Do you tell where authors are from while reading books?
I know English has a lot of accents and some words are written in the different way. (favourite and favorite)
You may notice where someone comes from if you talk with them because of their accent.
What about books? My quastion is Do you tell where authors are from when you read books without finding the words like ''favourite''. For example, do you notice the author of ''Harry Potter'' is from England while reading her books?

I'm Japanese and Japanese is only spoken in Japan. I think it interesting and strange that the fact that English is spoken in many countries as a native language.

Question

Do you tell where authors are from while  reading books?
I know English has a lot of accents and some words are written in the different way. (favourite and favorite)
You may notice where someone comes from if you talk with them because of their accent.
What about books? My quastion is Do you tell where authors are from when you read books without finding the words like ''favourite''. For example, do you notice the author of ''Harry Potter'' is from England while reading her books?

I'm Japanese and Japanese is only spoken in Japan. I think it interesting and strange that the fact that English is spoken in many countries as a native language.

Answer

Apart from the spelling of obvious words like 'favourite' and 'favorite' which will indicate whether it's British English or Amercan, there are verbs, phrases and slang words that are different too. Examples:
Verbs - in British English, 'He dived into the swimming pool', 'dived' being the traditional past tense. In American/Canadian English, 'He dove into the swimming pool'. The verb 'dove' has been around for a hundred years or so, and is more commonly used in America and Canada. 
Phrases - a British author may write, 'He was a cheeky monkey', which means a child who is a little bit naughty, but in a funny way.  As far as I know, this isn't known or used in American English.
Slang words tend to be created by particular groups of people, and they are dependent on local language, communities and culture.

Answer

Yes, Satoshi, there are quite a few differences. I've learnt a lot from my American colleagues and vice versa.

Answers · 3

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