50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[mento 2425]

I've lived in the U.S. for my entire life, and I've never even heard of half of those sayings.
But it looks like everyone here is just being intolerant. both American and British sayings are both equally right. You might as well just say that all languages that aren't the original are wrong. I don't see anything wrong with "train station." I mean, it's a station where trains stop. Whatever British people call it is probably fine, but I don't see how they can complain about train station.
Okay, look, I can do what they're doing (don't take this seriously.)
"Oh god, I can't stand when they call cookies 'biscuits.' It just makes my skin crawl!"
"Why do they call gas 'petrol?' it's obviously gas, duh."
"When they call fries 'chips' and chips 'crisps,' are they telling some kind of joke? that's just stupid!"

 

[Tarakos]

Geez, they're a testy lot, ain't they?

 

[Katana314]

46. I will pronounce it "zed" as soon as you show me the letter D in the letter Z. All other letters have followed a recognizable pattern; a sound, and a vowel to help ease your tongue into it.

W. Y. H. R.

Explain to me where the sound of the letter is in the pronunciation of those letters.

You make a good point. I can try to explain the exact terms of it...

Consonants generally make a 'solid' sound, in which your mouth / lips / tongue come to a full stop. Unfortunately, on their own (pronouncing the letter) some of the above (Y, H) aren't a full stop; make a "yyyyyyyyyyy" sound, and you're not making a stop. (How do you know? Well, you can't make a "dddddddd" sound.). I'm sure someone tried adding simple vowels to the "Y" sound, but "ay" "ey" "oy" aren't very recognizable nor representative. So "why" is used, so it's a recognizable sound that sounds similar to its usage in words.
R follows the same pattern, so I don't know what you mean..."Arr." Vowel + consonant.
As I said once elsewhere...I won't try and explain double-U. I just think they couldn't think of a good pattern-following method like Y that actually made it sound like what it is. If we followed the Canadian / British method for it though, we might say "Wud".

Feels weird writing so much on individual letters...I don't know if I helped make it any clearer, or convinced anyone, but either way I think I'm done talking about it.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Oh noes! Cultural idioms from a culture that's across a sea is upsetting some people in a different country because they're different! Despite radically different languages being geographically closer! The humanity!

But seriously, people still do this?

To be an arse; it's an ocean, not a sea.

Or a pond if you're British.

Or a river if you are a part Timelord baby. Yay obscure reference!

 

[CrystalShadow]

Deplane?

I have never heard someone say deplane ever, anywhere.

Nor have I, but I did hear something very similar once on a train in Australia, and it sounded just as ridiculous.

"This train terminates here. All passengers please detrain."

yeah... That's not a completely bizarre statement in the slightest. >_>

 

[Dr Snakeman]

Has anyone posted this?

Stephen Fry is clearly against all this pedantic bullshit, and as a Brit I feel ashamed that these idiots take so much umbrage with words most Americans never even use e.g. "ridiculosity".

I'm quoting you due to the sheer awesomeness of this video. Really, everyone ought to see it. Stephen Fry's word is law, so we are clearly no longer allowed to be grammar Nazis.

Unless, of course, someone uses "there" instead of "their" or "they're". Because that's just silly.

 

[Zaverexus]

As one who enjoys grammar and proper English I would have to agree with most of those, though it concerns me that there are some I don't understand.
What exactly is a "full stop"?

 

[Kirky]

The dot you use to signify the end of a sentence.

 

[ZomgSharkz]

I'm still trying to figure out what you could possibly call a train station besides "train station".

 

[motyr]

A large portion of those phrases are considered to be grammatically incorrect in (North) America in the first place. I wish more of them focussed on slang terms and the like. I quite enjoy the differences between British and American English, but not when it comes to such silly things as the difference between zed and zee, for example.

Something I, personally, never understood is the significance of dropping the u in "colour" or other such words. I always wondered why. It doesn't bother me at all, though, just curious.

 

[Thaa'ir]

My Goddess, I had forgotten how emotionally charged a topic language can be...

EDIT: One Britishism I wish we used here in the States is "bloody." I caught myself saying that constantly after I beat Fable 2.

Next thing you know you'll be sipping on tea and chowing down on crumpets!
x

I will stick to my Coke and Cheez-Its, thank you!

 

[Marik2]

Damn this thread is close to a 1000 posts....

Make it happen people

 

[deadxero]

To use a britishism.... most of these people sound like knobs. Seriously, anyone getting that upset over another dialect of their language has a serious need to loosen their under pants.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

Damn this thread is close to a 1000 posts....

Make it happen people

Well, if you insist...

/shameless thread bump

 

[Kal-Adam]

Boarding Station or something, i guess...

