50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate
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Brits love us. They know it. We're the quirky, single, uncle sam that comes over drunk, fondles the female help, drinks all the wine, passes out on the couch during dinner, and has to have a covered palte made up for him to take home later. For what it's worth, I can't stand it when my fellow Americans use the non-word "irregardless" instead of the actual word "regardless".
Whats amusing is reading this as a brit and thinking "These people are all idiots!"
Americans, go about your way and ignore these silly things ^ ^
Americans, go about your way and ignore these silly things ^ ^
No, maths is the correct version. As it is derived from Mathematics. E.G. "Ben completed his mathematics."The Rogue Wolf said:
Contrasted with "Ben completed all his mathematic."
Admittedly, it's become pretty popular to write math; but it isn't technically correct. However, it's in wide-spread use so it's not exactly important.
Anyway, deplane and number 50 irritate me the most. Especially number 50 and especially when people try to correct me on it.
No you don't. You like that one to surely... but sound out the herb for me... Never did quite understand why the french prounciation of that one routed in the US but not here (after all, we were invaded multiple times but the french, you'd have though if anyone was going to take the french parlance it would have been us. We could have tucked it away alongside "marquis").Flig said:
Agree 100% with "I couldnt care less" however. seems odd to say something that is at complete odds with your meaning. Unless you really did mean to say "i care about this", at which point go right a head.
Also - regarding the shopping trolley and soccer issues. The Oklahoma shopping cart was "one of the first" - and frankly the concept had been around for centuries. And Cart or trolley work find (though i was under the impression that by definition a cart is generally larger and pulled, where a Trolley is generally pushed) On a slightly different note who called public transport a Trolley? I've seen buses, trams, trains, coaches and carts... but never heard of a Trolley in this context?
And soccer was indeed invented by the english... but as far being in touch with the roots of the sport - ootball still came first.
Most of these are pointlessly nit picky to be honest. Language evolves, language changes. Would be rather surprised if the american Dialect hadnt shifted from the English one. to the guy that doesnt like 24/7- twit. Deplane isnt a word though......
The two that kind of bug me are the fortnight one and the three-time one.
Bi-weekly means twice a week. Fortnightly means once every two weeks. Not at all the same thing.
And maybe this is just a me thing, but I wouldn't think "triple loser" and "three-time loser" mean the same thing. If I heard "triple loser" I'd probably think the guy failed at three different things. If I heard "three-time loser", I'd think he failed at the same thing three times. So the "triple loser" ran for three different positions and lost at each election, and the three-time loser ran for the same office and was defeated three times. Not sure if anyone else would see it that way, though.
(Also yes, "deplane" is a word, although it's incredibly old-fashioned. I honestly wouldn't have thought it an Americanism so much as a relic of times when air travel was a completely new thing.)
Bi-weekly means twice a week. Fortnightly means once every two weeks. Not at all the same thing.
And maybe this is just a me thing, but I wouldn't think "triple loser" and "three-time loser" mean the same thing. If I heard "triple loser" I'd probably think the guy failed at three different things. If I heard "three-time loser", I'd think he failed at the same thing three times. So the "triple loser" ran for three different positions and lost at each election, and the three-time loser ran for the same office and was defeated three times. Not sure if anyone else would see it that way, though.
(Also yes, "deplane" is a word, although it's incredibly old-fashioned. I honestly wouldn't have thought it an Americanism so much as a relic of times when air travel was a completely new thing.)
Just a quick pointer, fella:
Light-hearted article is light-hearted, it's just a bit of harmless fun. I saw that article yesterday, and believe me, I laughed as hard as you.
And on a total tangent:
Not places in Britain. Also:Shock and Awe said:
Quoted for truth.
Light-hearted article is light-hearted, it's just a bit of harmless fun. I saw that article yesterday, and believe me, I laughed as hard as you.
And on a total tangent:
Firstly, welcome to the Escapist. Secondly: 'burgle', as in the act committed by a 'burglar', coming from the old French word 'burgier' meaning 'pillage'.Atobe-sama said:
It is more to do with how americans butchered our language, and then how it has influenced people through the media. I imagine it would be less of a problem if it was universally seen as the American language; however, you find that only a small number (on the global scale) would consider it as such. Most say it is English and i suppose people dont like to see our langauge used incorrectly by our own people.Booze Zombie said:
The difference is in 1770 we had a problem with you while at the same time realising that you were still vaguely our responsibility. Now we have a problem with you safe in the knowledge that no part of America is our fault.Skullkid4187 said:
Second only to the "could care less" embarrassment, for me has to be the americanism of date order.
Month/Day/Year!....just plain weird!
I'm a Brit and sidewalk makes way more sense than pavement,take-out and take away mean the same thing and math/maths is simply mathematics shortened, math is the more efficient one as it doesn't take as long to say, the whole point of an abbreviation.
Month/Day/Year!....just plain weird!
I'm a Brit and sidewalk makes way more sense than pavement,take-out and take away mean the same thing and math/maths is simply mathematics shortened, math is the more efficient one as it doesn't take as long to say, the whole point of an abbreviation.
Ah you got there before me. That is probably the only one that gets right on my nerves. I couldn't care less about the difference in words, they're just Colloquialism and it's not like the Brits don't have their own, what with the various differences between the regions.BlastedTheWorm said:
Most of those don't really bother me, like most Brits I'm used to some of them, others are actually useful ("heads up" has it's uses outside of business as either a thanks for a warning or a term to mean get ready (ie heads up guys, incoming) and 24/7 is just efficient and flows better than 24 hours a day, 7 days a week which is cumbersome).
But fuck could care less. It's nonsensical and ridiculous, burn it with fire, leave it in a pit to die and let us never speak of it again. I'd link the soapbox video but it's been done already. Of all the americanisms I've ever heard that is by far the worst.
eta: also irony. It does not mean funny. Stop using it for everything in the world, please. Not really an americanism as just plain weird but mistaking England and Britain. Britain covers Scotland and Wales as well, England is a country, Britain is a term for the land.
Please stop doing it, it's really quite annoying.
But fuck could care less. It's nonsensical and ridiculous, burn it with fire, leave it in a pit to die and let us never speak of it again. I'd link the soapbox video but it's been done already. Of all the americanisms I've ever heard that is by far the worst.
eta: also irony. It does not mean funny. Stop using it for everything in the world, please. Not really an americanism as just plain weird but mistaking England and Britain. Britain covers Scotland and Wales as well, England is a country, Britain is a term for the land.
Please stop doing it, it's really quite annoying.
There's no chance I'd teach it to my English students, and neither would the other teachers here. It's too irregular an irregular. It would confuse them to no end, just as teaching them any other kind of redundant slang would. They can get by perfectly well with have and got.Heartcafe said:
Incidentally, the amount of American rage in this thread is both hilarious and exasperating. Only an idiot would feel roused to anger by this list.
