Well, the first thing in response to Sara is that Irish people don't really use 'will' grammatically.
We use it when we should use 'shall'. We use it when a completely different verb would be more appropriate. But that's just being Irish.
We have a lot of other verbal idiosyncracies too - just read Racing the Moon some time!
But that's just vernacular, as opposed to standard English. Just as 'anyways' is a regional colloqualism in American English: people know it's ungrammatical, but they say it anyway. There are all sorts of regional variations on English, throughout England, Ireland, Scotland etc, all of which would instantly peg you as a native of a certain country or region.
If I were to say 'I'm just after having my dinner', at least four million people would
immediately know that I'm Irish.
As for 'ickle', I always thought it was a 'baby-talk' version of 'little'.
And with the use of definite article or not, Lynn, there are lots more:
UK: She's in hospital/I took him to hospital/We're visiting them in hospital.
US: She's in the hospital/I took him to the hospital/We're visiting them in the hospital.
And Sara picked out another tiny difference when she was reading something I'm writing exclusively in UK English (ie not adapting my writing for Lois and Clark) - stopped at traffic lights, not stopped at a traffic light. I think she probably noticed a lot more than that (notes v bills, for example
) but that one springs to mind.
Sure, I'm just practiced in three different versions of English, amn't I?
Wendy
