Non Americans: Does seeing American English bother you?

[KeyMaster45]

*snip*

I think you need to grab a beer, chill out, and watch this.


I don't know where the hell people keep getting the info that the US made a conscious decision to change bits of the English language just to piss off the Brits. It's more likely that, in the age before public education, people spelled things based on the phonetics when they said the words to themselves. As the American accent slowly deviated from that of a British one that words such as "armour" (or any of the words with a 'u' thrown in) indeed lost the phonetic inflection of the 'u' and to the common person started to sound more like armor instead of "armoore" (which is exactly what the 'ou' in armour sounds like when I apply my grade school pronunciation lessons; an 'our' makes the sound 'oo' when at the end of a word such as pour.)

So please, get of your high horse of assuming the US developed a separate vernacular just to piss you and the rest of the world off, and that every time someone from the states spell it "armor" instead of "armour" it's wrong and they do it with the express intention of pissing you off.

 

[jake557]

Removing unnecessary Us from words doesn't really bother me. I'm not sure why we put them in to begin with.
Aluminum doesn't exactly annoy me, but it did confuse me for a long time as a kid. I used to think they were two different metals,.

What does bother me is "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less". It's not just a different spelling/phrasing, it's flat out wrong.

Everytime I see it I rage a little inside.

 

[magicaxis]

ALUMINUM! AARGH ANGER! ITS ALUMINIUM! WE FOUND IT!!! AARRRGHHH! and such.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

I keep switching back and forth, which usually annoy everyone I talk to...
Example: The color of the armour is blue, my honorable mum said.

 

[Superior Mind]

Doesn't bother me too much. Don't like how everything seems to be in American English by default but it's not anything that's going to really grind my gears. Some things of course I'll never understand about American English, like why the Hell Americans pronounce "Antarctica" "Anartica". There is clearly a t and a c you're not pronouncing.

Thing is there are common mispellings in American English and everywhere else English. Things like "alot". If that doesn't bother me then there's no reason "color" would, especially because at least the latter is technically correct.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

*snip*

I think you need to grab a beer, chill out, and watch this.


I don't know where the hell people keep getting the info that the US made a conscious decision to change bits of the English language just to piss off the Brits. It's more likely that, in the age before public education, people spelled things based on the phonetics when they said the words to themselves. As the American accent slowly deviated from that of a British one that words such as "armour" (or any of the words with a 'u' thrown in) indeed lost the phonetic inflection of the 'u' and to the common person started to sound more like armor instead of "armoore" (which is exactly what the 'ou' in armour sounds like when I apply my grade school pronunciation lessons; an 'our' makes the sound 'oo' when at the end of a word such as pour.)

So please, get of your high horse of assuming the US developed a separate vernacular just to piss you and the rest of the world off, and that every time someone from the states spell it "armor" instead of "armour" it's wrong and they do it with the express intention of pissing you off.

You obviously are unfamilar with Noah Webster, though his decision to start a movement which eventually resulted in changing american english's spelling and grammar wasn't intended to piss of the brits per say, it was to simplify the language, though there was a substantial background of cultural superiority in his ideals.

 

[scott91575]

Actually the 'u' words don't bother me.


It's when I see "gray" that I get upset D:<

It's kind of weird. I'm an American, yet I've always spelled it "grey." "Gray" just doesn't look, or feel, right to me.

Both are accepted forms in American English.

To flip it a little, the only British thing that annoys me is Lieutenant pronounced leftenent (which is of course pronunciation, not spelling). The word has it origins in French, and when broken up is lieu and tenant. Do British people use the phase "in lieu" of something, which means "in place" of something? If they do, do they say "in lef" of something? I understand there was some old English spelling that used an f (which I believe was based on an incorrect interpretation of the old French word), but it seems that should have been corrected a long time ago.

As for the differences, British spellings don't annoy me so I don't know why English spellings should annoy anyone.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

snip

From the other side, ou is sounded as ow. So armour, would be armowr phonetically. If I were to rationalize it...

 

[duowolf]

Doesn't bother me at all unless someone tries telling me I've spelt the word wrong because of it.

 

[scott91575]

snip

From the other side, ou is sounded as ow. So armour, would be armowr phonetically. If I were to rationalize it...

what about cousin? Do you say cowsin?

ou has different pronunciations even in American English.

