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Why are the British confused about us calling bread rolls “biscuits” when they call bread rolls “puddings”?
Martin Hope
They might be as confused as to why you keep calling pudding “biscuits”. Step out of your own cultural context for a minute. You do not own English, and there is no reason that the way it is used elsewhere should be understandable to you, or vice versa. If anyone had rights to the language, for thatRead more
Why are the British confused about us calling bread rolls “biscuits” when they call bread rolls “puddings”?
Marko Smith
I have never heard a British person EVER call a bread roll a `pudding`. We DO have arguments….mostly of a regional nature. I`ve heard bread rolls called both baps and barmcakes, for instance. But never, ever, a `pudding`. You are misinformed. Or perhaps you are confusing the term with something elseRead more
Why are the British confused about us calling bread rolls “biscuits” when they call bread rolls “puddings”?
Barry Carter
Calling a bread roll a “biscuit” really takes the biscuit. The word comes from French, meaning “twice cooked” (bis – cuit). Are bread rolls twice cooked? Of course modern biscuits aren’t twice cooked either but they were originally. As far as I know no Briton calls a bread roll a pudding, though weRead more
Why are the British confused about us calling bread rolls “biscuits” when they call bread rolls “puddings”?
James Wane
We aren’t, and we don’t. You are misinformed. In Britain, the word ‘biscuit’ means a hard baked cookie, like a graham cracker. Since this is the normal use of this word in the UK, we don’t automatically think of the plain scone-type baked goods for which Americans use the word ‘biscuit’. US EnglishRead more
How do native speakers tell I’m foreign based on my English alone?
James Wane
Because non-native speakers use English differently as compared to native speakers. It’s… it’s as simple as that. I can also usually tell within the first few moments of talking to somebody on the internet whether they are from a native English-speaking country or not. They’ll use slightly differentRead more
How do native speakers tell I’m foreign based on my English alone?
Barry Carter
You probably have strange grammar. Pretty much every language has a different grammar style than English, as far as I know. Don’t know Malaysian, so I can’t answer that specific part. But based on your question, you have better grammar than most on the internet. So that could be it, that you’re “tooRead more
Is this statement, “i see him last night” can be understood as “I saw him last night”?
Marko Smith
You are correct that both are understandable. The only other possible everyday meaning I could think of would be ‘I see him [in my mind’s eye] last night’; that is, I am, at this very moment, imagining him last night. But it should almost always be clear from context which one is intended. ‘Correct’Read more
Is this statement, “i see him last night” can be understood as “I saw him last night”?
James Wane
No, ‘I see him last night’ is always incorrect and will be only just barely understandable. It is a very serious and basic error, and it will be tiring for a native speaker to converse with someone who speaks like this, because they will constantly have to be remembering what the person really meansRead more
Is this statement, “i see him last night” can be understood as “I saw him last night”?
Barry Carter
There is a certain poetic sense in which “I see” works. “I see him last night in my dreams” although not technically correct. However, generally speaking “I saw” is the right usage for past events. Much prose writing in English novels is in the present tense although they are about past events. TheRead more
Google Analytics reads like a seismic chart lately
Barry Carter
Yet another update?? Could be a refined version of the Feb 7 update that shook us up. Traffic went up and down and settled to near normal after about 10 days. But last seven days have not shown any change – if anything, traffic and page views have increased a little!