Anna, the "Who are these flowers for?" issue...I was always taught never to end a sentence with a preposition, so saying the above would be considered grammatically incorrect.
I, on the other hand, was initially taught not to put a preposition right before or after who/what/where etc. and put it in the end of the sentence instead. But when I grew older and my English began depending too much on what I was seeing/hearing/reading etc., I began using the other forms I suggested, as well. They sounded just as good
I used to think the English I had been taught in school or by my father (who had been teaching me for a year, before I began English classes at school) were UK English, but I'm not so sure anymore.
I just remembered the reali
ze/reali
se issue. Not sure if I remember it correctly, but I think the original UK spelling is with z, but, whereas it survived in the US, now the UK uses the s spelling.
Also, talking about expressions: I have an aunt (well, she's not really an aunt, but that's not our point) who's Greek but has been living for decades in the US, Philadelphia to be exact, visited us this year and we talked a lot in English. At some point, she used the phrase "I wouldn't let him get the better of (or off?) me" (=I wouldn't let him win) and said it was a purely American expression.
And, now that I mention of/off, maybe there's a UK vs. US usage there too?
a) I want to get this off my chest
b) I want to get this off of my chest
I remember asking about this on IRC, and Wendy telling me "off of my chest? Ick!" or something to that effect
I'm pretty sure I've seen b) used, but then, people do make mistakes when they speak/write. (Although I'd bet that it's much more difficult to make a mistake in English than it is in Greek
)
Thanks for the answers, everyone! I'm sure this thread has a long way to go yet.
See ya,
AnnaBtG.
