50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[suitepee7]

12. The word I hate to hear is "leverage". Pronounced lev-er-ig rather than lee-ver -ig. It seems to pop up in all aspects of work. And its meaning seems to have changed to "value added". Gareth Wilkins, Leicester

he's actually got it wrong himself. it is LEE-VER and LEV-ER-AGE in english, and american is LEV-ER and LEE-VER-AGE in american. and the majority of these are an overreaction, some are funny, but some are not americanisms.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Granted what you call football I call soccer. That being said what do you call American Football? Only asking out of a genuine thirst for knowledge, I can admit I lack that knowladge.

Maybe this is just me, but I usually call American football 'handegg' because your bundle of pigskin is eggshaped and you carry it more than you kick it. In 'soccer', the ball is round (as is customary for balls) and it's kicked all the time.

OT: Wow, really UK? Really? Way to sound like whiny children.

 

[Vykrel]

wow, these people seem very pretentious. also, the majority of them are complaining about words or phrases that have been either simplified or shortened.

i kept reading complaints that were basically along the lines of "3 syllables?! THE CORRECT WAY IS 12 SYLLABLES!!!" sounds like a complete lack of creativity on their part if they cant come up with a way to shorten complicated statements or requests.

i would like to know just how many hours of my life have not gone wasted, because of how many things i say are simplified.

"I would like to order a Big Mac." / "Can I get a Big Mac?" obviously a little bit shorter, and it sounds much more casual. id prefer not to sound like i have a stick up my ass 24/7 (thats right, i said 24/7)

i can understand why some of the grammatically-flawed ones can irritate people. like "I could care less." rather than "I couldn't care less." still, its a stupid thing to be bothered about

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I've got no problem whatsoever with American words, like 'cart' 'sidewalk' 'elevator' etc, doesn't bother me at all, that colour and flavour lose the 'u' when written in American.

What makes me what to stab the nearest guy in a suit n hair gel, is the management speak.

'touch base' 'leverage' 'synergy' 'empowerment', all that stuff can go to hell.

 

[Turigamot]

Granted what you call football I call soccer. That being said what do you call American Football? Only asking out of a genuine thirst for knowledge, I can admit I lack that knowladge.

Maybe this is just me, but I usually call American football 'handegg' because your bundle of pigskin is eggshaped and you carry it more than you kick it. In 'soccer', the ball is round (as is customary for balls) and it's kicked all the time.

OT: Wow, really UK? Really? Way to sound like whiny children.

I call it handegg too, because... it uses an egg-shaped object mostly held in the hands.

In any case, a few of the 'Americanisms' quoted by Brits in this thread are in fact, what I guess should be called 'Southernisms', or 'American Southernisms'. Such as "fixin' to".

 

[Sparrow]

Also, I might add, some of these appear to be by Americans and Canadians. Silly Yanks. Them Canadians are 'aight though. Commonwealth, represent!

"I'm British, I get to decide which country's population is 'aight or not. Yank yank yank"

I was clearly joking. Either you take offense quite easily or you're hunting for an argument.

 

[Iampringles]

I'm British and I didn't realise some of these things were even Americanisms.

I don't think people should get annoyed about languages merging and evolving, this is how language works. Eventually, we're just going to have one big global smörgåsbord of a language, it's inevitable.

 

[repeating integers]

First off, "winningest"? WHAT. KILL. BURN. DESTROY. SINDRIIII

Secondly, "Bangs" confuses me. I thought it was a separate word from Fringe entirely. For example:

I first heard "bangs" used to describe those... things of hair that go down past her face. If not bangs, then what do you call them? They're certainly not a "fringe". And on that note, if "bangs" means "fringe", then... why? "Fringe" is a perfectly acceptable term, isn't it?

Stuff like "could care less", "deplane", "least worst option" etc. are all stupid, but I have to admit, most of the stuff is nitpicking. Also, Y U NO GIVE COLOR ITS U BACK!?!?!?

 

[Will Mather]

Some of them are just douche bag phrases but most aren't too bad, what people have to realise is that perhaps the greatest variation on the language is within the country, for instance I knew someone from London and the spoke completely different to someone from Liverpool. Or just an upper class Londoner too a working class cockney Londoner would speak quite differently.
What's more Britain is actually 3 countries one of which doesn't actually speak English as their first language so.. yeah.
My biggest pet hate is just a universal douche-bag line of the century, "I didn't do nothing" GOD DAMMIT I WOULD LIKE TO KILL ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT PHENOMENALLY STUPID DOUBLE NEGATIVE!!!

"I'm from NZ btw, so I'm neutral on the whole Britain/America thing.

 

[obehave_wan]

English is a living language. Only one of those is actually grammatically incorrect, all the rest are just ridiculous complaints of how the language has changed.

