Americans believe British people are smarter because they say 'right' instead ... trends now
View
comments
The way the word 'right' is used by British people causes Americans to think they know more than they really do, a recent Rutgers study has found.
When British people use the word 'right' they are often acknowledging something new they've just been told, but Americans interpret it to mean they already know.
The study also noted that in American English the word more often appears as part of the phrase 'yeah right', whereas in British English 'right' is more often deployed as 'oh right'.
The research was informed by recordings of casual conversations between family and friends as well as helpline and medical conversations collected in the last 50 years.
The way the word 'right' is used by British people causes Americans to think they know more than they really do, a recent Rutgers study has found
One example cited in the paper involved a situation in which an anecdote was told and the British English speaker said simply: 'Right'.
'Wait. You knew this already?' asked the confused American English speaker.
'The analysis shows that, in American English, right conveys the speaker's