50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[Mr. Brightside]

And, of course, the Merriam-Webster is 100% correct?

Well, considering that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary's etymology for the word is as close as makes no difference the exact same as the first part of the OED etymology, I would say so, in this case. Unless, of course, you'd like to throw the OED under the bus, which would make me laugh, to be frank.

No. All it says is that it comes from French and Latin. Of course it comes from Latin nearly every fucking word does.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Deplane?
Ridiculosity?
"Medal" as a verb?
Winningest?
Doing a "heads up" on something?
Eaterie?
Deliverable?
Reach out to?
That'll learn you?
Touch base?

What...I don't...Those aren't...the fuck.....Which Americans are these people referring to?

I mean, really. Guys, ya can't just make stuff up and PRETEND we say it. And the stuff you didn't make up...I don't think you can prove that WE did. Seriously, who knows for sure that Americans INVENTED "I could care less"? If you're gonna mock us, make fun of our horrible system for measuring things. But before you make fun of anyone, get rid of your useless, outdated "Royal Family". Seriously, the 1600s called, they want their system of government back!!....Don't ask me how they called. They...sent a pigeon .

And what's wrong with "Train Station"? It's a station! And there's trains! What do you want from us?!

 

[Loop Stricken]

12. He left. How do you pronounce "left"? l-eh-ff-t. Follow some consistency in your spelling/pronounciation. If you wanted it pronounced "leehverage", you should have spelt it "leeverage." This is exactly the sort of false trick that would fail a spelling bee mastermind. You brits are, of course, free to start saying "Leeft/Right".

Sorry but are you now being intentionally dense? Leeft? Away with ye.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deplane

 

[infohippie]

Others are phrases that I simply scratch my head at and wonder why they annoy the British. Or do they prefer to be called English? U.K. citizens? So confused on that subject.

Just call 'em Poms. We Aussies do.

 

[JaceArveduin]

12. He left. How do you pronounce "left"? l-eh-ff-t. Follow some consistency in your spelling/pronounciation. If you wanted it pronounced "leehverage", you should have spelt it "leeverage." This is exactly the sort of false trick that would fail a spelling bee mastermind. You brits are, of course, free to start saying "Leeft/Right".

Sorry but are you now being intentionally dense?

Dunno, I'm still going to keep a soft E, the hard E just makes it sound funny to my ears.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

I'm still to find out what other name British people use for a train station, other than perhaps railway station, which is a shitty term.
I have never, ever heard anyone call it anything other than a train station and have no idea what the guy on the list calls them.

 

[Loop Stricken]

12. He left. How do you pronounce "left"? l-eh-ff-t. Follow some consistency in your spelling/pronounciation. If you wanted it pronounced "leehverage", you should have spelt it "leeverage." This is exactly the sort of false trick that would fail a spelling bee mastermind. You brits are, of course, free to start saying "Leeft/Right".

Sorry but are you now being intentionally dense?

Dunno, I'm still going to keep a soft E, the hard E just makes it sound funny to my ears.

Well we don't bloody say leeft that's fer sure. Dunno about leverage, I've always pronounced it levverage as opposed to leeverage.

I'm still to find out what other name British people use for a train station, other than perhaps railway station, which is a shitty term.
I have never, ever heard anyone call it anything other than a train station and have no idea what the guy on the list calls them.

Maybe he's just a weirdo.

 

[JaceArveduin]

/butcherknife

I guess levverage is probably a better way of saying what I was trying to say.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

12. He left. How do you pronounce "left"? l-eh-ff-t. Follow some consistency in your spelling/pronounciation. If you wanted it pronounced "leehverage", you should have spelt it "leeverage." This is exactly the sort of false trick that would fail a spelling bee mastermind. You brits are, of course, free to start saying "Leeft/Right".

Sorry but are you now being intentionally dense?

Dunno, I'm still going to keep a soft E, the hard E just makes it sound funny to my ears.

Well we don't bloody say leeft that's fer sure. Dunno about leverage, I've always pronounced it levverage as opposed to leeverage.

I'm still to find out what other name British people use for a train station, other than perhaps railway station, which is a shitty term.
I have never, ever heard anyone call it anything other than a train station and have no idea what the guy on the list calls them.

Maybe he's just a weirdo.

