50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate
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Nobody is getting anything wrong, they're just differences. Why can't people understand that differences between English dialects (or any language) aren't good or bad?Versuvius said:
Oh my God, really? You know what I hate? People who get all worked up over completely insignificant things like slight changes in speach. In my opinion proper english is completely redundant. The point of language is to communicate thoughts between people, if what is being said is understood by the general population then it works. Why does it even matter if it isn't exactly what is written in the dictionary?
Heh, no one can get it right. America has so many different areas that these things happen everywhere. Where I live, soda is just soda. My grandmother across the USA calls it pop, along with everyone in her area.Colour-Scientist said:
EDIT: One that I just caught myself using that bugs me, Americans referring to the United States of America as just America. There are (at least?) three Americas, and none of the countries on them have a whole America to themselves.
I refer you back to an earlier quote of the Queen. "Dear Mr. Jobs: There's no such thing as 'american english', just english.... and mistakes"megamanenm said:
English dialects, ANY OF THEM, do not use chips or jello to refer to crisps and jelly. None do. Not one. PEOPLE do. But they should be ashamed of themselves
Just to clear up, I THINK...
UK US
Biscuits cookies
cookies cookies, but a certain type, usually choc chip.
crackers a dry, savoury cookie, usually to go with cheese, like 'Ritz'
crisps potato chips
chips fries
scones? biscuits (as in with gravy, that's what they look like, anyway).
jam jelly
jelly jello
There's a ton more, but I think they're the main ones that confuse, I think most people understand sidewalk, elevator etc, and in fact, they make more sense. sidewalk is where you walk at the side of the road. Pavement means an area that's paved, as in, covered in paving slabs, no real reference to roads.
In short, I think both sides have some of the stuff right, and in many cases, both are fine.
The ones that are awful, I don't count as 'americanisms' but 'stupidisms', like I could care less, for example.
UK US
Biscuits cookies
cookies cookies, but a certain type, usually choc chip.
crackers a dry, savoury cookie, usually to go with cheese, like 'Ritz'
crisps potato chips
chips fries
scones? biscuits (as in with gravy, that's what they look like, anyway).
jam jelly
jelly jello
There's a ton more, but I think they're the main ones that confuse, I think most people understand sidewalk, elevator etc, and in fact, they make more sense. sidewalk is where you walk at the side of the road. Pavement means an area that's paved, as in, covered in paving slabs, no real reference to roads.
In short, I think both sides have some of the stuff right, and in many cases, both are fine.
The ones that are awful, I don't count as 'americanisms' but 'stupidisms', like I could care less, for example.
My 2:
That Americans call things by state and not Country. 'Where are you from?' 'Oklahoma' 'Oh is that in Africa?' '...' What do you expect? Everyone else says country, why can't you? You can instantly tell a website is American if you see this, especially places like wikipedia where it'll list countries and then American states -_-.
The second is that Americans don't even understand what lag or ping are and it frustrates me to have to tell them that when you live in another country that the host is at fault for your poor latency when you use 20Mb/s or above and they use 512Kb/s... but hey, it's my fault because my bar is red durrrr
Anyway, parts of the list seem like major overreactions.
That Americans call things by state and not Country. 'Where are you from?' 'Oklahoma' 'Oh is that in Africa?' '...' What do you expect? Everyone else says country, why can't you? You can instantly tell a website is American if you see this, especially places like wikipedia where it'll list countries and then American states -_-.
The second is that Americans don't even understand what lag or ping are and it frustrates me to have to tell them that when you live in another country that the host is at fault for your poor latency when you use 20Mb/s or above and they use 512Kb/s... but hey, it's my fault because my bar is red durrrr
Anyway, parts of the list seem like major overreactions.
I think this a more accurate depiction, because let's face it, David Mitchell is always right 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2010/may/20/language-usa
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2010/may/20/language-usa
I refer you back to the post I made before this. Language evolves, it doesn't devolve, that's would make no sense, is the English of the 13th century wrong? Which "version" of English is best? No version is the best, and here we can back to the word "different".Versuvius said:
I only ever refer to them as fizzy drinks and even then I just normally use the specific brand name.Vidi Kitty said:
As a brit, I will say this to all Americans:
Sorry.
Some of the things listed were just plain stupid and made no sense at all, and it's justified to hate them, but getting irritated about stuff as trivial as "aluminum" instead of "aluminium" is just pathetic.
Sorry.
Some of the things listed were just plain stupid and made no sense at all, and it's justified to hate them, but getting irritated about stuff as trivial as "aluminum" instead of "aluminium" is just pathetic.
I was laughing at first, but reading 50 english people ***** about stupid things really puts me on edge
*watches new skyward sword trailer*
All better
I do have a distain for buzzwords. Such as "ahead of the curve". What. Fucking. Curve?
*watches new skyward sword trailer*
All better
I do have a distain for buzzwords. Such as "ahead of the curve". What. Fucking. Curve?
first you want to know what's funny? my captcha for this post is"my bad"...which was listed above.
now for my view. I think it's really just making a mountain out of a mole-hill. American English and British English have their difference and i say live with it. Heck i studied linguistics and English can have a VERY large difference even within UK alone, let alone another country. Heck the differences in "standard" American English and "standard" British English (received pronunciation)is still less than the differences between dialects of different regions of UK. A language can be so diverse within a country, let alone another country separated by a large ocean.
