Cultural English

Topics: Convenience stores, eating and drinking noises, colleague versus associate versus fellow, to sign in versus to sign off versus to sign on versus to sign up

Topics: Ask an American: Endangered languages;rednecks, dictionary versus thesaurus

Topics: Charles Schultz and Peanuts, how to become a police officer, you and I versus you and me, yippikaiye, to call dibs

Topics: Cities: New Orleans9-1-1 emergency services, his or her, you don’t need to know versus you need not know, incident versus accident

Topics: Celebrity chefs, Americans and personal space, generic versus general, expressing height in feet and meters, prophecy versus prediction

Topics: Famous Americans: Grandma Moses;GED Tests, since versus from, is to do (something), calligraphy versus penmanship

Topics: Ask an American: Starving Artist; as a matter of fact, process versus procedure, to haggle

Topics: American cities: Portland, Oregon; Take Me Out to the Ballgame; ocean versus sea, ability versus capability

Topics: Norman Vincent Peale, Japanese internment camps, straightforward, to tap into, made by versus made of versus made in

Topics: becoming a lawyer in the U.S., famous lines from American movies, proper versus appropriate

Topics: The FBI; Reader’s Digest; consent versus assent, concord versus accord, the long and the short of it

Topics: Ask an American: Working as an actor in Los Angeles,? nevertheless versus despite versus even though, to screw up

Topics: dishonest political strategies; the Black Dahlia; treatment versus therapy; ending intimate letters and emails; you’re entitled to your opinion

Topics: American Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald; cigarette and alcohol advertising; pronouncing -ed, someone’s John Hancock

Topics: Types of vocational education in the U.S.; American Cities: Miami; to have a monkey on (one’s) back; to administer; to execute; to be off

Topics: The Betty Ford Center; poker; to be short on time versus time is running out, past year versus last year, supervisor versus manager

Topics: Ask an American: Bluegrass music; résumé versus curriculum vitae, the number 0 versus the letter O, one over the other

Topics: Monster truck shows and races; blue jeans and Levi Strauss, to be up against the wall, liability versus responsibility, pronouncing “either”

Topics: Native American reservations/Trail of Tears; retirement communities, the possessive “s,” to be subject to, to be subjected to, hedge trimming

Topics: New York Theater District/Broadway shows; Barbie dolls/G.I. Joe; I don’t have versus I have no, in the street versus on the street, identifying yourself on the phone

Topics: Classic children’s television: Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood; American Cities: Washington, D.C.; mix, combine, stir, and beat; stock photography

Topics: Ask an American: Getting Old;brethren versus brothers, would versus used to, I can’t wait anymore versus I can’t wait any longer

Topics: Harley Davidson; Famous Americans: Jesse Jackson; because versus since, yikes, speaking of which

Topics: Saturday Night Live; Howard Stern and shock jocks; using “to” in who, what, where, when, why questions; state of the art; ways to say “good job!”

Topics: Advanced Placement courses and tests; Legos/Legoland and Hot Wheels; might versus maybe; judgment call; no-brainer

Topics: Famous Americans: Annie Leibovitz; home shopping cable channels and celebrity product lines; come versus go; via versus through

Topics: Ask an American: Drive-in Theatersto wind (someone) up, you don’t say, how about you versus what about you

Topics: American Cities: San Francisco/Bay Area; the ACLU; using ‘back’ to refer to the past; failure versus error versus mistake

Topics: U.S. zoning laws; how to become a TV or movie screenwriter; unless versus if, in versus at for locations, persecute versus prosecute

Topics:Famous Americans: Great Jazz Artists Josephine Baker and Ella Fitzgerald; the Amish; to be honest versus as a matter of fact; why don’t you versus let’s