the English they speak

[navi tasan]

My father is from Boston, my mother from New York and my stepdad from Kansas.

1) Is there any difference between their English?
2) is there any difference between the English they speak?
3) is there any difference between the English each of them speak?

Which of the sentence 1-3 works in this context?

 

[Tarheel]

I might say:

Are there any differences in the way they speak?

 

[probus]

I concur with @Tarheel, but if forced to choose from the options proposed by the OP I'd go with 3. 1 and 2 seem slightly unnatural to me.

 

[Flask]

3) is there any difference between the English each of them speak?

I, too, like (3) the best, but would change "speak" to "speaks," "each" being the (singular) subject of the clause.

 

[emsr2d2]

My father is from Boston, my mother from New York and my stepdad from Kansas.

1) Is there any difference between their English?
2) Is there any difference between the English they speak?
3) Is there any difference between the English each of them speak?

Which of the sentences 1-3 works in this context?

I wouldn't use "English" in the question at all. The listener will assume they all speak English. I'd ask "Are there any differences in the way they speak?" That gives you the opportunity to talk about accent, speed, dialect words and any other regional variations.

 

[jutfrank]

For me, they're all wrong.

If you're going to use 'English' as a countable noun with the preposition 'between', then you need to pluralise in 1 and 2:

1) Is there any difference between their Englishes?
2) Is there any difference between the Englishes they speak?

However, it's really not good English to do that.

With regard to 3), I think this is okay:

3) Is there any difference in the English each of them speaks?