"Been" in AmEng

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:53 am

Amy_H wrote:Hi all

Americans use the words yet and already quite regularly with the simple past tense.

Amy

Forgive them.

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:23 am

And they use "Did you ever.........?" when it doesn't mean "at any time during that finished period of your life".

They can't spell, or make decent tea, or use the present perfect, or use gears on their cars, or walk without looking as if they've got off a horse. But we love them really and forgive them for everything.

Except the tea.

Amy_H · Post by **Amy_H** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:13 pm

Oh, thank you! You're both too kind.

JuanTwoThree wrote:And they use "Did you ever.........?" when it doesn't mean "at any time during that finished period of your life".

They can't spell, or make decent tea, or use the present perfect, or use gears on their cars, or walk without looking as if they've got off a horse. But we love them really and forgive them for everything.

Except the tea.

Didn't you Brits get over that little party in Boston yet?

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:44 pm

That's what I mean. That was far too much tea, in water that was not nearly hot enough. Since then it's been not nearly enough tea, on the end of a string to pull it out long before the liquid starts to in fact look like or taste like tea. Mind you, the water is still not hot enough.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:04 pm

When Reagan was President he had Prince Charles round to tea. He offered him a cup of tea, with the tea bag still in the cup and was amazed when Charles just stared at it, not knowing what to do.

You'd think the White House could afford an etiquette advisor.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:44 pm

Amy_H wrote:.

Except the tea.

Didn't you Brits get over that little party in Boston yet?

[/quote]

I think so. Afterall, we've had many such tea parties over the past thousand or so years. One tea party with an upstart young country didn't reall disturb us that much.

Amy_H · Post by **Amy_H** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:14 am

Stephen Jones wrote:When Reagan was President he had Prince Charles round to tea. He offered him a cup of tea, with the tea bag still in the cup and was amazed when Charles just stared at it, not knowing what to do.

You'd think the White House could afford an etiquette advisor.

Hmmm... To be honest, Stephen, you'd think that most people would be able to figure out what to do with a tea bag. Actually, Charlie should have counted himself lucky that he wasn't also faced with the challenge of inserting the tea bag into the water himself.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:47 pm

You would never ever give somebody a cup with a tea bag in in England, unless you wanted to deliberately insult them.

I would be very surprised if the Prince had ever seen a tea bag before in his life, let alone in a cup. It's still standard practice in better houses to use leaf tea in the pot and to have a strainer before you pour it.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:41 pm

Stephen Jones wrote:It's still standard practice in better houses to use leaf tea in the pot and to have a strainer before you pour it.

!!! Wow, my mother's house, must be a low-standard one then. What foolish statements you make at times. Stephen.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:33 pm

"Better" houses ?!?

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:14 pm

lolwhites wrote:"Better" houses ?!?

Stephen's house?

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:43 am

Wow, my mother's house, must be a low-standard one then.

You said it.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 7:50 am

Stephen Jones wrote:
Wow, my mother's house, must be a low-standard one then.
You said it.

You suggested it, which is even worse. Shame on you.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:07 am

I have to admit that I use teabags, but I would never dream of leaving them in the cup when I offer someone some tea.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:09 am

Stephen Jones wrote:You would never ever give somebody a cup with a tea bag in in England, unless you wanted to deliberately insult them.

You can ask them if you should leave the tea bag in, though, so that they can adjust the strength of the brew to their taste - and where I'm from that can be both before or after adding milk.

Hm, maybe metal isn't the only lowly ruffian around...