My Fair Lady: Why Can't the English?
Rex Harrison Lyrics

We have lyrics for these tracks by Rex Harrison:

A Hymn to Him What in all of heaven could′ve prompted her to go After…
Her Face Damn, damn, damn, damn I've grown accustomed to her face She…
I'm an Ordinary I'm an ordinary man Who desires nothing more than just an…
I've Grown Accustomed By Her Face Damn, damn, damn, damn I've grown accustomed to her face She…
Im an Ordinary Man I'm an ordinary man Who desires nothing more than just an…
Ive Grown Accustomed To Her Face Damn, damn, damn, damn I've grown accustomed to her face She…
I’m an Ordinary Man I'm an ordinary man Who desires nothing more than just an…
My Fair Lady Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! I've grown accustomed to her face …
My Fair Lady: The Rain In Spain Poor Professor Higgins! Poor Professor Higgins! Night and …

Overture: Why Can't The English Henry Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter, Condemned…
Talk To The Animals Lyrics/Music: Leslie Bricusse Album: 1967 - Doctor Dolittle …
The Rain In Spain Poor Professor Higgins! Poor Professor Higgins! Night and da…
Whay Can't the English? Henry Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter, Condemned…

You Did It Pickering Tonight, old man, you did it! You did it! You…

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos

TRACKS

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

@andreapandypeterpan4062

1y↑1

“By right she should be taken out and HANGED for the cold blooded murder of the English tongue.”

Joints of meat are hung to tenderise. Humans are hanged by the neck till dead 💀.

Notoriously, the grammatical error of “hung” slips out of Higgins’ own mouth, when Lerner bent the grammar to improve the rhyme, and intended the audience to spot the error.

Just one example of the meteoric brilliance of Lerner and Loewe!

Genius musical with unsurpassable cast.

Music, lyrics, politics and social commentary, the battle of the sexes, the most heartwarming blossoming romance between Eliza and the Prof, a parade of types from Alfie Doolittle to Freddie.....endless creativity.

Perfection from the gods and goddesses of the Arts, given to women and men for eternal edification and entertainment....as they used to say at the Wilton's Music Hall.

All comments from YouTube:

@80sman21

3y↑191

Henry Higgins: the manliest, most gentlemanly troll in history. Just walking in, telling poor flower girls that their English is shit, and then leaving again lol

@paulsoldner9500

2y↑8

a true based king

@emalaw1329

1y↑8

More like "everybody's English is shit but mine"

@evaharrison1733

He still uses the wrong past tense for hang (i.e. referring to hanging to death)

@platonicforms562

4y↑81

"Dropping 'h's everywhere...". That's why it's Cool hWhip, my good sir.

@MetalPatrick93

10y↑378

Everytime she says "AAAAOOOOOW" in this movie, I burst out laughing

@carihigdon3263

10y↑52

GAAARRRRNNN.

@Kihidokid

6y↑6

Cari Higdon garn= go an

@Naturelady-rf5zx

5y↑3

LIIIKE!!!!

@danielpease641

5y↑13

Heavens what a sound.

@1960frj

4y↑1

It’s horrible.

2 More Replies...

@JoeRivermanSongwriter

14y↑102

This song is a work of genius. So true even today.

@matthew8153

3y↑3

As someone with friends in London I can agree.

@harrylane4

30w

wait... the point of the song ISN'T to mock that haughty and holier-than-thou attitude coming from the higher classes? Gotta cross this off my list of films to watch then.

@JulianTheOwl

@@harrylane4thanks for letting us know

@Camop-iz9kt

6y↑122

Higgins got ripped-off by the street vendor....there's nothing in his tea cup.

@stayoung80

5y↑2

😂

@404sky8

4y↑2

Lmao

@deziboy5606

13y↑24

"My Fair Lady" is a musical written by an American but it's based on the play "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw, who's an Irishman. George Bernard Shaw once said "America and Britain are two countries divided by a common language" or something like that. The writer paid homage to this quote with the line in this scene, "In America they haven't spoken it in years (laughter)."

