There’s no getting (a)round it…

I have received a question in the form of a comment on my article British English v American English (which is by the far most popular post on this blog, as it turns out). Here it is:

I am confused about the word “round” and “around” When do you Brits use them and how are they different if at all?
I am going around smiling.
I am going round smiling.

And here’s my reply (I got a little bit carried away):

Hi Ella,

Thanks for your query: it’s one of those puzzlers that every teacher dreads. Of course, normally in an EFL (ESL) class I would simply say, “Oh it’s one of those differences between British and American English” (the standard emergency reply used by countless teachers to get out of a tight spot). Of course, in your case, I can’t use this ruse – so, I’ll have to give you a more considered answer.

First of all, in your example, “I am going around / round smiling” there doesn’t seem to be any real difference in meaning – both of these are possible in British and (I assume) American English – you can let me know. This is a bit like the difference between the two possible ways of pronouncing “either” (like in the song).

So, I can’t say there is a real difference of meaning, or even use, here. But then I started thinking about other verbs, e.g. you can say “He came round to my place for dinner”, but you wouldn’t say “*He came around” (unless he’d just regained consciousness and remembered he had a dinner engagement). So when “around” is used with verbs of motion like walk, as in “to walk around the town” where there is no particular direction, it seems you can quite correctly replace it with “round”. You can go round / around, walk round /around, etc. But if you go to a particular place (e.g. someone’s house) you go round, not around.)

However, if there was some obstacle, e.g. a tree had fallen across the road, you would have to go around it (i.e., avoid it). If you said “Go round it”, that’s possible, but it introduces an inappropriate idea: to go completely round something (e.g. a roundabout – see note below). Of course, it would be absurd to suggest circling something blocking your way, but the implication is in the meaning of the phrase (so a native (British?) English speaker might subconsciously prefer “around” to avoid this ambiguity.

In British English we have an expression “to go (all) around the houses”, meaning to avoid the main question (which I hope I’m not doing here!). A similar expression is: ”to beat about the bush”. Now, while you can, in fact, substitute “round” for “around” in the expression “to go (a)round the houses”, you cannot say “to beat around the bush” (or, at least, a native speaker would tend to use “about”). Similarly, it sounds odd to say “to go about the houses”. So, here, I think, I may have found the key to your question (or at any rate, the keyhole): it depends on the sound, not the meaning.

The word “around” adds an extra syllable “a-“ to the monosyllable “round”. This isn’t generally important in most communication situations, but it’s the kind of thing that becomes extremely important when you are, for example, writing a song. The rhythm of “go around” and “go round” are completely different. A good illustration of this is in the classic ’60s hit song “(I’m) The Wanderer”, which contains the famous chorus:

I roam around around around…

Now here, of course, the meaning is “I’m not following any particular direction”, i.e. “I’m wandering  / roaming around (or round)”. But the rhythm of “around” has a weak first syllable followed by a strong second syllable (techncically,  an iamb  or metrical foot – yes, as in the iambic pentameter). By repeating this pattern the writer (Ernie Maresca, the original version was sung  by Dion in 1961 btw) produced the timeless refrain “I roam around around around…”  and let’s face it, “I roam round round round” would be a completely different song. (Can you guess which? See below)

Interestingly, “The Wanderer” contains a number of examples of “around”, each used slightly differently. Here are the opening lines of the song:

Oh well I’m the type of guy who will never settle down
Where pretty girls are well, you know that I’m around

Here, the word “around” in the phrase “you know that I’m around” means present (and, by definition, interested in making friends with them). So, another meaning of “around” is “present” / “here”, as when people say “I’ll be around if you need me”. Again, if someone said, “I’ll be round” it means they will come round to your house, or return,  later. (Although, if you say to someone, “I’ll see you round”, you could also use “around”: I’ll see you around” – both of these imply the fact that the exact place or location (or time) is not specified – but the possibility of meeting hasn’t been ruled out.)

