Discussion Groups / British English / September 2006

Read a good book or a good newspaper and you will sort them out
eventually. I had to look up the word "Collocation". Never heard it
before. I'm totally familiar with the problem however.

Examples.

Baggage and luggage mean the same, except you leave your bags in "Left
luggage", not left baggage, and people have "emotional baggage" not
emotional luggage.

You will find that the words used may differ a bit from
English-speaking place to place, or country to country. There is really
no such thing as "Correct" English. It's standard English.

People will say "half-yearly" results but I spent six months there.
Aussies will say half-year, however.

A Yorkshire man will say "A car fetched me off my bike", but I doubt
that that would be said elsewhere.

Also, there are minor grammatical differences in the standard English
spoken in different countries. e.g. In Ireland (where I live),
something is "different to", in Britain it's different from, in the USA
different than. In Ireland "bring" and take" are used almost with the
same meaning, but not elsewhere. Preposition use in modern England
appears much looser than it is in Ireland, with what would have been
"incorrect" prepositions being used a lot. This is just a loosening up
of language, I imagine.

Get a book and use a highlighter, and revise. Are you learning American
English, Brititsh English or some other flavour?