@danieltomashevskiy4322

5y↑119

When someone says my fair lady is a bad movie
Me: OOOUUUUUUWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

@xzxblue090uwu4

Me when they say it’s a bad movie: https://youtu.be/oItxYB-vR8Y

@markvoelker6620

24w

Heavens, what a sound!

@Aubury

1y↑21

Such witty and clever lyrics with fine tunes, and cast finely cut to their parts

@phorrheel5289

7y↑389

why in America it hasn't been spoken in Years ;) loL

@jude8067

7y↑19

It hasn't been spoken in years hear because we have very different meanings for the same words from the British, there are so many examples, but also we take our warm tea and cool it!

@barrythomas615

6y↑4

that's no lie!

@spookymon033

6y↑4

Ludwig Beilschmidt Antonio Carriedo Ivan Braginski *here

@EinherjarLucian

4y↑2

Working as intended. We literally wrote a new dictionary to have a clean break.

@chelsealohrey6431

4y↑7

I’d love to know what he’d think of Australians 😂😂

10 More Replies...

@yifanwang7136

6y↑43

One of the most hilarious songs out there in musicals!!

@Tinhamodic

3y↑3

This and "Let a woman in your life"

@TM-vl9su

3y↑50

I love this film with all my heart, and same goes for this song, 'cause it's funny- but I can't take the people watching and not being even slightly critical of this guy's take on language.

@emalaw1329

1y↑1

Right, especially considering that the Americans who apparently "haven't used English for years" have kept an English sound truer to Shakespearean tradition than the Brits, who made up a noble-class affectation in the 1800's that trickled down to the lower classes and just kinda stuck everywhere

@fa-nl9mu

1y↑2

@@emalaw1329 That is not true. The main way that is correct is that non-rhoticity hadn't yet developed in English in the 17th century, and was preserved in America while England moved past it. That is a similarity in the pronunciation of one letter. Plus, "Shakespearean tradition" doesn't really mean much -- Back then, Shakespearean English was just ordinary speech, and anyway the language has just moved past that point. It's not the standard for English anymore, it's an entirely different stage of the language. Faster changes to the English language in England doesn't mean that English English is somehow less actually English, since languages change constantly. That change you described in British English is not some kind of an abnormality, because language sounds change all the time for all kinds of reasons. English is changing right now and will continue to change as long as it is alive.

Basically this statement is exaggerated, oversimplified, and doesn't prove much. Even if it was true it would rely on viewing Shakespearean English as classier and as some kind of a standard for the language, when it was just how ordinary people spoke. Here's an article on the topic: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english

@fa-nl9mu

@@emalaw1329 And also, it's a joke and it's a little funny.

@laurab8450

1y↑15

Rex Harrison deserved his Oscar for his performance in this movie!

@johnpickford4222

36w

@laurab8450: Warner Bros. originally wanted Cary Grant who turned it down. They then went after Peter O’Toole offering $500,000 but he wanted a box office percentage which Warner Bros. wouldn’t give. Reluctantly they signed Harrison for $200,000 while Hepburn received $1 million.

Harrison was fine in some parts but seemed to be sleep walking in others. O’Toole would have been better.

@jws1272

34w↑1

Harrison was the original Henry Higgins on Broadway, with Julie Andrews as Eliza. When Warner Bros. did the movie, Audrey Hepburn's star was rising, so she got the part of Eliza. Problem is, she wasn't that good of a singer. She was dubbed by a singer named Marni Nixon.

@MustafaJackson

6y↑74

As an American I love 1:50 - 1:55.

@gracereilly9194

6y↑45

0:00 my cat meowing

@blonddoctor

14y↑77

"While in America they havn't used it in years" - TRUE!!! And FUNNY!

