50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[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.

 

[Xcelsior]

Some of the words that they describe I've never heard in my life, deliverable?

I'm British and this article just comes off as really pretentious, language evolves these people really need to get over it. The only one I have an issue with is 'I could care less' in place of 'I couldn't care less' and it's not an Americanism I've heard loads of people over hear say it. 'I could care less' implies you care a little 'I couldn't care less' means you don't care at all, therefore can't care less.

Seriously, what's wrong with 'train station'?

 

[GLo Jones]

Well, all this list told me is that Brits are intolerant of the way we speak, according to this little thing.

" I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself. I've never lived nor been to the US either. Graham Nicholson, Glasgow"

Glad to see people disgusted to speak like an American. Screw you and your "trollies". I'll get my damn groceries the way I like, sir.

I'd say it's less about 'speaking like an american' than it is to do with the degradation of our own cultural identity.

Nowadays (an example of a rather old americanisation I believe), as everyone is so connected with those of different regions and dialects, people simply start to pick up phrases and terminology without realising. Thanks to the large proportion of American English speakers online compared to those of British English, it is far, far more frequent for BE speakers to be influenced by americanisms, and as always the backlash to these kinds of things is often 'over the top' and ridiculous.

 

[blasmeister]

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.

pawn and porn are homophones, I thought?

And were you really legit annoyed about the chips thing? would be kinda surprised if you weren't aware of the whole crisps/chips/fries thing. If you're gonna visit you should at least make an attempt at the local language, right?

captcha: mare's nest... wut?

 

[darksakul]

I like to counter this argument with British Slang is more horrid than so-called "every day American slang".

Seriously, I hate it when I hear a Brit say Telly instead of Television, a Hover instead of a Vacuum Cleaner (Hover is a brand name, like I hate how Americans say Xerox instead of photocopy).
Series instead of season. Last but not least loo for toilet or bathroom, I can accept the term water closet, but Loo? It sounds french and I though the British hate the French.

Look in the 1770's we beat you guys up for liberty and your language (and you are not having it back), it is ours now, deal with it.

 

[Versuvius]

I like to counter this argument with British Slang is more horrid than so-called "every day American slang".

Seriously, I hate it when I hear a Brit say Telly instead of Television, a Hover instead of a Vacuum Cleaner (Hover is a brand name, like I hate how Americans say Xerox instead of photocopy).
Series instead of season. Last but not least loo for toilet or bathroom, I can accept the term water closet, but Loo? It sounds french and I though the British hate the French.

Look in the 1770's we beat you guys up for liberty and your language (and you are not having it back), it is ours now, deal with it.

HOOVER not Hover. Pft. You beat no one. You seceeded from british rule and were ruled by european immigrants who went to America. I suspect a terminal case of inbreeding put you where you are today.

 

[3quency]

Yeah well ... I don't like that they weasel an extra letter into aluminum.

And Favourite or Colour ... and those last few extra letters on the end of through. They put those there. They cheat at scrabble

(with apologies to Eddie Izzard)

But the i is supposed to be there... if anything, it's you guys who are leaving the letters out!
;D

 

[TheHitcher]

I'm in two minds about this list. Most of this only bothers me if I catch a fellow Brit using it. Other than that, why should Americans using American English bother me?

 

[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.

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.

That was not my point. The point was the high degree of change and that the change is not an improvement.

 

[WhySoElitist]

things that should have been on this list
its pronounced stew-pid not stoo-pid
its pronounced tewb not toob
it is spelt colour not color
they are biscuits not cookies
it is a footpath not a side walk
it is take away not take out

 

[Amphoteric]

Also its pronounced due-tee. Not doodie for the word Duty.

 

[wangdalfthegay]

hahahaha. I'm from the UK, and this thread reminds me so much of an English teacher I had when I was at primary school (what you US Americans would call 'elementary' or 'grade school.') who would have a ***** fit every time I used 'Americanisms' in my written work, bearing in mind that I used to watch waaaaay too many American TV shows and whatnot when I was little.

but "Train Station"?? REALLY? everyone says Train Station. yes it's wrong (the proper term is Railway Station) but it's easier and everyone uses it. evolution of language. i'm all for simplification because it makes the English language easier to learn for foreigners, which means I don't have to learn theirs

edit: after reading my own post, I'm acutely aware that the phrase '***** fit' probably isn't British English. and I don't care. ***** fit sounds good.

edit edit: most people i known pronounce tube as "choob." "tewb" just makes you sound like a nancy.