S. Worthen (owlfish) wrote,
S. Worthen
owlfish

Learning English

Two phrases I finally have down, although the first one requires active visualization to be sure I have it correctly for any given use now:

"the inside lane" - This always meant the lane furthest from the sidewalk or nearest to the median to me. A trawl of a few US sites mostly backs me up on this. This is the exact opposite of what it means in the UK. Here, in the UK, it refers to the slow lane the lane furthest from the median. So confusing! So dangerous to be able to confuse the two!

"What am I like." - Not actually a question, but a rhetorical phrase after doing something silly or flighty or accidental. Can also be used in the second person, i.e. "What are you like." I don't yet know if it can be used for any persons. First encountered twice on Sunday in Britannia High, followed up tonight, coincidentally, by the first instance I've noticed C. using it.
Tags: language, two sides of one ocean
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  • 32 comments

  • One more Eurovision song

    I finally bought the album for this year's Eurovision. I listened to it on random today while sorting papers. Much to my surprise, a song came on…

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    This year's Eurovision song contest features a ridiculously large number of videos with very gloomy visuals, some justified, some not. Over half were…

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