50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[Mr0llivand3r]

uh... alright. I've lived in America my entire life and the majority of those I've never heard. it sounds like those british guys just heard some the phrases on a television program and they instantly thought that they were American phrases that people use every day.

i've never used nor heard the term "winningest" in my life. whoever said that word out loud needs to be tied to a mast and whipped.

"shopping cart", "leverage", "a half hour", "train station", "issue"

honestly what's wrong with those phrases?
a cart is a cart. it carts things around.
leverage is just a difference in pronunciation.
a half hour... is a half of an hour.
a train station is a station for trains.
an issue is a dilemma.

why are those so wrong, Captain Brit? do they ruin your jolly good, time ol' chap?


one thing I will say is I'm glad that "soccer" is not on this list, because as much as Brits bag on us because we us the term "soccer", they fail to realize that "soccer" was derived in Britain.

don't believe me, here's some websites that can help explain why:

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/its-football-to-you-soccer-to-me--fbintl_ro-soccervsfootball070110.html
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pstone/why.html


I personally hate how we Americans have bastardized the English language, but to my brothers across the pond, let's be fair here. I don't speak English. I speak American, and it's sad that the division in our countries is only further widened by our difference in speaking patterns.

I'm sure if you came to America and started to chin wag with one of your mates, you would sound pretty shit too. Right oh'.

Methinks my fellow colonial descendant has missed the point here. They were talking about these words being used on their side of the pond by people who, ostensibly, speak the Queens English. As I said in my post, it's akin to having someone arbitrarily and randomly reassigning values of mathematical symbols. I'm sure you'll agree that British English and American English have vast grammatical differences? Assuming so, I'm sure you can see how using one within the other can only lead to confucion, chaos, and ultimately a fish in a bear suit terrorising downtown.

ahh i see. see, I'm american which automatically makes lazy. i didn't read the entire article i only read the list. if i had read the article i'm sure i would have noticed that detail.

and yes i whole-heartedly agree that English (I.E. what people in Europe speak) and American (the bastardization of said language) are dramatically different in both grammar and vocabulary usage, and they shouldn't mix because that just creates a cluster-fuck for everyone involved. but it still pains me that we as people are so similar and yet are cast apart by our differences, exemplified and personified simply by our language.

there are many British people who expect all Yanks to think and behave like George Bush, just as there are many Americans who expect all Brits to behave and think like either the Royal Family or David Copperfield.

although I must admit I would love to witness The Queen and Bush having a conversation together. that would be hilarious.

 

[gentleben]

25. "Normalcy" has been around for at least 80 years, and is an accepted synonym for normality in the US

29. Bi-weekly and fortnightly mean two completely different things. Bi-weekly means occuring twice a week (the same as how bi-annually means occuring twice a year), fortnightly means occuring once every two weeks.

31. Obviously doesn't understand that a word can have more than one meaning. Hike can mean to walk or to pull up.

 

[Helmet]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I'm obviously American, and I'm also from the south. This article brings me the realization that if I were to talk to an English person, they would instantly hate me. The English I was raised on is very far from "proper".

I am also an American from the South. I went to the UK for two weeks last September. They hate us.

Of course, I was doing very little to change their opinion.... Throwing out "Howdy" and "Y'all" at any opportunity was quite entertaining.

Side note- if you ever refer to the British Museum as the "Museum of Rape, Pillage, and Plunder" you will get dirty looks from everyone around you. Especially if you are in the museum.

 

[crudus]

4. Using 24/7 rather than "24 hours, 7 days a week" or even just plain "all day, every day". Simon Ball, Worcester

Oh fuck off, im a brit, 24/7 is fin, much quicker than 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Christ what happened to the British stiff upper lip. Its a fucking word. Allthough the way some things are pronounced annnoy me, and deplane is jsut fucking stupid. But 24/7 is nothing.

About half of this list reads like it was written by some old man yelling at change. It is the evolution of language. Languages change. This is a prime example of it. Who would say "24 hours a day, 7 days a week"?! It is 10 fucking syllables long! By the time you get to the beginning of the fifth syllable people know what you are going to say anyway so just cut it down to five and save everyone some time.

Spoiler: side bar

yes, deplane is stupid. Plane isn't even a fucking verb.

.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

What is wrong with that first one? Who cares if someone says something in a different way than you do? That guy seems like a condescending dickhead. "I hate this entire country of people because they say X instead of my clearly superior Y." Fuck that guy, and fuck anyone else who thinks that way. British, American, Haitian, Asian... Haisian... anyone who acts like that needs to grow up.

