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There are numerous differences between UK and USA English.
They're often subtle and usually relatively transparent. One of them is the US convention of referring to the ground floor of a building as the first floor whereas in the UK (and Europe generally) the first floor is reached after climbing a flight of stairs. In other words the US doesn't recognise a floor zero :).
However, the difference that does puzzle me is that here, in the UK, a nod of the head assumes an up and down motion and conventionally implying a consent or a 'Yes' and a shake is a side to side motion - implying a 'No'. I've read in lots of stories here and elsewhere where a character is said to have shaken her head 'yes'. I wonder why the distinction between a nod and a shake doesn't appear to be the norm in dollar land.
Enlighten me :)
R
Comments
Are you sure they aren't turks or bulgarian?
There the horisontal rotation around the axis signifies yes. ;)
Nodding
I always see nodding as a movement up and down (yes) and a shake as side to side (no) and I'm as American as they come. I'm fifth generation Scotts/Irish and Dutch and I've never been farther out of the country then just across the border to Canada.
However the dictionary does define shake as either.
So I suppose that's where the confusion comes from.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Divided by a common language
It’s a minefield, isn’t it? I’ve tried to supply plausible patterns of speech when I have American characters in a story, but it certainly doesn’t come naturally to a limey. You can judge my fakery: have a look at ‘Summer with Aunt Ashley’ or ‘Caught Out’.
Phrases such as “different than” where we would say “different to” or “different from”, or “I could care less” (what?). Also things like referring to your mother as “mom”. These caused me conniptions when I was writing ‘Egyptology’. Ultimately, I decided that the American characters would have to sound authentic... but I still used English spellings. Sorry, but I just can’t bring myself to leave the ‘u’ out of ‘colour’.
Bx
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
Americanizing American characters
In reading "Dressing" By Caroline Walker I noticed that she was having the same problem. So I emailed her and offered some editing of the parts where her protagonist was in America. She accepted and for a few chapters I was her editor. I saved her from having the yanks calling an elevator a lift and added a little color (sorry no "u") by suggesting some Americanisms she could add into the dialog to give it a more realistic look and feel.
I was happy to do it and I'd be happy to offer the same to any other Britt who wants to make their Americans talk like Americans.
Feel free to PM me to ask for help anytime.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
It's not our common language this time . . . .
I'm with Patricia. Even colloquial American English uses "nod" to denote an up-and-down pitch motion of the head, signifying "yes," and "shake" to denote a side-to-side yaw motion, signifying "no." If you are seeing differences on this in stories, it is likely to be idiosyncratic with the particular authors rather than evidence of a systemic dialect difference. If the authors who use "shake" for yes are American (are you sure? As Bru said, Bulgarian is always possible . . . .), that's probably just coincidence.
Emma
Hmm
I've seen what you describe in fiction but not in real life. A nod means yes, and a shake means no, in the US, in my life experience. In sloppy writing, any movement of the head seems to be described as a shake. But that ain't what is happening, to my knowledge.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Canada and USA
I've lived in a few places in Canada and the USA and have only ever heard/used a 'nod' as yes and a 'shake' as a no. Possibly some local peculiarities for whoever wrote the stories you saw this in as some above me theorized. Like pop vs soda vs cola.
It’s context that you all missed
It is shakes head up and down or side to side. It denotes the movement and yes both British and American use it. Nod can also mean fall asleep. Generally when you ask someone to do something it is nod for yes shake for no.
Note when English is not a first language you get some oddball translations.
I’ll throw a wrench into floor system. You see this in apartment or office buildings. There is ground floor, main floor, first floor…which can all be the same thing in an elevator. Ground floor or main floor usually refers to a floor that is on the ground. In us and Canada in houses that is actually uncommon. Most of the houses are built off the ground between two and four feet. Hence it’s the first floor and it stuck.
We also have split level homes that have a ground floor, first floor, basement, second floor…not very common though.
To be honest the uk naming system for floors confuses the heck out of me. Makes me wonder how you number anything in apartment buildings. Then again our cities are weird. Some are confusing grid patterns. Trying to direct someone not from that city over the phone is ….aggravating.
Ps I live in canada.
re: Floor naming
At least here in the UK we have not got rid of the '13th Floor' unlike many other places to the west of us.
50 years ago, I was a student at the Polytechnic of Central London. For my first year, I lived in the Hall of Residence that is on Marylebone Road opposite Mdme Tussauds. Several of the American students refused to accept accommodation on the 13th Floor. It didn't bother me. I got great views out of the room towards the city from room 1310.
as for colour/color... U have to accept the proper spelling with the U. After all, what heathens would invent a TV system that was Never Twice the Same Colour (NTSC)?
Samantha
TV systems.
I have a piece of paper somewhere that states that I am a qualified TV repairer but never having repaired (or even owned) a TV for well over 50 years (and never one without thermionic valves or more than 405 lines) it's no great signifier. I always liked the French system SECAM (System Essentially Contrary to the American Method!) but much prefer PAL (Perfection At Last).
A software array starts at zero (I seem to recall the need to add 1 to a result for display purposes - but it's 20 years since I wrote a line of code) so it seems sensible to have a ground floor at level zero. There are also half floors called mezzanine which are like large balconies.
I think the differences are more interesting than the similarities. There's a danger for Britons visiting the US that we are not visiting a foreign country because the language is so similar but, in reality, I feel more at home in France (where my command of the language is sketchy) than I did on my two visits to the USA.
R
As an American……
I was always taught that nodding meant yes, while shaking meant no. I have never heard any other Americans refer to it differently, and I have traveled extensively throughout the country.
Having said that, there are a lot of regional differences in our speech, so I may simply not have encountered it as of yet. What most citizens of the UK, or even greater Europe, don’t quite grasp is just how large our country is - and the resultant differences caused not just by distance, but also by who originally settled each part of our country.
My family is centered around the area of Charlotte, NC - but I was born in California and raised pretty much all over the country due to my father’s job. The result is that I have a very neutral accent as Americans go. It is obviously American, but not any recognizable region - although on the rare occasions when I meet family members they refer to me as the “token Yankee in the family” as I don’t have their Southern accent, even though I don’t really have any accent. I live in Upstate NY, but don’t have a NY accent as people expect me to have.
Anyway, as I stated, I have never heard anyone refer to “shaking their head” as an affirmative response in this country.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
And yet
Without someone saying or eluding to yes or no, if I said “ shake your head up and down or side to side” you wouldn’t think twice about it. Doctors have you do it all the time and they say it that way.
Note they say that to get you to move your head for examination. My point is shaking your head doesn’t just mean side to side until one adds it is for agreement or disagreement.
Example when you dance you don’t nod your head you shake it.
Potomac Fever
There"s a distinct subset of USAers who interchange "nod" and "shake" freely. Of course, they are those capable of speaking out of both sides of the mouth at the same time. Today is the second Tuesday of November which is a religious holiday for them.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Many of them
It seems to me that many of that subset seem to congregate near the Potomac River. However, there are significant numbers in state capitols and inner city urban areas around the country.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann