the Top Gear British phrases explanation thread

and it's one of those things they try to beat out of you in elementary school around here.

Rhode Island missed that memo, then. Even if they tried, all of my elementary school teachers had thick Rhode Island accents that would have rendered it futile.
 
Some here in Maine do that, too. "Idear" instead of "idea", calling Mount Katahdin "Mount Katahrdin". It annoys my dad (not a native Mainer) to no end.
 
Jezza mentioned in one of his newspaper road tests, someone called Dorris Stokes, she used to claim she could talk to the dead.
 
Jeremy just called me out on the pre-show discussion for 17x5. Forthwith, I will now say "presenters" instead of "hosts". I might even say "news readers" instead of "anchors".
 
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I didn't get what Jeremy meant by "Princess Di had one of those" in the latest episode. Can anyone shed some light on this please?
 
She should have had one in Paris. :D

What? Too soon?
 
Since we were just discussing this in another thread, Bostonians do the same thing and it's one of those things they try to beat out of you in elementary school around here. It's just a natural reflex to allow easier pronunciation I guess.
Oh, a bit like wanking in a boarding school (The beating bit - not allowed now)?
 
Guys, what's with the whole "r" thing when it comes to linking two words, one that ends with a vowel and the other that starts with one.
Example : "The idea-r-is" ... I hear that all the time from Jeremy and on many occasions and on other sentences.

Is it to make things fluent as it would be hard to just do without?

It's due to having that non vocal r sound at the end of most words ending in r, like beer (becomes bee-uh), but when the next word starts with a vowel sounds sometimes that r is pronounced, and if you generalize this rule ignoring weather or not the word ends with an r or not and just see to the vowel sounds preceding it and apply it to other words you get the idear-is phenomenon.
For a more extensive explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrusive_R
 
Thread bump time!


What's "Aga"? it was mentioned during the TG India Special.
 
AGAs are right where they are appropriate. Just spent Christmas weekend with one, plus a woodburning open hearth in the sitting room with apple logs. That's the way to do it!
 
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