@kzrollzable

12y↑41

the french dont care actually as long as they pronounce it properly :D

@ashlynnheller8400

7y↑11

Special thanks to my Nana and Aunty for takeing me to see this show.You gave me another musical to obsess over.

@andremuratalla1344

7y↑117

English is the easiest language to learn but the most confusing to spell

@maksphoto78

6y↑26

Since languages are usually learned by reading text, English is actually the most difficult to pronounce.

@allistairphoenix

6y↑6

Have u seen french?

@cannonmannon3971

6y↑3

Andre muratalla no English is one of the hardest languages to learns

@cannonmannon3971

6y↑2

maccollectorZ no english is one of THE hardest languages to learn

@McSuperfly101

5y↑8

“They’re there on their bikes”

What’s confusing about that?

8 More Replies...

@Jguy365

12y↑15

I love how this video opens with her going "aaaaooooooooh"

@LieutenantAmerica

10y↑23

America feels your pain, Britain.

@mzytryck

6y↑121

I love how on the one hand he's really insightful and reflective about language's social power, but still manages to come to an equally snobbish conclusion; he correctly says that she's trapped in a lower social class than Pickering because of the way they speak rather than because of some sort of innate superiority in his blood, recognises that social standing is all a matter of perception in which language plays a large part, and describes the hierarchy of accents as outdated. However, his solution is to lament that everyone doesn't speak the "proper" way, instead of lamenting how stupid it is that people make such enormously prejudiced assumptions about others purely because of their accent.

@FurnitureFan

5y↑12

Finally, a mindful comment.

@EinherjarLucian

4y↑14

Yes, this is the entire point of My Fair Lady. Higgins is an insufferable prick, and only marginally gets better later on.

@BETMARKonTube

4y↑4

Someone got it!

@Luka1180

4y↑9

That's the point of his character. He is a complete and utterly oblivious hypocrite who does not realize that he, himself have not the slightest bit of manners.

@Luka1180

4y↑5

@@EinherjarLucian Yep, we love to hate him. I'd say we even love him. He's fascinating. I mean, if hew knew him IRl we'd kick him outta our circles maybe for being such an asshole, but as a reader, viewer, listener he's fascinating to us.

3 More Replies...

@jennifersman

15y↑4

This and "Let a Woman in Your Life" were great.

@GalaxyJazzGirl

12y↑11

i LOVE THIS MOVIE. Makes me think of my grandma. She loved it to. :)

@jennymayer7277

6y↑4

Professor Higgins is so charming! ❤❤❤

@SednovaNova

2y↑8

This should be a musical each child should learn. How you speak tells you alot about the person. The basics...we are missing the basics in America such a good song with so much truth.

@harshmnr

2y↑3

But...did you miss the whole point of the movie? (Or, one of the points I guess. My Fair Lady is a very multi-faceted musical.) Anyway Higgins was a bad example because he judged people's personality and "worth" as a human being simply off of their accent.
Dialects are a perfectly natural part of a langauge and it doesn't mean someone is not capable, talented, educated, worth respect etc. just because they talk differently. As long as you can understand them and they can understand you, there should be no problem.
~:~

@SednovaNova

2y↑2

@@harshmnr I am sorry, being from a black background myself. It is imperative how you speak to people in interviews and how you write and make discussion. This either gets you hired or left on the street. Nice try on the feels, but no bueno on the logic.

@spencerfrankclayton4348

2y↑2

@@harshmnr Then why does Eliza have to learn proper speech to get a better job? We're not just talking dialects here; we're talking of grammar and speaking proper English! Not lazy slang and vulgar vernacular.

@SednovaNova

@@harshmnr it is a principal...if no one can understand you. The general premise is you are not worth listening to. It is an individuals responsibility to care about if they want to be heard. No one elses' responsibility. People are still people and treat them with general respect according to thier being but not carrying yourself to appear decent will lead to other treatment.

@bowserhunter1

13y↑32

"The Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely frightening!"

@WhiteCamry

3y↑1

Lerner & Lowe patted each other on the back for that.

