We gonna English today, people.

[Helena]

Very difficult to explain to someone used to American English. AFIK, the letter 'A' is pronounced totally differently in the UK, and in most of Europe, from the USA. If you go to this site, you will see the differences in the national pronunciation of 'auction'.

https://forvo.com/word/auction/

LOL, the UK pronunciation came across as Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire.

[Dr. Who]

LOL, the UK pronunciation came across as Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire.

I think that was supposed to be a British accent but came across more like a bad Scottish accent. It was funny anyway.

[Standing Wolf]

I'm glad you said some Scots - Glaswegian English is a foreign language to most other English speakers, but my grandparents come from Edinburgh, and I think Edinburgh English is the nicest accent on the British Isles. Australians can't make up their minds how they want to pronounce stuff. Uneducated Australians tend to pick up American pronunciations from the telly, and as Australia is the most multicultural society on earth, there are lots of foreign influences on the way Australians speak. AFIK, there are three main Australian accents - broad (uneducated) Australian, educated Australian (more common in people who hold a degree, or a professional qualification,) and cultured Australian (people who stick to Received Pronunciation as it is used in the UK). You can sometimes tell an Australian's background and level of education from the way he/she speaks.

Some years ago, I worked with a young man from England. His father was Welsh, but John was brought up in a community just north of London. He could mimic a dozen different U.K. accents, but his natural one was perfectly understandable - obviously educated, but without being stuffy or exaggerated, or what we sometimes call "Masterpiece Theatre English". We worked as alarm company monitors and dispatchers, so he spoke with a lot of people, and he was constantly being asked what part of Australia he was from...which was ridiculous, as he didn't sound at all like an Australian. He finally just gave up and created a small town in the Outback and told folks that he was from there. One of our patrolmen actually was from Australia, and they used to laugh about it all the time.

I sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between a C*ckney/East London accent and an Australian accent - sometimes I get that wrong, but I do find them to be similar.

I may have told this story before elsewhere, but I met an Australian man who told me that people called him "Tiny". He was a rather large guy, so I assumed that it was an ironic nickname. At some point I asked him, though, why people called him "Tiny", and he said "It's my name". His name was Tony.

[Helena]

[William]

LOL, the UK pronunciation came across as Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire.

Lol, I must respectfully disagree.

I never saw Mrs Doubtfire, so I had to look up clips from the film on YouTube. Anyone who thinks the British, from any part of the UK, sound like Robin Williams in that film, has obviously heard the British accent described often, but has never heard a British person speak.

This is what a proper RP accent sounds like - compare it to the Robin Williams accent.



You only need to listen to the first few minutes - the rest is about boring British politics.

[Helena]

Allude is coy, to allude is to refer to something in an indirect manner. But elude's favorite thing to do is hide from the cops; it means to evade.
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/allude-elude/

Allude to something by saying all but what you actually want to say. Elude evades and gets away, like a name that's on the tip of your tongue.

[Standing Wolf]

Allude is coy, to allude is to refer to something in an indirect manner. But elude's favorite thing to do is hide from the cops; it means to evade.
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/allude-elude/

Allude to something by saying all but what you actually want to say. Elude evades and gets away, like a name that's on the tip of your tongue.

You almost never hear people use the word "allude" in that form; I don't, anyway. You hear, "What are you alluding to?" or "I understand the allusion". Otherwise, it doesn't seem to come up much.

[Helena]

You almost never hear people use the word "allude" in that form; I don't, anyway. You hear, "What are you alluding to?" or "I understand the allusion". Otherwise, it doesn't seem to come up much.

I noticed the misuse of a form of 'allude' just this morning. The word I believe they meant to use was 'eludes', as in the phrase "something 'eludes' or escapes you."

Alluded to is the most common way I hear and see it, as well.

[ODB]

Hyphenated.

Non-hyphenated.

Oh, the irony.

[Helena]