Just Wondering If The English Spoken In Dowton Abbey Is Old-Fahioned?

[chao_yang622]

Hi, I am an international student wishing to improve my spoken English. I've been watching Downton Abbey these days and wondering if I could use it as a model for perfecting my English? Or is the English spoken by the characters rather out of date?

many thanks

[DTCwordfan]

Watch the News programmes, they are probably the best way to assimilate English. I did the same in French when learning that, good for the language and taking in what is going on politically and socially.

[mikey4444]

DTC has the right idea here. I would warn anybody not to take Downton Abbey to seriously ! In a episode recently, Lord Grantham asks his guests to hurry up and sit down to dinner, before "Mrs Patmore blows a gasket"

Oh dear !

[Jackdaw33]

No. As has been said, a lot of expressions are outdated. Listen to news programmes and read magazines. Mind you, "blowing a gasket" is hardly obsolete.

[Jackdaw33]

If you watch Mrs Patmore she refers to a recipe as a receipt, which is an obsolete meaning but current in another sense.

[mikey4444]

Jackdaw...I would question whether the phrase would have been used in the
period depicted ! Its hardly the first time that the script has been less than accurate, after all.

[mikey4444]

I remember Mrs Bridges using receipt instead of recipe !

[Jackdaw33]

Gasket is a very old word and well precedes the time of DA. It is of naval origin.

[Maydup]

The English used by the characters is indeed rather out of date, and also rather dramatised. Stick to the news or to dramas set in modern times.

[Tilly2]

......but not Eastenders.

[Peter Pedant]

There is a gap between colloquial English and the more formal kind where you want to communicate more complicated thoughts

ABers are drawing attention to the insertion of intended old forms of words receipt instead of recipe, and anachronisms ( blowing a gasket)

however I think the dialogue in Downton is not the issue
but the social situations which now never occur.
[ lots of people dont stay for a week end: no one has a house full of servants ; everyone has to work nowadays ]

[Maydup]

Eastenders is awful, but sadly more realistic than Downton.

[Jackdaw33]

Certainly, M'lady. I will not allow Eastenders to be shown in the servants' hall.

[mikey4444]

Didn't Lady Violet say, at dinner, "A weekend ? ...what is a weekend ? "

Priceless ! Whaty would we do without Maggie Smith !

[Jackdaw33]

To quote the great Dame Maggie, "What is a weekend?"