@entelektuel.yolculuk

What does he mean there?

@theinternetnazi1456

But nobody came

@mermaid1182

@@entelektuel.yolculuk Hebrew is read from right to left

@amyfisher6380

3y↑8

A few years ago, Turner Classic Movies aired some classic musicals, along with the original non musical versions that the musicals were based on, so I sat down to watch “Pygmalion” (the 1938 version), being only familiar with “My Fair Lady”. I didn’t get very far with the movie because the dialogue of both movies was pretty much the same, and I kept expecting the characters to break out in song any minute, and they didn’t. Plus, while watching Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, I kept hearing the dialogue in the voices of Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. I guess I just like the musical version way too much.

@matthew8153

3y↑1

Everyone likes musicals

@treesny

48w

Howard and Hiller a really wonderful individually and together in Pygmalion, and there's the added pleasure of Wilfrid Lawson's almost-but-not-quite-over-the-top Alfred P. Doolittle. I'm very glad I didn't see the film of My Fair Lady until after I had seen Pygmalion.

@kairees2802

3y↑3

When the captions can't understand him:
Why can't the youtube learn to speak?

@khunt2055

6y↑21

We Americans haven't spoken it for years!

@One-sg6iz

No we have not.

@matthew8153

Actually we speak English better than most of England.

@nataliedobbyn4639

10y↑28

after working on this for our local production. I love Professor higgins and agree to everthing he says. I love him

@danielfenby1504

10y

i remember analyzing this for our music class a few years back ***** this too, is also one of my favorite films

@ecliptik8020

5y↑1

everything???

@almadora

15y↑4

possibly my favorite number from the entire show.

@undefined2326

6y↑37

Eliza perfectly demonstrates how I screech at linguistic prescriptivists.

@lucematt335

5y↑5

If they can understand that my screech is a sign of hatred, it's proper English

@lizbethdelacerda6576

same lol

@markvoelker6620

24w

Heavens, what a sound!

@boxbrown4755

2y↑3

A classic!

@mayjoypequiro9215

5y↑23

2:20 "use proper English and you're regarded as a freak." Well, it's true. 😏

@1492irina

4y↑5

2:03 I can assure you we do not. (Grab one from the North, one from the South and one Parisian. Mix well, stand well back, and watch them all fling insults without understanding a word the other two say.)

@asmodeus585

14y↑1

I didn't say that regional accents are stupid, what I mean was that if you start saying one particular accent is bad, then others have the right to say the same about yours. Anyway, for us, non-natives, the existence of RP is very beneficial as it is somewhat standardised and its pronunciation can be found in any good dictionary, which makes it a lot easier to learn. Also, an American will always undestand what a person with RP tells him, which cannot be said about every regional accent.

@Kate0603

11y↑28

Hung is still correct. Hanged is the more commonly used past participle today for hanging somebody, i.e., as a form of execution, although they were interchangeable for centuries, but that does not make "hung" incorrect, only slightly archaic.

@matthew8153

3y↑1

I often prefer archaic.

@juansantorcaz59

We have to understand that the movie is ambiented in the last years of the 19th or the firsts of the 20th.

@melodkeyelash

4y↑2

Best musical ever!!

@andreapandypeterpan4062

1y↑1

@PeaceLenah4

13y↑10

This man inspired me to become a linguist..Or trying to become one (Still in high school)

@Tinhamodic

4y↑5

So are you a linguist now?

@thesalandarian3314

3y↑1

Loll

@unintentionallydramatic

How's it going?

@harrylane4

30w

If this attitude is what made you want to be a linguist, I hope to god you gave up on that dream.

@tadimaggio

5y↑35

Both "Pygmalion" and "My Fair Lady" are relics of a dying culture, from the era when at least some human beings were still sane. Back then, it was taken as self-evident that it was better to be educated than to be ignorant, better to be well-mannered than vulgar, and better to be well-spoken than sloppy in one's speech. Nowadays, the prevailing view is that to be pig-ignorant is proof of one's "authenticity", to be as vulgar as possible is to be "honest", and that to speak like street people is to show that "you haven't forgotten where you came from." Hence the fact that most people nowadays graduate from high school literally knowing nothing about anything -- and are, moreover, proud as hell of it.

