My youngest daughter, Liberty, seven, has an on–off American drawl, despite never having been to the US. She loved all her Halloween “candy” on Friday. And while shopping at Zara on High Street Kensington yesterday, she said, “Mom, can we take the elevator?”
While words like “movie” and “film”, “chips” and “fries”, or “biscuits” and “cookies” can all coexist happily in English, it’s another thing when your child asks for a “supermarket cart” at Waitrose or a “take-out” rather than a “takeaway” – as my daughter regularly does. In fact, most of my children’s friends now speak Americanese fluently. One of them asked me where to put her “trash” – and she was born and raised in Kilburn.
