50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[A Free Man]

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?

It matters when what you are saying means something completely different then what you actualyl meant. Which is the case in many of things mentioned on the list. Besides that if you are going to speak the English language then speak the dam language instead of butchering it.

Perhaps it means something totally different to you, but the vast majority of people in America (or in the smaller social circles of those who actually use the terms) would know exactly what they are saying. But that's just it isn't it. The real issue. Which is why shouldn't people "butcher" the language. Every languange that is currently in spoken by a large group of people is derived from some other language, or more likely, multiple others. What makes English so great that people aren't allowed to change it? Perhaps a better thing to say is if you are going to go to America you should learn the few slight differences between their language and yours.

 

[rapidoud]

Maybe we should just all speak Drokthari to avoid any and all confusion (sorry, just had the first episode air in my country this week and trying DESPERATELY to not have it spoilt as I've been meaning to read the book for a few months).

 

[mental_looney]

Some are a bit derp but I hate " I could care less" it makes no sense just say I couln't care less if that's what you mean

 

[Michael K]

To all you people, I say ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hJQsvoY6VU

and yes, I am dutch, smoke weed, and speak 5 languages.

 

[Versuvius]

The chips vs fries and chips vs crisps thing irritates me to no end. Damn Americans can't even get that right.

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?

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"

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".

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.

... 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.

Its 50/50. Yes i believe language should evolve but i do find americanisms infuriating, coupled with the godawful, ear raping accents i feel im obliged to be opposed to this nonsense infiltrating the nation through wank US media. It should evolve. Just not from the US brand of change. I guess i just dont like the US

 

[snave]

I get pissed off at the phrase "Big Rig".

The one that annoys me the most however is the way Americans say Aluminium. THERE'S A SECOND "I" IN THERE YOU KNOW.

The problem here is not laziness so much that there's a semantic difference.

Bauxite is the ore, aluminum is a refined white powder derived from bauxite, which is then used to produce aluminium, the metal.

 

[Versuvius]

I get pissed off at the phrase "Big Rig".

The one that annoys me the most however is the way Americans say Aluminium. THERE'S A SECOND "I" IN THERE YOU KNOW.

snip

English: Aluminium / American: Aluminum. Get your hate the right way around >.>

 

[megamanenm]

The chips vs fries and chips vs crisps thing irritates me to no end. Damn Americans can't even get that right.

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?

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"

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".

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.

... 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.

Its 50/50. Yes i believe language should evolve but i do find americanisms infuriating, coupled with the godawful, ear raping accents i feel im obliged to be opposed to this nonsense infiltrating the nation through wank US media. It should evolve. Just not from the US brand of change. I guess i just dont like the US

First of all I never said that language should evolve (that would make the job of linguists SO much easier), I just said that it does. Anyway it's clear that you just hate the US for some unknown reason, and that you are looking for ways to justify that. As long as you understand that change isn't bad (as humans like to thing with EVERYTHING), then my job here is done.

 

[orangeban]

Well, frankly that list makes the British look bad, though I have to agree with the "math" one. Purely because it doesn't make sense, we say "maths" because in full it's "mathematics". But the American version sounds like it should be "mathematic" which is an adjective. I don't boil at it's use, I just wonder about it.

 

[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!?!?!?

Want some METAHL BAWKSES with your Sindri?

TODEH, THE ENEMEH IS AT OUH DOAH! So that would be much appreciated!

thought for the day: silence is golden. It's funny, because it's written in green.

 

[DSK-]

This is amusing? I see various people complaining about the British use of English and I don't really see how this is much different.

This is what I thought. Bunch of complete prats in that article to be honest.

 

[BlackStar42]

Most of these are just stupid, but it's "I couldn't care less" and it's pronounced ZED. Other than those, most of the points on that list are rubbish.

 

[E.Blackadder]

A lot of these annoy me, but NZ speaks very British English, although we have incorporated our own phrases into it like kumara.
It's zed.
As for train station, no one I know calls it anything different, railway station maybe, but train station makes more sense.
OT: What the British (and some kiwis) are worried about is that we exposed to so much American media these days that people will start using 'Americanisms'. Which is a fear that has some basis as in NZ you can now call 911 and be put through to 111 because heaps of children were calling 911 because of what they've picked up!
It's trolley.

