american-englishspoken-englishusage
Are these questions natural?
In this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXhDlYREJyo at 0:26, the subtitles read "Do you have Irish". Is that structure used only in Ireland?
I also remember hearing an American person who is not uneducated say "Do you know English" to an Italian person.
Is “in one go” British English or just English?
I've wrestled with this one, mostly because of the way you've titled your question.
Take, for example, nappies (which we call diapers in the U.S.). I would consider nappies to be UK English; I rarely hear the word, and, more importantly, when I do, I almost have to translate it in my mind.
As for in one go, I looked at a lot of blogs and message boards, and, indeed, when I managed to find this expression on the internet, it was almost invariably traced to a U.K. speaker1. But, for some reason, it doesn't sound chiefly British to me. It's immediately understandable. I got this done in one go doesn't sound like something I would never say, (unlike, I need to go change a nappy).
So, getting back to your title, I find myself wondering: What makes something "British English" vs. "just English"?
If I had to make a ruling, I'd say, no, "in one go" is not "British English", and I'll count on Macmillan to back me up.
Here is the definition of nappy in the American version of Macmillan:
Now here is the definition of the noun go in the same edition:
So, the Macmillan editors, at least, don't seem to think the phrase is British enough to be tagged BRITISH.
That absence of a BRITISH tag doesn't appear to be an oversight, either; that same entry also reveals:
In short, Macmillan would categorize
I'll have a go at answering this question
as British English, but
I typed this whole answer in just one go
would be what you called "just English."
Based on my usage searches, though, I think it's a borderline call, so I wouldn't vehemently argue against Codeswitcher's stance.
1Like this one, from an electrician:
In the latter case, then you'd be doing yourself a favour to have the whole lot done in one go.
The speaker is a self-identified electrician from Thornbury, which I assume is a U.K. Thornbury, judging by the way favour is spelled.
I think your examples would be understandable to contemporary speakers of AmE, but they are usually reserved for objects with forgotten identities. That being said, comments and synonyms of the terms below have shown me that there is a lot of carryover from object name placeholders to those for people. This is probably due to the fact that the person’s name itself could function as the forgotten object.
Some commonly used alternatives are:
All of these are informal, and can be humorous in the right context.
As for which is the most common, my guess would be what’s-his-face—based solely on my own experience. This is also the least formal option on the list, so maybe it makes sense that I would hear it more than the others during the informal conversations that permeate my informal American life.
Best Answer
The simple way to express this idea is "I speak English", or "I know English". Since knowing something is equivalent to having that knowledge you could say, for example, "I have a little Irish".
It would sound a little strange for a person to say "I have a little English." when speaking in English. It would be better to stick to the specific verbs "speak" or "know". So while "I have English" is possible, it is not the recommended way of expressing this concept.