 

[Saulkar]

Bugs me a hell of a lot even though it should not and I should care less but for reasons beyond me I do not.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I wonder how often these discussions crop up where people complain about the form of dialects/accents/whatever-you-wanna-call-them that developed in places removed from the language's origin in other languages? Like, do Spain-Spanish speakers dislike Mexican-Spanish? If so, is it from a perceived 'bastardization' of their language like the worst of the non-American English speakers feel about American-English? Or is it more like the, "Why do they spell it that way when it was already spelled this way?" Or maybe even just, "We are ostensibly speaking the same language, but I can't fully understand what they are saying! I am enraged/offended/discouraged!"

Well, I know that when things are dubbed into Spain-Spanish, and they have someone who's supposed to be a hick, rather than giving them, say, a southern american accent (which wouldn't work for obvious reasons), they give them latin american accents. Make of that what you will.

what really pisses me off is in Arkansas, according to state law, it is illegal to speak English. The officially recognized language is "American".

Tell me that's a joke.

Funny story, my English girlfriend was just telling me how "grey" is the correct way to spell it, and "Gray" is only really a person's name. Or maybe it was the other way around, I dunno. I didn't even know that was a difference due to nationality, and I don't think she did either. Someone help me out, please?

 

[Superior Mind]

snip

From the other side, ou is sounded as ow. So armour, would be armowr phonetically. If I were to rationalize it...

what about cousin? Do you say cowsin?

ou has different pronunciations even in American English.

I wouldn't argue about pronunciation in the English language, it's rather pointless. Like the famous Ghoti example.

If you don't know of it it asks a question; how would you pronounce the word "Ghoti"

Well you could pronounce it "Go-tee" but you could also pronounce it "fish".

"Gh" can be pronounced as in "enough", "o" can be pronounced as in "women" and the "ti" can be pronounced as in "rendition"

English is a silly laguages, I really don't envy anyone trying to learn it. As Mr. Fry rightly points out though it's rather pointless to get too pedantic about it.

 

[microhive]

When it comes to spelling correctly, yes. I prefer to spell colour, armour, anyhow, and so on. These minor changes sound like a pathetic excuse to be a bit different from GB English.

Wait there is another way to spell anyhow? Btw auto correct is redlining colour and armour...just saying

Change your language corrector from the US to GB.

 

[LordOmnit]

Well, I know that when things are dubbed into Spain-Spanish, and they have someone who's supposed to be a hick, rather than giving them, say, a southern american accent (which wouldn't work for obvious reasons), they give them latin american accents. Make of that what you will.

I would be slightly amused simply because it reminds me of how American dubbers can't seem to agree/decide on how to represent Japanese dialects in anime... if it weren't for the fact that that just makes me sad.

 

[Avatar Roku]

snip

From the other side, ou is sounded as ow. So armour, would be armowr phonetically. If I were to rationalize it...

what about cousin? Do you say cowsin?

ou has different pronunciations even in American English.

I wouldn't argue about pronunciation in the English language, it's rather pointless. Like the famous Ghoti example.

If you don't know of it it asks a question; how would you pronounce the word "Ghoti"

Well you could pronounce it "Go-tee" but you could also pronounce it "fish".

"Gh" can be pronounced as in "enough", "o" can be pronounced as in "women" and the "ti" can be pronounced as in "rendition"

English is a silly laguages, I really don't envy anyone trying to learn it. As Mr. Fry rightly points out though it's rather pointless to get too pedantic about it.

Very true. I often use a similar example when I have to explain to friends why English is supposedly very hard to learn (which comes up more than you'd expect). Basically, I ask them what sound "gh" makes. Then I tell them to spell "through," then "enough". Point made.

 

[Randomeaninglessword]

It doesn't bother me when an American does it. It does bother me when people here in Canada do it, and then say the non-American version is wrong.

 

[marurder]

I'd have to say poor use of English and grossly incorrect spelling bother me more than "mom" vs "mum". Grammar included. Americanisms (sic) bother me no less than those from England. Poor use irritate me (to underline my point).

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

As many have said, only when it tells me I'm misspelling my words. Honestly, though, I use American and English interchangeably. Just how I was raised, I guess.

 

[Droppa Deuce]

I see quite a bit of the "proper" spellings of words on this site (oweing, I'm sure, to the large non-American presence) and it makes me wonder, when you see us Amies spell words like "color" and "favorite" as such instead of the "proper" "colour" and "favourite" does it bother you at all or is it just another way of spelling?

For me, when I see "colour", it catches my attention only slightly more than "color" but I've been told been told it really bothers people to see it spelled one way or the other.

I only get annoyed when I have to change the Default languge in Microsoft word from English (US) back to English (UK) for the 234,682,743rd time in a week. Really pisses me off.