50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[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.

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

Okay then, how do you improve a language?

 

[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

oh btw im australian so i aslo hate a few of the things thast the brits say like calling Pakistanis and Indians Asian and saying i'll be working ten while five instead of ten to five.

 

[Lerasai]

This feels like small children fighting over a toy.
"It's mine now, you can't have it back!"
"You're not even playing with it right!"
(hair-pulling and eye-poking ensues)

 

[Versuvius]

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

oh btw im australian so i aslo hate a few of the things thast the brits say like calling Pakistanis and Indians Asian and saying i'll be working ten while five instead of ten to five.

Most dont call Pakistanis and Indians Asian...we call them...pakistanis and indians if it comes up. As for the ten while/to five...for us its nine while/to five. Jammy Aussie bastards working less hours.

 

[The Funslinger]

This is amusing? I see various people complaining about the British use of English and I don't really see how this is much different.

Well, we're the English, so on matters of the English Language, we win by default.

In all seriousness though, this is what we in the business call a twat article. None of us take that seriously, and personally, I couldn't give a fuck how someone speaks. Unless it's really chavvy.

 

[aashell13]

I found this amusing really, given that most of these idioms and the received pronunciation didn't take hold until after we told the brits to shove off...

Also, I understand the australian dialect is quite distinctive, shall we complile a list of australianisms that british people love to hate?

 

[gamefreakbsp]

Some of these are legitimate. Most are retarded.

 

[G96 Saber]

This is amusing? I see various people complaining about the British use of English and I don't really see how this is much different.

Well, we made it, so yep, it's amusing.

 

[E.Blackadder]

It's just like NZ and Australia. You guys insist on saying 'feesh and cheeps' then have the cheek to turn around and tell us we're saying 'fush and chups' when we are clearly talking about fish and chips! I'm happy to say I've never heard the dreaded 'I could care less over here though.

 

[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.

Okay then, how do you improve a language?

By adding universal changes that clarify one's message.

 

[devotedsniper]

I can understand the odd one (e.g. it's zed!), but most of those i don't get and thats coming from someone whose british (e.g. train station, train station and railway station are both accepted here)

oh btw im australian so i aslo hate a few of the things thast the brits say like calling Pakistanis and Indians Asian and saying i'll be working ten while five instead of ten to five.

Maybe i'm reading it the wrong way round but we brits do say ten to five, never heard anyone say the other.

 

[DrunkenPrayer]

I found this amusing really, given that most of these idioms and the received pronunciation didn't take hold until after we told the brits to shove off...

I love the fact that everyone is saying this is all English language elitists when quite a lot of the examples are from the US and other non British countries.

 

[Hosker]

A lot of these annoy me as well, and one or two of them I've even found myself saying.

EDIT: Americans seem to take this very seriously. Most of them were quite obviously light-hearted.

 

[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.

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.

Inbreeding? Explain how a country where immigrants come from all over the world produce Inbreeding, when that country have a wide gene pool from a number of backgrounds. In a Logical and Scientific analysis shows that the population with less outside influences are more subject to being inbred. Note: research the lineage of European Royal families.

Also seceeded should be spelled seceded, British and European needs to be capitalized since they are proper nouns. So I misspelled 1 brand name/ Brit word. Still do not explain how your country "made from" 1: German Bombings, 2: French Royalty and 3: being hated by the Scots and Irish.

Good day if you please.

 

[WildFire15]

I think what would be a more interesting debate is how and why Americans decided to use different words or terms for things. Here's a couple examples:

America UK
Fries Chips
Chips Crisps

Personally, I think 'Chips' became known as such in the UK because they are chipped potatoes, while Americans decided to name them after how they're cooked.

Crisps can be named Chips for pretty much the same reason and is debatable more accurate, though 'slices' is technically just as accurate. The UK went with what they are when they're ready to be eatten (crispy).

 

[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.

Uh, is Latin supposed to be the best language again? What does "best" even mean?

Not too sure what best means, but he was saying that English is the best language and I think Latin is easiest to learn, and frankly that's my only qualification for a good language (also, Latin depends less on finicky punctuation and word order)

 

[Littaly]

Language snobbism! For when you want to feel superior but can't find anything of actual importance to feel superior about!

 

[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

oh btw im australian so i aslo hate a few of the things thast the brits say like calling Pakistanis and Indians Asian and saying i'll be working ten while five instead of ten to five.

Most dont call Pakistanis and Indians Asian...we call them...pakistanis and indians if it comes up. As for the ten while/to five...for us its nine while/to five. Jammy Aussie bastards working less hours.

oh we work 9 to 5 normally even later as well i just picked those numbers as an example

 

[Bloodstain]

It looks like I still use nice British English.

I am well.

 

[WhySoElitist]

I can understand the odd one (e.g. it's zed!), but most of those i don't get and thats coming from someone whose british (e.g. train station, train station and railway station are both accepted here)

oh btw im australian so i aslo hate a few of the things thast the brits say like calling Pakistanis and Indians Asian and saying i'll be working ten while five instead of ten to five.

Maybe i'm reading it the wrong way round but we brits do say ten to five, never heard anyone say the other.

we had a house guest from the yorkshire dales it might just be for that area