English as she is speaked

[JonARNZ]

Ah well, at least we ave you to mind our words eh guvnah! Where wuld we be wivout ya Charl

[Timmo]

More problems come about when the the word is spelt correctly but its usage is incorrect. For example:

I want to go to the shop to (correct spelling, wrong usage of 'to'/'too' in place of 'aswell')

Or 'quite' used instead of 'quiet' etc
or "Im going to there [their] house to see if their [the're] there"

It's easy to see who really paid attention in class by reading through a document and picking out these little mistakes which are spelt correctly but are incorrect.

[G-HEVN]

As an Englishman I find the Kiwi accent quite difficult sometimes, particularly with the lift/left style transpositions - I hear a completely different "English-accented" word, which of course turns what that person has said into complete gibberish, followed usually by "huh?" and a blank expression!

Things that really bug me: Big signs in shops saying CD'S

Sometimes there can be a grey area with spelling. Take as an example "localizer". Or should that be "localiser"? Usually "ize" is thought of as American, and "ise" as English, but actually both are equally valid. It's just that Oxford (ie the Oxford English Dictionary) prefers z, whereas Cambridge (aka "the other one") prefers s. American, however, only has the z form.

One insidious American habit I've noticed here is the use of nouns and adjectives as verbs. (Ironically, they call it "to verb"!) For example, "farewell". It's an adjective: "farewell Tom", or possibly a noun: "We gave Tom a good farewell". It is NOT a verb! Yet I see roadsigns saying "blah-de-blah farewells you" or headlines in the newspaper "Wellington farewells fallen hero" etc. AAArrgh!!!!!

[pois0n]

I have a german friend, and sometimes she really struggles with the kiwi accent. I swear she thinks im insane sometimes People who learn english as a second language tend to put their sentences together differently

goodness damn bland Canterbury accent

@ G-HEVN - It's even more annoying when you see a sign outside a bakery saying "Get you're lunch here!"