@user-yz9kz6vt9y

1y↑2

Spot on!

@stevevirginia308

34w↑2

I know what you're saying. But I feel that a well educated, well spoken population is more accepting of individuals of various socioeconomic backgrounds

@tadimaggio

34w

@stevevirginia308 I agree with you 100%. Hence the fact that this country -- overflowing as it is with ignorant, malicious people -- is divided into a fractured mosaic of mutually hostile tribes, and closer to civil war than it has been at any time since 1860.

@Mezworld

34w↑3

you sound divorced

@tadimaggio

34w↑3

@Mezworld Nope, never been married, although for twenty-five years I have had a close and loving relationship with a wise, funny, and thoroughly delightful lady who was born in Glasgow and became an American at eighteen. To work a variation on a line from my favorite French film, "The Children of Paradise": "If everyone on Earth were like her, this planet would shine like the sun."

@veeseee128

9y↑12

daddy of stewie

@NRP589

11y↑5

I'm American and i approve Rex Harrison's message....

@asmodeus585

15y↑5

Apart form the fact that this song is utterly brilliant - it is also, unfortunately, very true... Nowadays almost nobody cares about proper pronuncation anymore, what's more, when you use a noble RP you're genuinely regarded as a freak. Presently - when your speech is lousy and inapt, you're actually 'cool'.

@lizbethdelacerda6576

4y↑1

i don't see it that way ,at least in my opinion everyone has and uses a different dialect when they speak (like in america people use AAVVE, or how people say coke, soda or pop if they're from the south/north/west, etc) dialects are a very complex and funny thing but that doesn't mean they are "improper" or wrong. however i do agree that the dialect we speak in should change depending on the situation we are in.

@Kate0603

11y↑2

You are absolutely correct, TheRedblue42. Scotch is whisky, the nationality is Scottish or Scots with the latter also describing the traditional language spoken in the lowlands and the north-eastern parts of Scotland.

@obiwanobiwan13

15y

Does this bring back memories...... It was sophmore year, my first play ever, and it was playing bit Cockney parts (including the one Higgins asks "You sir- did you go to school?") Our clubs founders were all leaving- they were all talented, and now they're everywhere from UCLA to the California Conservatory for the Performing Arts. It seems so long ago MY friends, the group that followed them, were playing bit parts in this show... Now, after we've all grown close, we're graduating.

@NehaDsouzanayzjayz

14y↑2

i love this song....

@Joebycool

13y↑1

@AnnetheQueene16 well, George Bernard Shaw was also Irish, and he wrote the damned thing, so there you go! I'm Irish too, and it's actually acknowledged among linguists that the "standard" non-regional Irish accent (think Ann Doyle and Brian Dobson) is the easiest to understand.

@olivapope9617

I love this song...

@johnprovince5304

4y↑3

There's a greal of truth in this tune. Naw mean?

@meeproar

12y↑1

We have our own standard of English (Standard American English) in the US for people to trample on and ignore.

@ricanruler

12y↑3

Rex Harrison is the inspiration to Stewies voice from Family Guy! Awesum!

@marienedy8319

6y↑1

i am very thrilled ;fantastic !

@Eirinn967

13y↑1

I saw this in the west end in like 2002/2003? it was amazing!

@LivelyTriceratops

13y↑2

i met an english guy once. His accent was all too cute. and i just smiled nervously until he realized i didn't have a clue what he was saying...... and then i meet this german guy in a bookstore, and i understand him fine. infact we have an awesome conversation about steriotypes.

@Senaleb

how'd that relationship work out ?

@johnpickford4222

36w

@LivelyTriceratops: And which was better in the sack?

