freedomdwarf1
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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
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ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1
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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
When your car needs fuel, you fill it with GAS (or maybe diesel), but not "petrol."
To give it its proper name, it is Petroleum fluid (or liquid) - hence "petrol" for short.
Gas describes something in a gaseous state (as opposed to a liquid or solid).
Hence we cook with gas (usually natural gas or in some places, 'town' gas - but its gas, not liquid.
Some cars actually use GAS (LPG) which is Liquid Petroleum Gas.
So when you fill your car - do you use gas or gas.... which is it?? How fucking confusing!!
Petroleum is the stuff that comes out of the ground that is processed and made into gasoline. "Gas" is just short for "gasoline." We also use the term "natural gas" in other contexts.
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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
I drive a pick-up truck, but I'm not in the habit of giving my truck a female name, so "lorry" is out of the question.
Lorry as a name is spelt as "Lorrie" - not with a Y, and usually capitalised, unlike the large vehicle.
I've seen the name spelled as "Lori," although I knew one who spelled her name "Lory."
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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
Another thing: It's called "soccer" not "football." It's an "apartment," not a "flat." When are you Brits ever going to get it right? 
Well.... We invented the fucking game so OUR definition is the true one.
It was actually invented by a scotsman. lol. But not an American!
Only YOU call it soccer - everyone else in the world calls it football.
And seeing as you've only been a country for a couple of centuries.... Who is right?? 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_association_football
According to this, the term "soccer" actually originated in England, as a shortening of "association football." So, we're just using the word that YOU invented for the game. This map indicates that it's not everyone else in the world either:
I have to admit I chuckled a bit at looking at the "disputed" category.
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ORIGINAL: Zonie63
And then there's the different spellings of words, like "color," "flavor," "realize," "theater," "program," etc. I realize (heh) that the standardization of both American English and British English took place after the Revolution, so that may have something to do with it. Although we were English colonies, my understanding is that the language and spelling were slightly different from place to place, both in the Colonies and in Britain itself.
Most of the words you refer to are olde English and hence have the U in them.
Only those in the US removed the U's.
The same for words with S that Americans have replaced with a Z.
I put that down to the fact that the original founders of the USA were pilgrims and farmers and the like - badly educated (if at all) so couldn't spell for toffee.
Well, not all of us. We had our educated upper caste as well.
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As for words like "theatre" and "litre" etc, they originate in French and that's how they spell it.
So we use the word with it's correct spelling.
Again, only the yanks have changed it.
Actually, as I understand it, changes took place in both countries, as the standardization of both languages took place after the Revolution. The only question is who changed it more, the Yanks or the Brits? I don't have time to look for it just now, but I remember reading something about the British wanting their language to appear more elegant, which is why they incorporated certain French spelling rules. For example "colour" is more like the French "couleur" than the more practical American spelling of that word. The British spelling of "programme" is exactly as it is spelled in French.
So, we Yanks stuck with the English language we knew before we became independent, whereas the Brits were the ones tweaking the language afterwards. We stuck with the original, just as we kept the English system of measurement as opposed to that ridiculous French system you guys switched to. We're more English than you are!
I don't ever recall petrol being referred to as gasolene - only in the US, not in the UK.
So you've used the wrong word and shortened it, to cause even more confusion.
And for football - it is not restricted to just 'Association football' but footbal in general.
Check Wiki.
"Of the 45 national FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, 43 use football in their organisations' official names (only Canada and the United States use soccer). ... Australia's association football governing body changed its name from soccer to football to align with the general international usage of the term. In 2006, New Zealand decided to follow suit citing 'the international game is called football'"
So I also dispute your definition of where 'football' is used.
Most of our changes in the English language occured after most of the pilgrims went to America.
And, like most of our exports to Aus and other places, nobody of any real education was ever sent to the colonies because it was viewed almost as a punishment to be sent there.
So for the majority, they were indeed very uneducated and barely grasped the written word let alone being properly literate.
And you will have noticed that most of our words haven't really changed that much. We have incorporated many European words into our native tongue (mainly due to the switching of alliances by our Henry) but nowhere near to the extent that the Americans have bastardised it over the two centuries you have been given it.
Even those in far-flung colonies such as Canada, Auz, New Zealand et all haven't butchered the spelling of most words - only the yanks have dome that.
And I still say that it went that way because most were illerate and couldn't write, let alone spell.
And it evolved that way over time because you (general, past generations) were vehemently against the mother country so didn't bother with using the correct spelling or in some cases, even the correct context.
Add to that, you lot even mispronounced the alphabet and invented new words for things which already had a name - just to be different.
As for measurements - yours is not the same as ours even before we went metric.
Thats why people need conversions for US gallons and Imperial Gallons (used everywhere else in the world) because you even changed that!!
So I dispute that you are even more English than we are.
You like to think so but nothing could be further from the truth.
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