I say live and let live, no need to be so particular about how someone else uses a language. call it killing the language if you want, but at the end of the day, the truth is, having a larger diversity leads to language change and that is what keeps a language alive. a language that fails to change and adapt will find itself obsolete. So don't be so pedantic, and do not think that one form of English is superior to another form, because at the end of the day, one can argue that the English you are speaking right now is not correct or whatnot. after all have you even seen how English looked like in it's original form? Even if you do read Shakespeare's work in it's original format, it's not going to help you much, because that was the 3rd generation English language. The 1st Gen English is incomprehensible by modern standards, which i will remind you is already in something like the 5th Generation. Probably with the advent of internet, and hence the possible unification of aspects of English due to widespread communication around the world, we might see a 6th Generation of English which is evolving as we speak right now. What you see as mangling of the English language is merely the natural transformation of English, and one should learn to accept it rather than fight it.
Oh and if you're wondering where in the world i get all these information from, i studied a fair bit on linguistics in university.
now for my view. I think it's really just making a mountain out of a mole-hill. American English and British English have their difference and i say live with it. Heck i studied linguistics and English can have a VERY large difference even within UK alone, let alone another country. Heck the differences in "standard" American English and "standard" British English (received pronunciation)is still less than the differences between dialects of different regions of UK. A language can be so diverse within a country, let alone another country separated by a large ocean.
I say live and let live, no need to be so particular about how someone else uses a language. call it killing the language if you want, but at the end of the day, the truth is, having a larger diversity leads to language change and that is what keeps a language alive. a language that fails to change and adapt will find itself obsolete. So don't be so pedantic, and do not think that one form of English is superior to another form, because at the end of the day, one can argue that the English you are speaking right now is not correct or whatnot. after all have you even seen how English looked like in it's original form? Even if you do read Shakespeare's work in it's original format, it's not going to help you much, because that was the 3rd generation English language. The 1st Gen English is incomprehensible by modern standards, which i will remind you is already in something like the 5th Generation. Probably with the advent of internet, and hence the possible unification of aspects of English due to widespread communication around the world, we might see a 6th Generation of English which is evolving as we speak right now. What you see as mangling of the English language is merely the natural transformation of English, and one should learn to accept it rather than fight it.
Oh and if you're wondering where in the world i get all these information from, i studied a fair bit on linguistics in university.
The lat/ping issue isn't an American thing, its a technology thing. Some people don't know or just don't get that electricity, signals, etc., take time to get from them to the server and back to them.rapidoud said:
And I am guilty of the first piece here, though when it comes to some states, they feel like a completely different country.
Because America is bastardising the language in illogical ways. Should it not be up to ENGLAND (And possibly the british isles if they want to join in) to evolve the language? Not colonists who didn't like our taxes and dumped tea in the ocean? I mean the Boston Tea Party by law means that the US has no right to actually evolve a language they just borrowed because lets face it, it is the best.megamanenm said:
Okay I have to complain now. I once worked at a French/English bistro/cafe as a server. On one occasion an English woman came to the food counter and asked for a slice of rhubarb pie, with cream. Now I serve coffee & tea. So when some one says to me "cream" the first thing I think of is liquid cream that you would put in coffee or tea. So I'm slightly confused by her request. I ask her "Would you like that on the side?" she replies "Oh no dear, put it right on top!" .
Just then my chef makes a timely intervention to clear up the misunderstanding, he turns around and says (with a thick French accent) "She wants whipping cream!" and I was like...OH. Well that makes considerably more sense. There is a fairly big difference between cream and whipped cream, at least that I have always known. To agree with many who mentioned it before, never in my life have I heard any one say "deplane".
Also chef made a point of saying, when the lady was only like 5 feet away. "Stupid British, don't know how to speak English!"
Just then my chef makes a timely intervention to clear up the misunderstanding, he turns around and says (with a thick French accent) "She wants whipping cream!" and I was like...OH. Well that makes considerably more sense. There is a fairly big difference between cream and whipped cream, at least that I have always known. To agree with many who mentioned it before, never in my life have I heard any one say "deplane".
Also chef made a point of saying, when the lady was only like 5 feet away. "Stupid British, don't know how to speak English!"
I would just like to point out that I don't think this article is saying 'AMERICANS SAYS THINGS STUPID.' It's more the saturation of Americanisms into British speech that is annoying. The article isn't meant to be sent to Americans so they can see how stupid they are and that they should change their speech patterns it's more about the amount of American culture that infiltrates British media. While the article did take a ridiculous tack (like Math and Maths, who cares really?) It can get annoying when people give up their traditional dialects and colloquialisms so they can speak like the people on Friends or Will & Grace.
I've been to America quite a few times and (if you haven't guessed already am British) and you guys are just as guilty of making fun of our speech patterns as we are yours.
Basically my point is this isn't insulting the way you speak more getting annoyed at the saturation of American culture in British media. Then again we're all being controlled by an Australian, damn you Rupert Murdoch!
I've been to America quite a few times and (if you haven't guessed already am British) and you guys are just as guilty of making fun of our speech patterns as we are yours.
Basically my point is this isn't insulting the way you speak more getting annoyed at the saturation of American culture in British media. Then again we're all being controlled by an Australian, damn you Rupert Murdoch!
... wow. I really hope you're trolling here. Do you think that people sit around a table and decide how language evolves or something? Of course not, it just happens. When a group of people split off, they evolve their languages in different ways, this is how dialects arise. It happens to Dutch (Afrikaans) and it happened to Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese for example). And grammaticality isn't based on "logic" in any language, if you want logic then use math, if you want to communicate then use language.Versuvius said:
To be fair, I'm from the US and I've never heard the word "Deplane" until now.this isnt my name said:
There were also a few other phrases that I have never head before, and some of those complaints just didn't make any sense at all. I don't really understand why they have a problem with "Shopping cart" or "Train station" or "Expiration date" or "Period" and so on and so on and so on......