Damn brits

 

[DrJapple]

A lot of Americans in this thread seem to be missing the point. The article isn't about the Brits hating it when Americans use those phrases, it's about them hating it when other Brits use them. Brits in general couldn't care less how Americans talk in their own country.

What it stems from is a general dislike of America and American culture. British people get American culture shoved down their throats every day whether they like it or not. American TV, America films, American brands and products, American food, American news, American ways of thinking, American everything, to the point where they have to cling to their own culture in order to maintain their national and cultural identity. Unfortunately, America does not carry positive connotations with a lot of British people, so this Americanisation is unpopular with some. When the rest of their country is being "infected" by American culture, it irritates them when even their own people start acting and sounding like Americans. They reject words and phrases not necessarily because they are "wrong", but because they sound "too American".

I imagine Americans would hate to have another culture forced upon them on a daily basis. Oh and Zee only sounds better to Americans because of their accent.

 

[buhee]

I fucking hate Americans calling petrol 'gas' it drives me fucking insane

Really? How many wars is your government involved in (that you know of)? How many of the textile plants/electronics factories that build the clothes you're wearing and the PC you're posting on use slave wages and have high suicide rates? How many of your friends can't get a job, or won't be going "to uni" because their parents aren't filthy rich?

The above are things that drive reasonable people "fucking insane." Not dialectical differences that offend you for purely arbitrary reasons.

And I know a few Brits. Y'all aren't as prim and proper as YOU would have us believe. "Petrol." We don't call petroleum "petrol" because we aren't fucking twats. Perhaps if you ever have to defend yourself in a fist fight you'll drop this illusion that you're a monacle-wearing intellectual.

I think you're being slightly out of order :S.
If someone says something drives them insane, then fine. Whats wrong with that? They are allowed to strongly dislike something, just because you believe their strong dislike should be directed at more hate worthy things, does not mean their dislike is not allowed to exist or that it is highly unreasonable of them to dislike it.

And why are you insulting the british over this? Who said anything about being prim and proper? And why say that the people who call petroleum petrol are twats (yes i read your later post that said you didn't call anyone a twat, you said people who don't call petroleum petrol aren't twats, but really thats the same thing ).
And what has any of this got to do with fist fights or monocles? You do realise that modern day british people don't wear monocles, and that very statement kind of made you seem a bit silly?

Not the mention, have you ever considered that they don't like calling petrol 'gas' because what we put in our cars is quite clearly a liquid?

Stop getting so worked up.

Hmm. Why not say the same thing to your hothead countryman who, like you, is apparently unaware of abbreviations and words with multiple meanings (and irony)? Oh my, I've gone and answered my own question! I'd hate to say something I didn't absolutely mean word for word; that would make me seem just a wee bit silly!

my 'hot headed country man' didn't feel the need to call people 'fucking twats' or insult a nationality. They simply said that they strongly dislike (aka 'fucking hate') people using the term 'gas' for petrol. You however, felt the need to reply to them with insults based on the people behind the terminology rather than the terminology itself. And i assure you I am aware of abbreviations and words with multiple meanings, the point of my post was not to discuss the word 'gas' and all its possible meanings; the point of my post was to point out that you are being unnecessarily not very nice. Admittedly you may have interpreted the original post as them hating the people who use the term (rather than hate towards the use of the the term, which is how i read it), but if that were the case you still shouldn't go around throwing insults back.

I have nothing against either word 'petrol' or 'gas', although i personally say neither. I say 'fuel'. But you won't catch me insulting you or your country for your choice of wording, I may perhaps voice my distaste about the choice of wording in question, but never about the person who uses said words. I can only hope that you remember to do that as well.

 

[buhee]

Some of those are pretty petty. And does anyone actually say "that'll learn you" un-ironically?

There are actually parts of Englands where saying learn instead of teach is actually the norm. I vaguely remember studying about it in my english language class a few years back. The logic behind it being that teachers teach, but unless the student learns it, it hasn't gone through. Or something like that.

As for the 'zed' 'zee' thing, pronunciation differs widely across the whole of england, let alone english speaking countries. Just take the northern england 'bah-th' and the southern 'bar-th' for example. Neither of them are wrong, they are just different. Oh the joys of accents and dialects.

I remember my english teacher used to loathe us students who said 'pron-ounce-iation' instead of 'pron-unce-iation'.

 

[Acting like a FOOL]

To the respective Brits, I have this to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSNREtboX3s

 

[asam92]

Deplane?

I have never heard someone say deplane ever, anywhere.

Yep, never heard this one either.
The rest of them are just whiners, Seriously, they are just words, chill the fuck out.
Apart from "Touch Base" I really hate that too. Are you a baseball player? No? then Shut up.
Management at work all use it for some reason, can't we just 'talk' or 'discuss', do we have to "Touch Base"