@asmodeus585

14y

@thesanantoniokid: Thank you for your words. It seems there are not many people aware of that. I think that the traditional way of having one "standard accent" for public situations and being free to speak whichever way you please among your closest ones was the best. RP dominated at schools, but at home everyone spoke his own regional accent. Thanks to that people could communicate more easily with each other in formal situations.

@madisonchapman9949

11y↑14

Eliza : GAHH Hernry : gahhh me : XD

@zoyazoya154

Wow...amazing

@Jgaldragon

12y↑2

In a way he's right. The way you talk influences how you will be treated and how well you can be respected, if at all. anyone with severely poor language skills or uses swear words contently immediately lowers your education status to everyone who can hear you

@biclopsbob

10y↑61

"Taken out and HANGED" Hung is what is done to wet laundry or freshly shot game, I'm fairly sure she has not the anatomy for another possible meaning, "why can't the English" exactly.

@garydeckant7554

10y↑28

The next line is "for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue".
Hung rhymes with tongue, so the rhyme was preserved, although the usage may not have been ideal.

@harrylime994

9y↑16

Arabians also speak Arabic not 'Arabian'

@estellariley5334

8y↑24

you're not entirely right: hung is the active present tense. she should be hung, she is being hung. hanged is the active past tense: she has been hanged. it doesn't really matter which one you use in that context. (in fact, hanged sounds wrong however you use it. what are you, american?)

@biclopsbob

7y↑9

Nope. Just a fussy Brit ^_^ http://grammarist.com/usage/hanged-hung/

@jude8067

7y↑5

I'm american and hanged still sounds wrong to me, I've always enjoyed other cultures much more....

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@figure830

2y↑1

OOOOOWWWWWW!!!

I’m surprised there still isn’t a meme of this

@WattpadUser

13y↑1

@vancouverbuspilot No, Hung is only correct when refering to an object such as clothing. "Hanged" is used for people, because whoever came up with this stuff felt there was a difference between hanging objects and people.

@crowprincess14

12y

One of the greatest things on the earth

@jennifersman

15y↑1

And in a way, he was almost a rapper in the way he half-sang/half talked the words.

@guyman9844

Oh heavens what a sound

@SgtPepperEverton

11y↑3

I completely agree. I am from around two miles away from where Rex Harrison was born and raised and most people here speak with an accent that makes them sound uneducated and unintelligent. I don't know why anybody would choose to speak in a way that will inevitably hold them back in life.

@fattwat1

6y↑3

Va Lin who says it isn't correct this country would be very boring if we all spoke the same way that's what makes the UK how different we all are I don't give a dam if someone can't pronounce certain words as long as I understand them

@lizbethdelacerda6576

the dialect you speak in shouldn't hold you back and it doesn't mean that they're uneducated or unintelligent. i saw this ted talk a while ago and it said something very beautiful "language is like a river, is wild is rushing and it goes all over the place just like it's speakers. and just like a river when you try to compress it, when you try to damn it things downstream die" accents and dialects are a vital part of our communication, not only that but to our culture and identity if you force everyone to use "proper" or standard English a piece of that culture and identity gets lost

@NP-vn8so

4y↑4

Rex Harrison was splendid... But the fact that Audrey Hepburn was not even nominated for an Oscar for her role as Eliza?

@raaraaraaa

she was. she lost out to Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins. The irony being that Andrews lost out on the role of Eliza after portraying her on stage, and going on to win the oscar for mary poppins anyway ;)

@johnlawrence2757

43w

@@raaraaraaayes: and the producers didn’t want Harrison in the movie either. They wanted Cary Grant. But it was a mediocre film anyway compared to the original theatre production which was sublime - with Rex Harrison absolutely leading the way

@johnpickford4222

36w

@@raaraaraaa: Grow up and check your facts. She WAS NOT nominated likely due to the brooha about not doing her own singing. For s film of this budget, the dubbing was done poorly; THE KING AND I was done much better. When you see and hear Hepburn’s vocals to the screen picture she comes across more natural.

