US vs British Diving Vocabulary

[Ste Wart]

UK: Dived = past tense of dive
US: Dove = a bird

So what's the past tense of drive?

Driven :banana:

 

[Akimbo]

Driven :banana:

So when was the last time you driven to the boat?

 

[Ste Wart]

Some Brits I dived with many years ago called cylinders bottles, while we Yanks called them tanks. Don't know if it was just them, or if it is still used.

Literal translation for a lot of European phrases is 'bottle' when referring to a cylinder

Flasche (German)
Flaske (Danish)
Bouteille de plongée (French)

We use Bottles, Tanks or Tins

---------- Post added July 20th, 2014 at 11:00 PM ----------

So when was the last time you driven to the boat?

When my chauffeur isn't busy

 

[knotical]

Units (besides feet and meters)

British use bars, Americans use atmospheres or psi.
British measure cylinders by internal volume (e.g. 10 liter), Americans say how much pressurized gas the cylinder will hold (e.g. 80 cu. ft.)

 

[Akimbo]

Units (besides feet and meters)

British use bars, Americans use atmospheres or psi…

More accurately, the rest of the world uses metric and I hold the British responsible for sticking us with Imperial units.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/non-diving-related-stuff/441101-metric-vs-imperial.html#post6572166

Unfortunately, the US is a victim of bad timing. The metric system was barely conceived and virtually unknown when the US Congress had to make a decision (1789). They actually debated decimalizing common Imperial units. I believe the US was the first to have decimal money. France was the early adopter in 1799. The US market size and relative isolation made it possible to put off the inevitable for much longer than everyone else.

Here is an interesting article:
Units: The Metric System in the U. S.

I was in the UK when they converted in the 1970s. It was not easy and metric is still not fully engrained. It appears the power of cultural momentum is capable of overpowering logic for extended periods….

 

[agilis]

Driven :banana:

Absolutely incorrect. I'm an American who has dived many places for scores of years. I've always use dived as the past tense of dive. So do most of the people I've dived with, excepting those who live in rural fly-over states. The sound of 'dove' make me wince, unless it is clearly a reference to a bird and pronounced as such, preferably with the speakers eye's turned skyward.

I seldom use the word vacation. On holiday is so much more appropriate.

Torch is pretty silly, but flashlight is not much better.

 

[boulderjohn]

So what's the past tense of drive?

Driven :banana:

Sorry. Driven is the past participle.

 

[Akimbo]

Absolutely incorrect. I'm an American who has dived many places for scores of years. I've always use dived as the past tense of dive. So do most of the people I've dived with, excepting those who live in rural fly-over states…

Merriam Webster disagrees. Dived and Dove are both correct.

Dive - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Dive, which was originally a weak verb, developed a past tense dove, probably by analogy with verbs like drive, drove. Dove exists in some British dialects and has become the standard past tense especially in speech in some parts of Canada. In the United States dived and dove are both widespread in speech as past tense and past participle, with dove less common than dived in the south Midland area, and dived less common than dove in the Northern and north Midland areas. In writing, the past tense dived is usual in British English and somewhat more common in American English. Dove seems relatively rare as a past participle in writing.

The true authority, Mike Nelson of Sea Hunt, used Dove exclusively.

I have yet to see anyone confuse the bird with the underwater activity due to context. You really have to feel sorry for some poor non-English speaker trying to learn the language. Maybe we should get a few French-Canadians in here to really illustrate the point?

---------- Post added July 20th, 2014 at 03:41 PM ----------

…Torch is pretty silly, but flashlight is not much better.

I had heard this story but had to check to make sure. Interesting how we get stuck with artifacts in language.
Flashlight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Etymology

Early flashlights ran on zinc–carbon batteries, which could not provide a steady electric current and required periodic 'rest' to continue functioning.[1] Because these early flashlights also used energy-inefficient carbon-filament bulbs, "resting" occurred at short intervals. Consequently, they could be used only in brief flashes, hence the common American name flashlight.

The US Navy still uses Battle Lantern for their large flashlights.

 

[MB NZ]

doubles (US) versus twins (UK)!

 

[agilis]

Merriam Webster disagrees. Dived and Dove are both correct.

Dive - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary






The true authority, Mike Nelson of Sea Hunt, used Dove exclusively.

I have yet to see anyone confuse the bird with the underwater activity due to context. You really have to feel sorry for some poor non-English speaker trying to learn the language. Maybe we should get a few French-Canadians in here to really illustrate the point?

Dictionaries, as you know, are descriptive, not prescriptive. They document the sad decline of English usage. Take the word wend, for example. It is the present tense of the very common English word 'went', but has fallen into almost complete disuse, with few of us left to mourn.

Dived. Anything else grates on the sensibilities.