50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[Frostbyte666]

I agree with some of them, but most I'm not too bothered about. My main annoyance is when American software companies sell said software to England, give the option to use UK English, and still force their language on us. e.g. Honor...IT'S HONOUR, Color...Colour etc.

 

[spartandude]

the main thing that annoys me is the Americans say "erbs" and we say "herbs" because theres a fucking H in it

 

[Kair]

When you have a population of 300 million where a larger than usual proportion of the population are severely unintelligent, you are bound to create many bad lingual habits.

 

[snave]

Funny thing; while a lot of Brits and Australians and other English-speaking nations like to think that American has bastardised English and changed it to their own means, their actually the only ones who use the spellings and other such things from 300 years ago. Since the revolution the rest of the English speaking world slowly evolved it, while the Americans didn't.

So really, the Americans are just holding onto tradition.

This is a common fallacy spouted by overly defensive American linguists.

The idea stems from small migrant populations holding on to an older version of the language, and there's a lot of evidence for this being correct. Look at French Canada, or the small Greek populations of South Australia.

However, this phenomenon does not apply to America as it is a migrant population sufficiently large for the language to evolve along a divergent path. When you think about it along population lines, it would actually make more sense if American English has diverged from "Middle English" further than modern English has, but this last bit is mere speculation on my part.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

I couldn't even get through the whole list. This sounds like a bunch of catty teenagers complaining about how, omg, can you believe that Sarah actually wore that?

Say, did I tell you about how much it pisses me off that the French say 'Oui' instead of 'yes'? God!

 

[megamanenm]

When you have a population of 300 million where a larger than usual proportion of the population are severely unintelligent, you are bound to create many bad lingual habits.

Uh, yeah, that's what we call evolution, which happens to EVERY living language ever. Actually no, there is a type of language that never changes, we call them extinct.

 

[Squigle Sheep]

O.k. first of all over here a Cookie is particular type of biscuit so unless theres a type of "cookie" in america called a Biscuit then i'd say we're in the right. Also to say "Every one there seems way to up tight for me" is incredably anoying, Im sure you'd hate it if I said everyone in America is too fat for me and wanted to be taken seriously. And finaly I do find it very hard to belive that the majority of americans would not eat Sconnes just because it sounds like stones nobody can be that stupid.(and whilest we're on the subject don't you guys have Rock Cakes?)

PS- what on earth were you trying to say about trains and trollys?
PS(again)- This was suposed to be posted as a reply to "BlazedWithPower's" post on page 1. Sorry about that.

 

[Amphoteric]

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.

 

[Vidi Kitty]

Coming from a Californian, a lot of those are hilarious nit picks that are just out of the norm for some people. The "using a verb for a noun" ones and the grammar butchering ones I agree with however. Also the "its this now because we say so" like the regular Americano.

I think its like all other slang. You can learn to speak a language, but unless its been updated very recently, there will be a few things that won't seem right.

ALSO! As for people who hate "I could care less", I have a chart for you...

http://incompetech.com/Images/caring.png

I could care less about imbedding it properly right now.

 

[james0192]

Being British very few of these annoy me.
bi-weekly instead of fortnightly for instance. Bi-Weekly doesn;t even mean once every 2 weeks if you think about it, it means twice a week.

The one about two-time and three-time being annoying is stupid. It all depends on usage for example 'Manchester United are three-time winners of the Champions league' sounds right whereas 'Manchester United are triple winners of the champions league' just doesn't sound right.

I'm not too sure 'that'll learn you' is an americanism. My gran says that and she said that her grandmother used say it too.

The difference between season and series for TV programs is more to do with the different ways programs are broadcast. In Britain a series tends to be realatively short and not run at a specific time of year. Whereas in the US a season tends to be longer and run with the 'TV Season'

Seriously? Who has a problem with 'Train station'? I cant think of any alternative way of describing the place where trains stop.

And for the last one is shall refer you to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

 

[Colour Scientist]

The only things that bothers me are the pronunciation of stupid as "stoopid" and the absence of the letter "u" in a multitude of words for no apparent reason.

