American/ British English usage?

[Here4good]

I suspect this may be an American/ British English problem...
This is from an article written about how to shop "better". (The article is not written by a supermarket)

Lastly, bring your own shopping bags with you to the supermarket

Can you see any problems with this sentence?

[poli]

I suspect this may be an American/ British English problem...
This is from an article written about how to shop "better". (The article is not written by a supermarket)

Lastly, bring your own shopping bags with you to the supermarket

Can you see any problems with this sentence?
Odio la palabras: lastly y firstly, pero este frase no parece incorrecto.

[chileno]

Odio la palabras: lastly y firstly, pero este frase no parece incorrecto.

Firstly is correct. The other should be at last, not lastly...

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

:D Lo correcto en la frase es llevar tus propias bolsas del super... menos basura siempre es mejor. :angel:

[pjt33]

I suspect this may be an American/ British English problem...
This is from an article written about how to shop "better". (The article is not written by a supermarket)

Lastly, bring your own shopping bags with you to the supermarket

Can you see any problems with this sentence?
I'd prefer "take", which I think is what you're getting at.

[chileno]

:):D:lol:

[Here4good]

I'd prefer "take", which I think is what you're getting at.

It's exactly what I'm getting at!
For me bring is an action that goes towards the speaker and take is away from the speaker.

He brought me a coffee.
I take my lunch to work.

So, if the American English speakers see nothing wrong in the use of bring and take in the original sentence it's an example of BR Eng V Am Eng, is it?

[annabwashere]

US variety here: sounds fine to me.

In Spanish, the distinction between "llevar" and "traer" is clear, just like you use it in British English (I suppose).

You might have seen "BYOB" parties. Bring your own beer.

And we frequently say, "I have to bring the kids to school" or "I'm bringing her to the airport tomorrow morning."

[xchic]

It's exactly what I'm getting at!
For me bring is an action that goes towards the speaker and take is away from the speaker.

He brought me a coffee.
I take my lunch to work.

So, if the American English speakers see nothing wrong in the use of bring and take in the original sentence it's an example of BR Eng V Am Eng, is it?

I totally agree. I have also heard Irish people 'bringing' things when I would 'take' them.
US variety here: sounds fine to me.

In Spanish, the distinction between "llevar" and "traer" is clear, just like you use it in British English (I suppose).

You might have seen "BYOB" parties. Bring your own beer.

And we frequently say, "I have to bring the kids to school" or "I'm bringing her to the airport tomorrow morning."
I would never say either of those. I would take the kids to school or bring them home from school, & take someone to the airport.
Firstly is correct. The other should be at last, not lastly...

It would have to be lastly or finally.

At last = por fin.

[annabwashere]

I would never say either of those. I would take the kids to school or bring them home from school, & take someone to the airport

You didn't say what variety you spoke. American or British?

[xchic]

You didn't say what variety you spoke. American or British?


BrE - or English English as I prefer to say!

I get very irritated when I hear people say they speak British (as if British is a language, as opposed to BrE)!

I think as Here4good said in her original post - it must be a BrE /AmE thing!

[Here4good]

You didn't say what variety you spoke. American or British?
xchic is a Brit, like me :)
Thankyou for your comments everybody

[annabwashere]

Hahaha! I don't know anyone who just says "British" and not "British English". Of course, in my post, I was referring to a variety and I don't need to be redundant.

Anyway, the same irritation happens when US people refer to themselves as "American" as if Canadians, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, etc are not from America.

Whatever, I say. I don't prefer to split hairs.

[xchic]

xchic is a Brit, like me :)
Thankyou for your comments everybody

Has it ever caused you problems that you teach BrE?

I actually had a student leave one of my groups because all our books were BrE & he wanted to learn AmE!

[annabwashere]

My students prefer to learn AmE, not BrE. At least that's what they tell me.

I get inquiries for private classes based solely on the fact that I state my variety of English is American. All inquiries start with "I am contacting you because you speak American English and I want to learn that kind of English" or something to that effect.

[Here4good]

Has it ever caused you problems that you teach BrE?

I actually had a student leave one of my groups because all our books were BrE & he wanted to learn AmE!

No, al revés, la mayoría quieren aprender inglés Británico (algunos por razones de puro esnobismo) Tengo bastantes amigos (Norte)Americanos aquí y sus hijos sí han tenido problemas en el colegio con profesores no aceptando su forma de expresarse p.e. center/ centre, pants/ trousers etc

PD Quiere aprender, ¿no?

[Perikles]

I see nothing wrong at all, provided that there has been a list, and this is the last item. I would have said finally, but maybe that's just personal choice.

[Here4good]

I see nothing wrong at all, provided that there has been a list, and this is the last item. I would have said finally, but maybe that's just personal choice.

There's no issue with lastly. It was the last recommenation in a list so lastly is correct. It shouldn't be corrected to at last nor firstly as has been suggested in other posts.
I didn't want to say anything before because I wanted to see if anyone would pick out the usage of take /bring, which they did!

Thanks everyone :)

[irmamar]

My grammar bood (BrE) says that one uses bring when the interlocutors are in two different places, for instance: I'll bring you the books from London. So, in your sentence, that would be an example of how the shop is addressing to you as in a dialogue. My book says that "take" is used when the direction is not the one between the speakers.

I think here, in Spain, is more common learning BrE as in Europe is more common learnign Spanish from Spain or English from GB (and just on the contrary in America -both English and Spanish-). I guess that proximity is the main reason, since surely I would go to GB before to USA, for it's nearer to my country. I don't think that snobbery has anything to do with it. :thinking: :)

[Here4good]

I think here, in Spain, is more common learning BrE as in Europe is more common learnign Spanish from Spain or English from GB (and just on the contrary in America -both English and Spanish-). I guess that proximity is the main reason, since surely I would go to GB before to USA, for it's nearer to my country. I don't think that snobbery has anything to do with it. :thinking: :)

Hi irmamar,
Yes, I think proximity of the country has a lot to do with it and it's logical to think that a Spaniard will have more contact with Br Eng.
However, I can assure you that every few months someone will ask me to confirm their opinion of American English being "not so good" as Br Eng., that they (Americans) don't speak very well, and to crown it all the student will say that it's not very good English because "I can't understand it" They don't seem to realise there are different regional as well as country accents, that millions of people speak American English and are doing very well in life, that one country is not "better" than another.
Likewise there are many people who only accept the British Council, where undoubtably the teaching is good, as the place to learn English much as they select clothes from Burbury or Aldolfo Dominguez, just for the name
There are hundreds of good teachers an academies in Spain and you don't need to be rich to learn English.

No es un ataque contra tí irmamar, sólo te cuento lo que pasa:)