@heartmulgrew15

12y↑8

I'm in love with him , and this song . I'm a bit picky when it comes to English , and this song makes me happy ! I love how Stewie Griffin sing a lot of his songs .

@andieportillo1297

11y↑5

I'm working on an essay describing the different dialects of Northern England ALONE. This song describes me perfectly right now. I've included Henry Higgins quotes in my opening paragraph to show my irritation to my professor.

@lizbethdelacerda6576

lol dialects arent for everyone i guess

@flungingpictures

5y↑3

01:52 "In America, they haven't used it for years!"

@koipond5011

7y↑33

0:55 makes me lose it

@johnd2058

It's true, even in the USA . Try listening for non- "American Neutral" accents on cable news, especially from 'white' people (see how there's the implication of sameness already?). You won't hear any. They all had to pay for 'accent reduction' training just to be allowed to speak to the nation. This is why some regions particularly despise "the [mass] media" and Hollywood so much, and will gravitate to political figures whose English differs from the dominant lexicon.

Bear in mind, this is very much a comedy lampooning the good Doctor more than anyone else. The joke is that he falls into stereotypical pitfalls for the intelligentsia, including:
1: The inferiority complex towards national identity developed by intellectuals who assume that only their nation possesses so many stupid / backwards / uneducated / un-woke / (whatever code-word for 'inferior') people
2: while simultaneously displaying just how ethnocentric (or self-centric or whatever-centric or just plain imperfectly informed) they are. In this case, most obviously, the Bible was sooo not written in English, though given King James II's hack-job of a mistranslation, one could rightly say it was re-written as such. Less obviously, totally wrong on 'Arabian'; seems there's actually a "Classical" Arabic only used for religion & such, then a bunch of different Arab languages that are commonly spoken and less-than-mutually-comprehensible.

@SuperNevile

6y↑3

In my experience, Americans find it difficult to distinguish an Englishman or woman if they are not speaking like Rex Harrison, Prince Charles, Roger Moore, David Niven or Julie Andrews.. They are confused by any other accent, and think the person is from Scandinavia or Australia quoting two examples. I suppose when an Englishman is "faking" an American accent in a film, it sticks out like Dick Van Dyke attempting a cockney accent. For some reason, it just doesn't work. To my ears there are four main American accents, but I suppose to the American ear there are hundreds.

@kanrakucheese

The bit on France all speaking French is an anachronism. The film is set in ~1912, when French was NOT yet the universal language of France: The process of making it so only began in the 1880s and even during WW1 the French had difficulty communicating with their own troops.

@shmuelpapirnikov1168

CHARMING .

@Kate0603

11y↑1

A wined up clock? Oh dear, that's to funny! One should always be on the lookout for drunk clocks, they probably run anti-clockwise. Thanks for making me laugh. :-)

@TheRattking

14y

LOL, I grew up hearing RP spoken on most of the BBC shows that PBS re-broadcasts, and nowadays I wouldn't mind subtitles on Doctor Who for the companions. I understood maybe one word in three when Donna Noble was speaking. ;)

@redfordforpresident

13y

@deziboy5606 The most famous quote of George Bernard Shaw, the greatest genius who ever lived, is "Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends". Backwards, "shaw" is "wash", as in "I wash my hands of your innocence, mustang-killing Washington".

@ajlee35

13y↑1

@MadDrWho i agree, and the biggest proof is that we americans can understand australian tourists just FINE. british tourists, omg. if they're from the wrong area, forget it. you'll spend all your time going "what? what the hell did you say?"

@rside790

13y↑1

@unreal030 Maybe, but "My Fair Lady" is based on "Pygmalion", a play written by George Bernard Shaw--An Irishman.

@vancouverbuspilot

13y

@WattpadUser Actually Higgens is correct. The proper usage is hung. Hang is an irregular verb. the tenses are hang, hung , hung

@npcc41

15y↑1

I must applaud the writer of this song. He or she is good.

