Queen's English
1
7.7
- noun
- UK
:
Inglés de la Reina
- Her ability to articulate thoughts in the Queen's English impressed everyone at the dinner party.
- speak the Queen's English
Examples
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Translating his words into the Queen's English... we find ourselves faced with a fresh, rousing defense of mathematics, as if numbers were pre-existing ideas in reality.
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Lisle does that kind of thing a lot, and as usual it's a case of "they know what they mean, I know what they mean, you know what they mean, and so while they may have technically mangled the Queen's English, it doesn't really matter."
Blog text (7) -
If you are referring to me, I request that you speak more clearly in the Queen's English.
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Not being Spanish myself, it's difficult to say, but a comparable UK example would be Queen's English as opposed to the southwest accents.
Blog text (11) -
They also worship an hourglass and speak the Queen's English perfectly.
Blog text (23) -
They may know how to speak the Queen's English, but their morals are in the gutter.
Fiction book (1993) -
Perhaps this is indicated in the fact that most Kenyans speak fluent Queen's English apart from Swahili.
Blog text (17) -
I was taught English in South Africa, where we were taught "the Queen's English" from textbooks and had Afrikaans (Dutch) teachers who didn't speak English as a first language.
Blog text (9) -
Jekyll had a command of the Queen's English that I frankly envied, and I would find myself assuming some of his mannerisms and using some of his more eloquent locutions.
Fiction book (1995) -
Many educated people in southern England speak the Queen's English fluently.
Synonyms
1
7.9
Standard British English that educated people use and most people see as correct
1
2.0
English used in the United Kingdom with different spelling and words
A form of English used in the United Kingdom with British spelling and pronunciation
How Standard
- UK
1
8.0
- UK
1
7.7
1
3.7
1
7.4
20
6.8
- Specialized
1
6.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
Queen's + English
The parts 'Queen's' (belonging to the monarch) and 'English' make it plausible to infer a variety of English associated with the queen — i.e. a formal or prestigious British variety — so some sense can be guessed from the words. However, the conventional meaning (the standard/educated form of British English, historically RP) and its idiomatic usage require cultural and linguistic knowledge beyond the literal constituents, so it is not fully predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Queen's English comes from the idea that the queen and the royal family spoke in a clear, 'proper' way that others wanted to copy. So the phrase means the 'standard' or most 'proper' form of British English, the way educated people were taught to speak.