply that 'look forward to see' is incorrect |
But that is exactly what some of your tests do with American English. They categorize a standard American version of something as 'incorrect' because it happens to be different from the British version.
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Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 8265
Location: USA
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