British English editing for Yanks

Fishbowl Helmet

Fishbowl Helmet

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Okay, so this is silly--I know, and I don't care--but what are some top resources you would suggest for writers hoping to more closely mimic a native British English style of writing?

Easy and obvious stuff I've already gathered for this patron: The 'z' vs 's' stuff, the 'o' vs 'ou' stuff, zero-marking and the zero article (BE: go to hospital vs AE: go to the hospital), general prose punctuation (BE: 'Dialogue.' vs AE: "Dialogue."), and various phrase and slang sites.

But I know there's a lot more to it than that. So, please, Chrons writers, help me out on this one.

If not links to sites or books to read, then what tips, tricks, or advice would you be willing to leave here? Even something as simple as: "Doing that (please explain what it is) is a dead give away you're American, or at least not British."
 
You also have to be careful with some expressions.

For example, in ordinary conversation, I might say "I walked into the empty room and sat at the table."

However, so far as I understand it, an American audience understands "sat" as "was seated (by someone)".
 
Just on S and Z - in most cases that's entirely acceptable either way. The thing is America *only* uses Z, so it was assumed, wrongly, that Z = American and S = British. I think both are ok (for most terms) in English English. Unfortunately, lots of people in Britain also think that S = British.

Also possible to go overboard. Republic of Thieves it seemed to have been edited for British spelling, which was nice, but they added a few Us too many (evapourated shouldn't have a U, even though vapour has one).

To and to the for hospital both seem fine to me.

"I could care less" is very American, as well as being very wrong. Things like that and slang would probably give the game away (for prison we might say clink or slammer, but never pen). And in the first season of Heroes Horn-Rimmed Glasses shouted up to his daughter: "Claire! Get your tight little fanny down here!"

Please don't have someone shout that to his daughter if you're trying to use British English...
 
I got edited (a little) the other way by my agent to make my writing a little less British and a little more neutral/ American.

Things like "flash light", "elevator" "trash can" and "side walk" scream American ("torch", "lift", "bin" and "pavement"), but she also suggested I replaced all my "afterwards" etc with "afterward", so I suppose you could go the other way.

We do not have the word "gotten".

The ' vs " is not the only difference. In British English you don't capitalise after a colon, for example. You could look at some of the style guides (I think Oxford has one).

Best thing would to get a native Brit reader, of course.
 
I am finding this thread fascinating.

I definitely write in very BE (much to the exasperation of at least one of my US readers!), but when I read any novel I get great entertainment from trying to work out if the author is American or British in style. Surprisingly it's sometimes very hard to tell. Gotten is the most common give-away for AE.

Following with interest.
 
The big give away, for me, is the use of "blocks" to describe moving around in cities. The usual British way of giving directions would be "Turn left at the traffic lights and take the second road on the right". Blocks are never mentioned. Also, the "street" or "road" at the end of the name is almost never dropped in conversation, as it seems to be in American English sometimes. You would say "Take a right when you get to Regent Street" and not "Take a right on Regent".

Having a character say "bollocks" as a crude alternative for "rubbish" or "damn!" would help, used sparingly.
 
Surely it gives away British English?

Reminds me slightly of the Agents of SHIELD episode with Lady Sif. Her English accent was excellent, but pronouncing swathe as 'swoth' [I think it was] gave away her away as an American.

As well as 'bollocks', 'bloody hell' is also a good term to use.
 
Another American giveaway is "She wrote me" when we would say "She wrote to me".

Getting aristocratic terminology wrong used to be a giveaway eg saying "Sir Smith" instead of "Sir Cedric [Smith], but conversely calling his wife "Lady Jane" when she is properly "Lady Smith", and using titles as forms of address "So, Duke, what do you think?" but frankly most English people get those wrong too, nowadays.

Someone I know lived in America for a while and had trouble with "teats" on a baby's bottle, as the American mothers apparently found that very rude, and she had to tell her son to call the thing for rubbing out pencil marks an eraser, since a British child always uses a rubber...
 
Apologies if this widens the thread too much, but it's on topic, I think.

My impression is that it used to be normal for publishers to issue different versions in the UK and US, but that this is now becoming less common (either that, or I've come across some which have only been partially "converted").

I'd be interested to know if any self-publisher has issued different versions for their UK and US readership.
 
Get an English beta... I've done that in the past when I've worried if my Ulsterisms travel. :)

Unlike Hex, I haven't been asked to edit to make my stuff more accessible in the US, but part of the central concept of my book is that it's from my neck of the woods. Whether a publisher will ask, I'm not sure.

Hb I know Time Traveler's Wife seems to make no allowance for UK translations. Even the speech marks are still double (I use double speech marks, bizarrely). It's part of why I like it - it's like reading something authentic.
 
I know Gaiman produced two versions of Neverwhere, in which he not only changed spelling and terminology (by no means always correctly incidentally) but he also actually added additional material to explain, for example, aspects of London that he considered all Brits would be familiar with but Americans wouldn't.

I would say your biggest problem is always going to be slang. Yes I could reel off loads of words used differently as has already been done here (pants and suspenders haven't been mentioned yet which are two that always make me smile :)) but slang is always going to be a problem; not only the differences (fanny versus arse (not ass!) or bum) but also I suspect it is much easier to find yourself using slang that in the other country is universally considered dated.
 
I second the "write me"/"write to me", and the weird dropped "s" on things like towards and afterwards. Also missing "u"s and capitalisation after colons. Lots of others but just can't think of any off the top of my head! I'd suggest a British beta simply to pick up on AE vs BE :)

Also pants and underwear names.
 
The pants reminds me of Back To The Future. As a child, I thought the scene where his 'pants' have been taken off by the girl who turns out to be his mother was dirtier than it actually was.
 
I wonder whether a bumbag or a fannypack is the ruder...
 
I think we also use t as a suffix more; learnt, spelt, leant, amidst, whilst. But then you have to be careful with some as I think spoiled and spoilt have different meanings in BE.

I'd be careful with use of slang; the Carl Hobbs character in the remake of V was Australian and used the word 'bloody' three or four times per episode. It was so distracting.

pH
 
Phyrebrat said:
was Australian
Click to expand...

I find this happens a lot in tv/films - Ausie actor being a Brit :p or people try to show Britishness or Ausieness as particular phrases (bollocks, bloody hell, crikey) in a lazy attempt to really show them.

It grated with the fabulous Tim Roth in Lie to Me where the scriptwriters had him saying "mate" and "luv" all the time to reinforce the English -> almost Cockney/East London accent he had.
 
I always have issues with the U's. In Canada we grew up using the British English spelling of some words so when I'm writing I don't know which to use now. Most of the stuff I sub to are US so I suppose I should conform, but it seems so strange to say 'color' 'endeavor' 'flavor' instead of 'colour' ' endeavour' 'flavour' (just a note, the U words I just typed are showing misspelled on this site! Which seems odd to me :)

There are other words we use here that the US doesn't, and one common in the business world is 'Check' vs 'Cheque' which is what we use. So I suppose Canada is actually closer to British on spelling but closer to the US with word choice.

I also don't think I would ever say 'gotten' or 'could care less' either

I do, on the other hand use things like Smelt, dealt, and they never seemed odd until recently, and now every time I write one of them I question it. I think my work will end up being a crazy hybrid because of this place! But that's all right - globalization and all of that good stuff...right?
 
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