Yes, yes I believe he is.
It must be a railway station he calls it, but that makes even less sense than train station :S

 

[MeatMachine]

As an American who lived in Bury St. Edmunds for several years, I took advantage of every opportunity to use my homeland lango. "Dude" replaced "mate", "elevator" replaced "lift"... ah, what fun it was.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

Maybe he calls it La Gare.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

As an American secondary teacher of English and History, I completely agree with the frustrations regarding butchering the language in the ways that are grammatically wrong, especially "I could care less." I really hate it when people say that...and even I catch myself saying it at times because I'm surrounded by it! Grrr...

On the other hand, hating the difference between "zed" and "zee," or "shopping cart" and "shopping trolley"? These things inspire hate?

They're just cultural quirks like chips/fries and crisps/chips, and are really not worth getting worked about about.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

Maybe this is a Scottish thing, but people saying "I'm not caring" really annoys me, like you missed the bus "oh, I'm not caring" it's just really lazy and wrong.

 

[Loop Stricken]

It must be a railway station he calls it, but that makes even less sense than train station :S

Well, it's the station containing the railway tracks. Makes sense but still.

As an American secondary teacher of English and History, I completely agree with the butchering of the language in the ways that are grammatically wrong, especially "I could care less." I really hate it when people say that...and even I catch myself saying it at times because I'm surrounded by it!

Funnily enough I haven't seen this video posted yet...

Spoiler: Good ol' David Mitchell

 

[dashiz94]

"Gotten" is a real word though? It's the past participial of got.

38. My worst horror is expiration, as in "expiration date". Whatever happened to expiry?
This made me die of laughter. I facepalm'd myself when I read this. They mean the same thing but different ways of saying it. (Right? I hope.)

"Gotten" isn't a word. To use it in the past you would have to say "I just got etc."

And really, it's an awful word to hear. (This coming from an American.) Seriously, say it out loud. I feel literally dumb when I say it.

 

[skitzo van]

First off, this was funnier than hell because I often thought Brits just had a stick up their asses whenever they got pissed off at something for being American, now I know it's just elitism (not all are elitists, although most that I've encountered on the Escapist are). This is stupid to see that one culture doesn't accept another culture's speaking of a language, so now should Spain get pissed at Mexico for not using "vosotros" quite as often? Plus it's insanely funny how some of these responses appear to be some sort of intellectual crusade against the lumbering idiotic beast destined to destroy us all known as "AMERICAN ENGLISH". Bravo, I'll sure to leave my shopping cart in the train station, where it should be along with all the other trollys.

 

[Sikratua]

And, of course, the Merriam-Webster is 100% correct?

Well, considering that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary's etymology for the word is as close as makes no difference the exact same as the first part of the OED etymology, I would say so, in this case. Unless, of course, you'd like to throw the OED under the bus, which would make me laugh, to be frank.

No. All it says is that it comes from French and Latin. Of course it comes from Latin nearly every fucking word does.

Bollocks. See? I put a slight bit of British flavor there, just for you.

English is a Germanic language. As such, German accounts for about 25-26% of the English language. Certainly, Latin accounts for more than that, but not as much as you might thing. It only accounts for about 30% of English words. As anyone who can do even the slightest math,(which was a word for 70 years before "maths" came about, so the Brits can blow me on that one) can figure out, 30% is not "nearly every."

"Gotten" is a real word though? It's the past participial of got.

38. My worst horror is expiration, as in "expiration date". Whatever happened to expiry?
This made me die of laughter. I facepalm'd myself when I read this. They mean the same thing but different ways of saying it. (Right? I hope.)

"Gotten" isn't a word. To use it in the past you would have to say "I just got etc."

And really, it's an awful word to hear. (This coming from an American.) Seriously, say it out loud. I feel literally dumb when I say it.

"Gotten" is the past participle of the word "Get." Seriously, to what degree does basic grammar elude people? To use the word "gotten" in a sentence, "Grammar on the internet has gotten worse."

 

[marco75]

This topic reminds me of the preface to 'Pygmalion' by George Bernard Shaw.

"An english speaking person cannot open their mouth without incurring the contempt of another english speaking person. There is no agreed-upon way to pronounce the wretched language, as written English uses a latin script in which none of the letters have a predictable phonetic value." (meaning you can't tell how to pronounce an english word even if you know how it is spelt)

 

[Double A]

What's amusing is reading this list as though it were a conversation between two elderly British women. While they're sipping tea.

And played by John Cleese and Terry Jones.