4

Frequently I hear Americans (admittedly mainly in TV/movies) say "personal" and "regular" in the following contexts:

"Don't take it personal."

"I like that he treats me regular."

Both of these are horribly incorrect to my British ear - I have never heard either here, it would be "personally" and "regularly", ignoring the fact that the second sentence is slightly awkward anyway (we would probably say "like a regular person").

My question is, do Americans 'know' this is incorrect, i.e. would John hear Jane speaking in this manner and think "her English isn't great" or whatever, or would it sound perfectly normal - is this an accepted use, that all Americans would use?

I could easily believe it would be the latter, since 'momentarily' for example has a totally different meaning in AE. ('in a moment for undisclosed amount of time' vs. 'for a moment at an disclosed time').

Laurel
  • 66,382
OJFord
  • 318
  • British English: take it personal https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4038135 – Lambie Nov 03 '23 at 16:53
  • Oh yes, this question 'already has answers' at a question asked over 9 years later! Good lord. – OJFord Nov 07 '23 at 11:34
  • 1
    I think the consensus was that the other question received better answers, so it was set as the target. Apparently age isn't the only consideration when deciding such things. – Heartspring Nov 07 '23 at 13:16
  • As an American, I hear it as acceptable casual speech that I wouldn't use. But then, I'd use e.g. for an example. not i.e. here: "i.e. would John hear Jane speaking in this manner and think 'her English isn't great' or whatever." – Yosef Baskin Nov 07 '23 at 14:53
  • @Heartspring Age should never really play a role in the moderation of sites on the network (unless, of course, time is an important factor for the question and its (potential) answers). – Joachim Nov 07 '23 at 17:02
  • @Joachim Then the wording of the notice is completely off, because that's not what it says at all. – OJFord Nov 07 '23 at 17:04
  • The question here is "are Americans aware of this incorrectness", not "is it incorrect". VTR. – Joachim Nov 07 '23 at 17:04
  • @OJFord That's a good point, although it might also show that relative age is of no consequence to what question gets to be canon (rather, quality is the decisive factor). Nevertheless, that problem can be addressed on Meta (but a more glaring mistake like this hasn't been fixed for years now, so I think it will just be ignored..). – Joachim Nov 07 '23 at 17:08
  • I think the question is: why don’t the British realize that there’s nothing wrong with flat adverbs? If Shakespeare used them, shouldn’t they be good enough for us? :-) – Peter Shor Nov 07 '23 at 18:47

1 Answers1

5

To the American ear, those would be perceived as incorrect usage, but in a folksy or down-to-earth way. In popular media, a certain amount of dialect speech is used to show groundedness or common sense. (Too much and you portray ignorance; it's a fine line.)

Jadasc
  • 677
  • 2
    Thank you, that was exactly what I was wondering. Although part of me hoped for a terrible answer, so that I could downvote and say "don't take it personal" ;) – OJFord Jun 10 '14 at 12:21
  • Actually, it would be colloquial. It is not incorrect. – Lambie Nov 07 '23 at 17:20