 

[Ghengis John]

Half of these are useless nitpicking and a good other 30% are phrases I have never heard anyone, anywhere use in the manner described, ever.

characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.
3.
making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious.

...none of those make sense in this context. By the way, 'pretense' and 'pretension' pretty much mean 'pretending to be something you're not'.

I think he used it like he meant it. Who made them the imprimaturs of respectable speech? Or for that matter, you? Seriously now, shopping cart for shopping trolley? And this person become disgusted with themselves? On what grounds?

 

[gbemery]

well I about 50 different people who are going to suffer if not already suffer from high blood pressure.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Oh my, the brits have a problem with us. Well I sure feel like I'm back in 1770.

Aww, we love you, emo-boy. (l)

OT; FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- Its Scot-ISH! SCOTTISH! Not "Scotch!" Scotch is a fucking drink! And whilst my country is a nation of drunks, kindly differenciate between the booze and the people GRAGH HULK SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH ARGLEBARGLE

And watching you read this list was hilarious.....


OT: Most of these irritate the hell out of me and I am an American....though hopefully not for very much longer.

 

[ElNeroDiablo]

Lemme see...
Zeta (Zeh-Tah/Zey-Tah), Zed ("That's LORD ZEDD to you!" ), Zet, Zetto/Zeddo (Japinglsh/Engrish <Where L's become R's, R's become L's and V's become B's> for "Z" as in Doragon Boru Zetto or "DBZ").
Aitch for "H" is where "Ecchi" comes from ("Pervert"/Hentai shortened to "H"/Aitch to "Ecchi" which is as close as Japanese speakers can get to Aitch).
That little character at the end of a sentence brings it to a FULL STOP, whilst you have PERIODS of time (both as the lunar-month biological meaning, and the meaning of sections in time).
Bi-weekly is twice-a-weeks whilst bi-monthly (twice-a-month) is closer to a fortnight (Fourteen day period), particularly in the Lunar Month of 28 days.

If you drop 'o-u-r' in French-derived words to 'o-r', why not complete the job and do the same for "our" (as in "That TV is ours.") or "flour" (you know, the dry powder from ground-up grains, not the pretty little planets than generally smell nice which are spelt "Flow-er")? ;D

Also, can anybody tell me where I can find a Datto Two-Eighty Zed-Ekksu (Nissan Fairlady Z(X 280)/Datsun ZX 280)? That was a lovely little car 'til my cousin crashed it a few years back.


It's Smith's Potato CRISPS, a good CHIP is at least as thick (or wide if you're thin-cutting) as your pinky finger, and FRIES are served at fast-food joints.

Not forgetting it is called a RAILWAY station because it stationed RAILWAY lines which the RAILWAY locomotives ran along, and you dis/embark at the RAILWAY platform. I think that covers it.

Oh and the Jam/Preserves Vs. Gelatin/Gel/Jell/Jelly/Jello can be summed up in a script from the infinitely awesome Mel Brooks:
"Sir! The radar sir! It appears to be... JAMMED!"
*tastes the jam* "Raspberry! Only one man would DARE give me the raspberry!" *helmet thunks shut* "LONESTARR!"

Oh my, the brits have a problem with us. Well I sure feel like I'm back in 1770.

Aww, we love you, emo-boy. (l)

OT; FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- Its Scot-ISH! SCOTTISH! Not "Scotch!" Scotch is a fucking drink! And whilst my country is a nation of drunks, kindly differenciate between the booze and the people GRAGH HULK SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH ARGLEBARGLE

So you want your bottle o' scrumpy back then?

 

[direkiller]

18. Take-out rather than takeaway! Simon Ball, Worcester


21. A "heads up". For example, as in a business meeting. Lets do a "heads up" on this issue. I have never been sure of the meaning. R Haworth, Marlborough

31. "Hike" a price. Does that mean people who do that are hikers? No, hikers are ramblers! M Holloway, Accrington

18. They don't mean the same thing
21. I gess if you have never heard of baseball this can be hard to understand
31. The word hike has about 3 meanings one of them is increase something or raise in height

50 i agree with i surprised "Intensive purposes" didn't make it on there with it

 

[Stalydan]

I've got no problem whatsoever with American words, like 'cart' 'sidewalk' 'elevator' etc, doesn't bother me at all, that colour and flavour lose the 'u' when written in American.

What makes me what to stab the nearest guy in a suit n hair gel, is the management speak.

'touch base' 'leverage' 'synergy' 'empowerment', all that stuff can go to hell.

Empowerment sounds WAY too much like a term used in RPGs and the like, e.g.

"Oh no, Elzor the Great is dying!"
"Quick, use this Empowerment!"

See?

 

[Hawkmoon269]

Heh, we Brits are pretty arrogant sometimes, it's what we do.

But as a Brit, I'll say that even I think some of the complaints on that list are just ridiculous.