As  the song continues, it becomes increasingly obvious that the cause of the Wanderer’s wandering is, partly, to avoid any (further) emotional entanglements:

Oh well there’s Flo on my left and there’s Mary on my right
And Janie is the girl that I’ll be with tonight
And when she asks me which one I love the best
I tear open my shirt I got Rosie on my chest

Quite perceptively, the Wanderer reveals that despite his perpetual motion, he is not really making much progress:

I go through life without a care
‘Til I’m as happy as a clown
With my two fists of iron and I’m going nowhere

Finally, he reveals that whenever things are getting serious he has a fail-proof strategy for avoiding the pain and heartache that must have been due to his experiences with “Rosie”:

And when I find myself a-fallin’ for some girl
I hop right into that car of mine and ride around the world

Now, here, there’s a nice example of, firstly, the extra syllable “a-“ being used simply for scanning (rhythm) purposes: “a-fallin’” (which doesn’t add anything to the meaning , but is a godsend for songwriters as it makes the words fit the music (think of Bob Dylan’s “It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall” – virtually untranslatable in any language except (American) English).  Secondly,  you’ve got the use of “around” in “ride around the world” – and here, of course, the word “around” suggests “continually” or “without any direction”. He’ not going to ride round the world (and come back) – just “around”.

I can’t remember the exact film (it may be Pete’n’Tillie, co-starring Carol Burnett), but one of the best (two) lines in any Walter Matthau film is when he’s having a conversation with his wife. Matthau informs her that that morning the plumber had told him, “The pursuit of women is the flight from Woman”. His wife asks him. “What does that mean?” and he replies: “How should I know? Am I a plumber?”. Well, in a way, the Wanderer gives his own version of this insight in the song: that going “around” means you are not “going anywhere”.

There is one further musical reference to add to this: the Beach Boys’ classic summer anthem “I get around”, penned by the legendary Bard of the Beach, Brian Wilson starts with:

Round round get around
I get around

Here, the initial “round round” is actually just a truncated form of “around”, purely for rhythmical purposes. (“Around, around, I get around” would be a different song altogether, but not quite “The Wanderer”.) However, if you think about it, the phrase “I get round” can have a completely different meaning to “I get around”. The latter means “I don’t stay in one place for very long” or “I move from place to place”, while “to get round” can either mean “to avoid” (as in the case of the fallen tree, or “to get round” a law by using a legal loophole). If you “get round” to something, or doing something, it means you do it “eventually”: “I’ll get round to fixing that broken fence, when I have time”.

So, to sum up, if you are “going around smiling” you could equally “go round smiling” when there is no particular direction or destination (i.e., you are a generally cheerful person who always smiles in the street, or wherever you happen to be). If there was a tree lying in the road and you had to avoid it, you could go “around” it or “round” it, but if you go “round” there is a possible meaning that you circle it (perhaps several times – perhaps it’s not a tree, after all, but an alien spacecraft and you need to have a good look at it). If someone comes round, they come to your house (but could have just woken up after an operation in hospital or concussion). And if you are saying farewell – as I am about to – you could either say “I’ll see you around” or “I’ll see you round”.

All the best,

Robert

P.S. While I was thinking about the example of going round the tree that has fallen over the road, I thought a better example of something you go round (in a circular direction and possibly several times) would be a roundabout, i.e. a traffic circle. If you go “round a roundabout” it means you are driving and you follow the road in a circular direction, eventually turning off when you reach the right exit. However, if you were out walking and you come across a roundabout, you would have to go around it (if you don’t want to be killed) and try and find some safe spot where you could cross the road (perhaps a pedestrian crossing or a footbridge). So here “around” has the meaning of “avoid” / “bypass” while “round” actually means “follow” the (circular) road.

As I was trying to find the US English equivalent of roundabout  (I have a trace “audio” memory of “traffic circle”, perhaps from TV shows or films) I stumbled across (actually I was on Google) this eye-opener:

Why are there no roundabouts in USA and Canada?

Is that so? Well, I never knew! It’s one of those odd facts that would only occur to you if someone pointed it out (which, in language terms, happens quite a lot if you’re an English teacher). I remember a similar revealing insight in a tourist review of, I think, the Netherlands, where the reviewer was struck by the fact that toilet doors in that country open outwards, making egress far easier. I’m actually based in Italy, so I’m often struck by these types of differences – sometimes pleasantly surprising, at others incredibly frustrating (e.g. not being able to buy bread on a Sunday in the city centre). So, if you’ve got any more “obvious” questions, I can assure you, they are often far from obvious – and usually lead to the most illuminating speculation about language and the world.

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