Also the jam/jelly/jello (or crisps/chips/fries) thing is slightly confusing.

I know that "z" is supposed to be pronounced zed but I grew up watching a fair amount of American T.V. and the alphabet song drilled zee into my head and I can't escape it.

Ah well, language is supposed to change with the times, can you imagine what Medieval poets would think of our language now? We don't even differentiate between formal and non-formal "you"!

 

[gavinstaceyvg]

I'm a brit who takes an amount of pride in his language but the one americanism I cannot stand is saying "I could care less" in place of "I couldn't care less". A lot of other Americanisms are just semantics but in this case "I could care less" means that you do care a bit..... the opposite of what you mean

 

[Hugga_Bear]

I love the way people think this is somehow indicative of our entire country. 50 random people, not all of them British, giving their views on language = 3 entire country's views on the English language and americanisations?
Well duh.

Seriously guys, it's not like we all sat down and had a conference over the worst abuses of our language, it's just a bunch of random people stating what they think. Untwist those panties.

Oh and stop saying could care less.
Please.

 

[Kargathia]

In all likelihood every country has its share of purists moaning about the downfall of their cherished language. In the Netherlands we certainly do.

Hell, we've had them for as long as Dutch is an official language, so I don't expect them to go away any time soon either.

 

[Knusper]

I was reading this the other day and I really haven't heard many of these outside of American film. That guy complaining about "Train station"? I'm pretty sure it's in the dictionary.

 

[Versuvius]

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?

 

[Vidi Kitty]

Also the jam/jelly/jello (or crisps/chips/fries) thing is slightly confusing.

Jelly is basically coagulated fruit juice spread. Jam is that but with bits of fruit in it, also called preserves, while Jello is pseudo fruit juice and sugar that has become a jiggling bowl of nothing but taste.

As for the crisps, not too sure myself. Chips are anything cut into thin slices such as pickle chips and fries are the same as British chips.

 

[Versuvius]

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

 

[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.

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?

Yeah, unfortunately a manager uses it in this way most of the time:

"Hey, Bob, I'm so impressed with your work ethic, I'm going to empower you with some extra duties, here's the Peterson accounts, can you finalize them all before Monday please."

Empower = dump extra work on a sucker. Same way 'touch base' means 'steal ideas from' or 'meet underlings to 'empower' them.'

Utilize = use.

Actioning = doing.

Incentivise the workforce = a t-shirt or a couple of donuts instead of paid overtime.

'Going forward', for fucks sake, we can't discuss that topic before NOW, 'going forward' is entirely redundant, althought what you really mean, is 'let's drop it for now and hope everyone forgets because I don't know'.

Really what sort of tiny ego, desperate for attention fuckknuckle uses these terms, when we've all had a perfectly good language that works so much better and everyone understands. don't get me wrong, I'm not against the evolution of language, but this is surely a step backwards, taking simple, clear words and turning them into overlong nonsense.

A lot of the list seems ever so petty however, surely we don't pick apart Germans for using German words, so ***** about American words? If I'm talking to Americans, or about American things, like TV, I'll refer to, for instance the 4 series of Blackadder, and the final season of 24.

Yes, I've had managers I'd never tire of stabbing in the face just to stop the mindless managementspeak noises coming out of it.

I'll stop now, before I go on a 'Falling Down' style rampage thru the nearest office block.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Also the jam/jelly/jello (or crisps/chips/fries) thing is slightly confusing.

Jelly is basically coagulated fruit juice spread. Jam is that but with bits of fruit in it, also called preserves, while Jello is pseudo fruit juice and sugar that has become a jiggling bowl of nothing but taste.

As for the crisps, not too sure myself. Chips are anything cut into thin slices such as pickle chips and fries are the same as British chips.

Yeah I get it to a certain extent but sometimes I get mixed up.

America: U.K./Ireland:
Jelly/Jam = Jam
Jello = Jelly
Chips = Crisps
Fries = Chips


Or something...