 

[Walter Sobchak]

I'm american and i've only heard of about five of these things maybe it's the fact I live in north east of america (the smartest part) but most of the time we use pretty normal phrases

 

[Gameslayer_93]

tbh, ive never known anyone to be picky about these, except the word "period" instead of full stop, mostly i just get annoyed at pronunciation, particularly that of aluminium

 

[orangeban]

The chips vs fries and chips vs crisps thing irritates me to no end. Damn Americans can't even get that right.

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?

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"

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".

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.

... 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.

Its 50/50. Yes i believe language should evolve but i do find americanisms infuriating, coupled with the godawful, ear raping accents i feel im obliged to be opposed to this nonsense infiltrating the nation through wank US media. It should evolve. Just not from the US brand of change. I guess i just dont like the US

First of all I never said that language should evolve (that would make the job of linguists SO much easier), I just said that it does. Anyway it's clear that you just hate the US for some unknown reason, and that you are looking for ways to justify that. As long as you understand that change isn't bad (as humans like to thing with EVERYTHING), then my job here is done.

Hip hip for this dude, just jumping on to the bandwagon here to say stuff you Versuvius with your "British Isles can join in if they want." Dude, Scotland (and Ireland and Wales) have just as much claim to English as England. And frankly I think we should all revert to Latin if we're talking about the "best" language (though the number system would need changing up, it lacks a zero) because it definetly seems the easiest language.

 

[BelfastSpartan]

Pretty funny that quite a few people are saying the Brits are *insert derrogatory word here* for getting annoyed about those words despite the fact quite a few of them are from other nationalities including several from people in the US.

 

[megamanenm]

The chips vs fries and chips vs crisps thing irritates me to no end. Damn Americans can't even get that right.

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?

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"

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".

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.

... 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.

Its 50/50. Yes i believe language should evolve but i do find americanisms infuriating, coupled with the godawful, ear raping accents i feel im obliged to be opposed to this nonsense infiltrating the nation through wank US media. It should evolve. Just not from the US brand of change. I guess i just dont like the US

First of all I never said that language should evolve (that would make the job of linguists SO much easier), I just said that it does. Anyway it's clear that you just hate the US for some unknown reason, and that you are looking for ways to justify that. As long as you understand that change isn't bad (as humans like to thing with EVERYTHING), then my job here is done.

Hip hip for this dude, just jumping on to the bandwagon here to say stuff you Versuvius with your "British Isles can join in if they want." Dude, Scotland (and Ireland and Wales) have just as much claim to English as England. And frankly I think we should all revert to Latin if we're talking about the "best" language (though the number system would need changing up, it lacks a zero) because it definetly seems the easiest language.

Uh, is Latin supposed to be the best language again? What does "best" even mean?

 

[Iklwa]

Its 50/50. Yes i believe language should evolve but i do find americanisms infuriating, coupled with the godawful, ear raping accents i feel im obliged to be opposed to this nonsense infiltrating the nation through wank US media. It should evolve. Just not from the US brand of change. I guess i just dont like the US

Ear raping accents? I love language and really bear no hatred towards any singular country, but I'm from the Midwestern US, where if you ask, we have no accent. Not a big one anyway. So when I took a trip to London, your accent raped my ears with no lube. It's "like", not "loike", "right", not "roight", and "pawn shop", not "porn shop". Last one always made me laugh though. I never even went to one, I just asked where I could find it so they'd say it over and over again. Anyhow, one final thing: When I say I want chips, I want CHIPS. Not FRIES. C-H-I-P-S.

/rant, /trollface

I really did have a blast though.

 

[Versuvius]

Tis strange, how people who take a perscriptivist view of how language is used and change are on a 'bandwagon'. Thickies who follow the descriptivist views because they dont want to learn the current correct uses and drag the whole thing down to their level can. However, my issue comes when say, essay writing or novel writing and what have you also suffer and begin to use the same broken conventions. Within speech deviations are acceptable, otherwise would be silly but when it comes to writing you should know the correct conventions. On a related note i believe borrowing words can be essential and useful when we dont have an equivalent. Thats more or less what i think, everything else is just to bait the knowitalls who dislike the english; THE master race.