Physicality is in fact a word.

Okay... wait a minute. Maybe I'm takin' this too seriously, but it looks like that whole article is filled with self-righteous assholes.

 

[Black Arrow Officer]

Shopping trolley? Really? A cart is a movable basket. A trolley is a big red public transportation device. Overall, this list is a complete joke. Just more british nitpicking at American culture.

 

[Nuuu]

I'm an American and I hate the phrase "I could care less" too.. I couldn't understand it when I was little because it means the opposite of what it says.. -_-

I actually think it's supposed to be I couldn't care less, could just being mistaken from hearing it from others.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

That list is stupid. Most american words sound better that ours. The only ones that I don't like are that they get jam/jelly/jello wrong and calling plasters 'band aids'. And Zee sounds better than Zed. If in war movies/COD they called the LZ and L Zed it just sounds so stupid.
The 'i could care less' thing is stupid but that already been covered. (DM Soapbox)

 

[kaveradeo]

How is Z supposed to be pronounced if its not zee?

Edit: above post answered me

 

[sharpsheppard]

you have people take a shit on your language and see how you feel

 

[Mr. Brightside]

I'm Scottish and I have only ever heard people say "train station" I don't even know what else could be used (railway station perhaps, but it is a station for trains not railways.)

Also, it is ZED, end of discussion.

 

[Slick Samurai]

It seems the pole up their asses is affecting their brains.

I have never heard or seen anyone use the phrases "deplane" or "winningest" in my entire life.

Back to sipping tea and clinging to old traditions like a comfort blanket.

 

[rathorn14]

...To be honest? Most of the British I've had the pleasure of conversing with used improper grammar, syntax, or pronunciation, just like everyone else I know; so most of these complaints are coming off as sanctimony to me.

 

[Dango]

Most of those were very nitpick-y, and the few that weren't were things that most Americans hate, too.

 

[Flig]

46 is making me question the pronunciation of the letter Z. Can anybody explain to me the "proper" pronunciation of it, since this person seems to claim that it isn't "zee." I'm fucking confused here.

 

[Xanadu84]

A little evolutionary psychology time, I think.

Language is deeply ingrained into our genetic programing. There is a large amount of common grammar and rules between languages that developed seperately, and even new dialects prove to be consistent with certain rules. But the details of language evolves rapidly. A very possible explanation for this is that a rapidly changing language allows one to easily recognize who is in your tribe, allowing you to shun outsiders, and help and mate with individuals with similar genetic makeup. Language is a great tool for discrimination. Fellow Americans listening to xenophobes will recognize this in the arguments about speaking English in America. So we become attached to out ways of speaking, and when we recognize a language, and feel the kinship that entails, and then hear small differences, we feel betrayed. It happens on a small scale as well: There was a very vocal divide between people at my Collage who felt like the airy, ice-cream like confection should be called Soft Serve, and those who called it a CreeMee. It very nearly came to blows. Were just programed to not accept the language of those dirty outsides, and that programming manages to override even out smarter, modern day brains that dislike racism.

Most of the things on that list were trivial. Many sounded completely backwards to me, and I wanted to fruitlessly argue with the individual. Still more are really just evolutions in language, for good or ill, that are universal and equally annoying for a random Americans, and it gets called an Americanism just because of the pervasiveness of American pop culture.

 

[Xanadu84]

46 is making me question the pronunciation of the letter Z. Can anybody explain to me the "proper" pronunciation of it, since this person seems to claim that it isn't "zee." I'm fucking confused here.

Brits pronounce Z "Zed". 99% of differences in language are just taste and circumstance, but throwing in an arbitrary D sound just doesn't make any sense in about the most objective fashion I can imagine.

 

[AgentBJ09]

Most of these seem like petty annoyances of those individuals, rather than actual issues with the way Americans talk. Also, some of these phrases and sayings I never hear anymore, so this sounds more dated than it likely is.

Either way, this is just steam venting on minor things that annoy these folks. Nothing more. BBC is free to publish that if it wants.

 

[OldGus]

I found this article while browsing the BBC website, and as an American this is pretty damn funny.

The part they have a problem with is bold in the actual article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796

Pretty interesting. They sound so mad at Americans. Though, I expect they would be, as inbreeding is supposed to be a royal pastime. Silly us.

 

[tacomonkey 360]

Look all the fucks I give on the way i speak. side note I will never spell color with a u.