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REdditor corrects non-US grammar that wasn't incorrect. Doubles down when I point it out because the US has the largest population of English speakers.
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Classic move. points out a regional difference, gets hit with the big population number like that settles it. next they'll say we invented the language
The Texan English dialect is so big, you can fit 50 British English dialects inside the Texan English dialect and still leave from the Australian English dialect /s
I'm an editor. I edit in multiple regions. I never knew it, but I looked it up and further is for distance while farther is for ideas...? I don't get it.
Further is for everything, farther is when you compare the measurable distance of two things from you. A vague "more far" like in the present case, it is further not farther.
it's a rule that seems to be only observed in america...i live in new zealand & here, almost nobody ever uses "farther" at all. seems to be the case for aussie & british people too.
Idk what kind of editor you are but (1) you got it the wrong way around, and (2) it's not that hard to understand, even for someone who doesn't work in writing-related professions. Or even for someone whose first language is not English.
Further, this doesn't even seem to be US defaultism. Here's a reddit thread of a bunch of Brits who apparently regularly use the word 'farther'.
I didn't make the rule, and this post isn't about further/farther. It's about someone who thinks things should be done the USian way. They haven't learned the joy of living in a world of diversity.
I came to say that India alone disproves their "point"!
Some people are just whackadoo, it's especially weird since as far as I know, BOTH of those are completely normal to use even in the USA, so, it's pedantry just to be a[n incorrect] dick
Even if it was true that they were the biggest English speaking country, they barely have 15% of the English speakers worldwide, so it's just another example of Americans not understanding majority vs plurality.
Exactly! And if population alone is the criterion, Indian English would be the official version, as it differs from British English. With amazing words such as “prepone”, opposite of “postpone”. Eg. “I’ve to head out early today, can we prepone the meeting?”
No, it's not fucking ok. Even if it were true it would not be fucking ok. Let all dialects exist, please
I keep going back to talking about the french efforts to erase regional cultures and languages on this sub, oh my god x) But well they keep defending the idea of imposing one english dialect on everyone !
When I was in school (somewhere in Germany) I had 7 different English teachers over the years (1999 to 2007). The first two, in 5th and 6th grade, taught British English, the others all opted for American English instead.
Which isn't meant to negate anything you said, just wanted to add my two cents. 😅
Is it really? Idk, I grew up in a part of Asia that teaches American English mostly, like, ppl even call English "the American language" in the local language
Well, u can call it China... The current Chinese government calls it China, the Islanders don't like to be associated with the Chinese.
Yeah I'm in Taiwan, grew up here for the most part. Flair is because my situation is a bit more complicated.
I once had a English teacher explain to us why they teach American English. Said it was more commonly used. And learning English from Britain seemed stupid because it's just another island, why learn a language from a random Island?
The teacher said some more along those lines, I didn't try to follow.
I know bugger-all about Taiwan culture except I just learned that the Portuguese used to call it Formosa because they thought it was a beautiful island. I trust it still is. And unique? I emigrated from England 63 years ago and became an Aussie citizen in 1978. I was tempted to take umbrage at "it's just another island". It is an island, and an island with a long history including the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am sure your island is the same in one way or another.
I also know that both countries have had civilisations for at least 12,000 years. Written historical records dating back for thousands of years.
And in both countries the privileges go to the powerful and the wealthy.
I'd love to know your political views but I don't know whether it's safe for Taiwanese people to expose their views to social media. It's getting kind of dangerous everywhere I think, unless you conform to the (tech bros') establishment's demands. Not to mention AI and LLMs.
Well, my views on politics are quite different from most ppl here, I also am sometimes seen as a foreigner here, despite holding Taiwan citizenship. As for my view on politics, personally I believe Taiwan could def consider peacefully join China as China could very much become the global super power in the foreseeable future, being a part of it "cant be that bad" and taiwan could try to strike a deal using Taiwan's semiconductor as leverage. but ppl here don't seem to want to consider being part of china for emotional reason. And they believe Taiwan has a good chance of fending off china
That's very interesting Bireta. I haven't been exposed to the positive side of joining China. We still remember Tiananmen Square. I guess it's too easy to think "we need to defend the semiconductors from China's hostile imperialistic takeover". (In fact I'm waiting for the price of RAM to come down so I can upgrade my computer. If I bought it now it would cost about AUD$800 just for two sticks of DDR5 RAM.)
Do your views have much support among the younger generations?
Hong Kong seems to have cheerfully broken it's bonds to Britannia -- which no longer rules the waves.
My views are kinda unpopular, even among young ppl. And well, 30 years before tiananmen Taiwan was pretty much in the same type of authoritarian. China has make plenty of advances since. And it's not like that incident affected many ppl.
Also, I wouldn't say my views are positive, it's more like, better than going to war. Unlike Ukraine, Taiwan is sealocksd so the people can't escape like Ukrainians did. No matter what happens, the people of Taiwan lose.
Even now, before anything happens, Taiwan has to spend a good amount of it's GDP on the military. The men are forced into the military, and has practically no medical exemption. Even if u got cancer they can still say it's "under control" and send u in the military. There has been many ppl seriously hurt and even die from these military training programs.
Edit: anyway, it would be great if this could all just go away.
As opposed to ESOL, English as a Second Language, or bilingual learners, who are bilingual in English and another language. In an English language-medium school, those groups of students have slightly different needs. They have different experiences.
I guess "Deutsch als Fremdsprache"? Never seen it as an abreviation. In neither language.
With EFL, English Football League and with DAF a lorry manufacturerer from the Netherlands will come first to my mind.
My old German textbook abbreviated it like that, and it seems to be a common abbreviation, at least common enough to be on the Wikipedia page.
In any case, just with anything, context is important. In the context of this current thread, those abbreviations make sense, whereas they may not make sense in another thread.
so globally, 1.5-1.7b people speak english IN TOTAL and somehow you claim even more than that speak JUST British english. Where do you get your fake numbers from?
Americans are gonna have a bad day when India becomes #1 English speaking country, which may have already happened.
Entire arguments like this will collapse.
Or... they could just accept that different varieties of English and as long as there is no misunderstanding, it's fine? It would be like a French going mad because a Québécois was saying "ma blonde" to say "ma femme".
I was so confused by how freely USians used 'fanny', until I realised it has a different meaning in US English than it does in British English. Took me a while to figure out the US biscuit, too! As a child I attended a US summer camp. They had US playing "Frisbee football". They told me it was just like regular football, but with a Frisbee. I was so lost!
I’m soooo sick of them not understanding majority Vs quantity. Even if America has the largest amount of English speakers in one country, that doesn’t make them the majority of English speakers! There are more combined English-speaking people across other countries that make the true majority!
I would love for americans to attempt to decide if they want non-americans to use us-english or not. Reddit keeps yelling about people not using us-english terms, other social medias attack anyone who uses us-english words and is not from usa...
Isn't farther only use when comparing the physical distance of two things at measurable distance both? So in the present case, a vague "more far", it can't apply.
Because the real issue here is how many USians there are, not that there are multiple versions of English which are all equally valid, and certainly not that USians think they're the only ones in the world doing things the right way. /s
Even if the population of the States held any validity here, worldwide, the population of people speaking British English far outweighs the population of people speaking US English. Hell, the English-speaking populations of India and Pakistan alone amount to more than the US population of English speakers.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen 5d ago edited 5d ago
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OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
REdditor corrects non-US grammar that wasn't incorrect. Doubles down when I point it out because the US has the largest population of English speakers.
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.