On the Britishisms & grammar imported into American English during the World Cup. “That’s not a foul, just a coming together.”
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Comments 1
I've been watching the Premier League pretty intently for the past few seasons and their commentary teams are all British. I've gotten used to the "Arsenal are" grammar, but the one things that consistently trips me up is "just about". In the US, "just about" means "almost" but in the UK it seems to mean "accomplished but just barely".
So an announcer will say something like a) "he just about cleared the ball" after a defender successfully kicks the ball out of his own box or b) "he just about squeezed it in at the near post" after a goal, which in the US would mean a) the player failed to clear it and b) almost but didn't score. (If the announcer said, "he just squeezed it in at the near post", omitting the "about", that would mean he had scored in both UK & US English.)
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a kottke.org member. Check out your membership options.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!