50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[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...

 

[Grab-bag]

As an Englishman, this article amused me, whilst drinking tea, wearing my top hat and monocle, speaking to the Queen in proper English, having awful teeth and, of course, being gay.

 

[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?

 

[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?

 

[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.

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...

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.

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.

 

[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"

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

 

[SenseOfTumour]

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.

 

[rapidoud]

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.

 

[Hawkmoon269]

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

 

[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".

 

[Colour Scientist]

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.

I only ever refer to them as fizzy drinks and even then I just normally use the specific brand name.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

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.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

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?

 

[wax88]

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.