@treesny

48w

Alan J. Lerner was the lyricist. Also collaborated with composer Frederick Loewe on Paint Your Wagon, Brigadoon and Camelot.

@user-vr6xm8lm1o

46w

@@treesnyI read in Alan Lerner's book that Rodgers and Hammerstein were the first ones asked to write the music
and lyrics to Pygmalion - they tried and tried for a whole
year and GAVE UP. So Lerner and Loewe tried for a year and THEY gave up. But then they tried again ... 😮

@soumayaberrahma3897

NICE........................................................................................................................!

@Joebycool

13y

@Khalony Well there were no songs in the play, hence it was a play and not a musical. The adaptation was written by a man called Allan Jay Lerner in the mid-1950s. Likelihood is he either realised that 'hung' would have been perceived in Edwardian times as incorrect by a man like Higgins, ignored it to make it rhyme; or else he didn't know. It's just ironic that it's in a song about English people not knowing how to speak.

@blindalphabet9911

0.38 go on sir, right jab to Higgins XD

@TnseWlms

8y↑61

The Arabians learn it backwards too.

@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr

7y↑11

You're right on that. Arabian, Hebrew, and Japanese are the three foreign languages that taught in reverse instead of English.

@TnseWlms

7y↑7

The earliest written languages followed the ploughman's path.
.thgir ot tfel morf tnew enil enO
Then the next line went from right to left because
.ffo tfel tnemurtsni gnitirw eht erehw si taht
Some dot-matrix printers use this same principle.

@StephanSandiares

7y↑4

It's not reverse to them. ;)

@saintfisuto1072

7y↑4

Japanese is vertical. Not backwards.

@TnseWlms

5y↑3

@@StephanSandiares Sort of like saying the English drive on the wrong side of the road.

5 More Replies...

@pastnastification69

A man after my own heart

@Wodhlud

12y

Higgins is a mockery fine fellow. Right on.

@elizabethanne8729

42w↑1

Eliza Doolittle was saying AAEOWWWW long before Cardi B 😆

@Nadiacloete

13y

@TenderTrap86 Well said!! We lost a lot of "good" English here in South Africa too!

@TheKillmeifucan

11y↑1

when he said "..americans haven't used it in years"i flipped him off

@spencerfrankclayton4348

TheKillmeifucan Why, because it's true?

@L1LP0E

13y

to those debating, there is this wonderful thing called the past imperfect tense of words such as hanged /hung, as well one can also say that there is a noticable distinction in the spoken english language and the written english language, for instance "silent letters" but more to the point if your saying " the accused is to be hung by neck until their feet quit kicking" or if your saying it as a future occurance " you will be hanged for your treason" etc. very few words have set pronunciations

@bunbacheso

12y

I believe either word works. If someone tells you that "a" is not pronounced like "y", he is discussing both phonetics (the study of speech sounds) and phonics (the relationship between spelling and pronunciation).

@AmaiKiui

13y↑1

@Joebycool Actually, back then, when this was set, it was ''hung'' it got changed in the dictionary later.

@Emem2882

14y↑7

well, every language has slang haha

@jennifersman

11y↑3

Rex Harrison, Broadway's first rapper. Think about it, it's not as far-fetched as you'd think!

@nicolemccullough6706

19w↑1

LIIIKE!!!

@lv67890

46w↑2

Anyone congratulating Henry’s outlook needs to actually watch the musical. You missed the entire point 😂

@94Phillies

14y

This is the theme song of my life.

@rawwwrryy

12y↑3

I'm half Scottish and half Irish and i grew up in Yorkshire... REX HATES ME!

@asmodeus585

15y↑1

There was only one biographer who stated that Rex might have been bisexual, but most of his friends doubted it. So, how can you claim sth you have no idea about? Besides, even if he was, it doesn't change the fact that he was quite a womanizer as someone said before.