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NihilCredo comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 5 - Less Wrong
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They just use "got" - at least, that's what I was taught in school.
And I would definitely appreciate it if Eliezer had a Britpicker "fix" HP:MoR. There should be good chances of a sufficiently dedicated fan in Albion.
Preferably someone who lives in Oxford or Cambridge and knows from personal experience what the smart children of academics in those cities talk like. LessWrong would be one of the few sites where there would actually be quite a lot of people fitting that criterion ...
There are no small children in Oxford; the place is entirely populated by students, academics who used to be students, and tourists.
The surrounding villages are fairly normal though. By which I mean typical English home-county.
ETA: But Harry is in no means typical. Unless something awful happens to these kids at puberty, there just aren't enough player characters at 18 for Harry to be the norm.
However, I think they'd be good enough examples that Harry PVE could be expected not to talk in American slang.
Can you give a few examples of MoR's more blatant Americanisms? As a non-native speaker, asides from the spelling issues ("realis/ze", "toward/s") and the most iconic terms ("bloody" vs. "doggone"), it's hard to notice and remember which side of the Atlantic any given phrase comes from.
raises hand
Hey, I'm originally of British origin. I can indeed confirm that the language Harry uses has made me wince a little. This hasn't happened in the last few chapters, since we've been hearing from harry!Mort rather than Harry, and mind-dumps don't respect style, but
"I'm in Mary's Place, Professor, in Diagon Alley. Going to the restroom actually. What's wrong?"
-contains the word "restroom", which no speaker of British English would <i>ever</i> use in that context, and the question "What's wrong?" is a little aggressive. I would suggest something like
"I'm in Mary's Place, Professor, in Diagon Alley. Ah, I'm actually just going to the bathroom - is there something wrong?"