50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

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Nigh Invulnerable

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Jan 5, 2009
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snappydog said:
I'm a Brit and frankly am fine with all of those (apart perhaps from 'winningest'). Language needs to change - Americanisms are part of that, although if they became prevalent in British English then that might start being a problem for more people.
I agree that the term "winningest" needs to drop off the vocabulary tree that sports commentators use. You can't just say, "He has the most victories/wins on his record"?
 

Azure-Supernova

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Aug 5, 2009
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My girlfriend's American so over time my brain just developed the cognitive ability to suplement anything American with its British English counterpart. The only thing that gets to me is when I see someone write down 'Cheque' as 'Check'.

Other than that the list seems to be nit picking, though I'm sure it's intended to be that way. Half of them don't sound serious,
 

bootz

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Feb 28, 2011
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Where I live in the U.S. for some reason they caller shopping carts or trolleys, buggies.
Confuses me everytime
 

Daveman

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Jan 8, 2009
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The fuck? since when is "train station" american. What a bunch of fucking morons, not one of them mentioned the horrible use of "I could care less". There is nothing more retarded than that.

I have to say some of those are irritating but mostly just not at all. In fact I think some of those are just regional creations and not americanisms at all.
 

Malrock

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I'm a Brit and I don't care about Americanisms. It's nonsense for a phrase to annoy you that much...You know what if it's that bad, don't say it, and if you hear someone else say it so what? I'm sure they have far worse features / habits than choice of phrasing.

Not saying I use them, but language evolves...deal with it
 

thechaostheory

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Jan 24, 2010
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The Rogue Wolf said:
Some of them I actually agree with, because they're grammatical errors (regardless of the region). The rest, though, is more "It's OUR language, they should have to talk like us!".

I think we stopped using "fortnight" over here in the US by the end of the 19th century; the same as "score" (twenty). And "maths"? Isn't that a plural?
No it's just keeping the 's' from the end of the word it was shortened from, Mathematics, we keep the 's' and people from the US don't.
 

Akihiko

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Aug 21, 2008
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PleasantAsAHeadcrab said:
...What the hell do they call train stations in Britain, then?
I'm British, and I have no idea. I call them train stations, and so does everyone else I know. Thats what they are! A station, for a train! I reread that one a few times, thinking I'd missed something in the complaint.
 

Gunjester

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Mar 31, 2010
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....So...did anyone else notice that a bunch of those were sent in by Canadians?

Because slang and linguistics range and differ where you go and you can't stop everyone from saying it. All-and-all don't take this as "Brits and Canucks are mad at us"...take it as "Wow the people who wrote into that article are snobby douchebags now aren't they?"

You generalizing is the same as them generalizing.
 

Dfskelleton

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What's wrong with train station or shopping cart or season? Well, there's another thing I can add to the list of why the British hate us.
 

Dr_Matt

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Aug 28, 2009
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Don't know what #29 is complaining about - the two phrases don't mean the same thing. Fortnightly would mean once every two weeks, whereas bi-weekly is twice a week.
 

Lewg999

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Jan 30, 2011
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What has happened to the British if they've decided to spend time bitching about such minor things , sure they are annoying but Americanisms are certainly not the worst problem in Britain at the moment.

Not all of the British hate america , a lot of us just have to learn that it is a different country and just because they speak our language ( or at least something close) doesn't mean they are just like us
 

Qitz

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Even better is to read the post in "reverse." So instead of "A half hour" instead of "half an hour". It's "Half an Hour" instead of "A Half Hour." Thought I'm just easily entertained I guess.

Course this is also from the same people who call a Car's Trunk a Car's Boot and it's Hood a Bonnet. So take this as you will.

Daveman said:
The fuck? since when is "train station" american. What a bunch of fucking morons, not one of them mentioned the horrible use of "I could care less". There is nothing more retarded than that.

I have to say some of those are irritating but mostly just not at all. In fact I think some of those are just regional creations and not americanisms at all.
50. "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" has to be the worst. Opposite meaning of what they're trying to say. Jonathan, Birmingham.

Nope, they got it all right.
 

Wushu Panda

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Jul 4, 2011
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These are just bitter nit-picking at American dialects.

"3. The phrase I've watched seep into the language (especially with broadcasters) is "two-time" and "three-time". Have the words double, triple etc, been totally lost? Grammatically it makes no sense, and is even worse when spoken. My pulse rises every time I hear or see it. Which is not healthy as it's almost every day now. Argh! D Rochelle, Bath"
-You typically hear these from sport broadcasters. It's because something happened two/three/etc times and the phrase "double champion" sounds retarded.

18. Take-out rather than takeaway! Simon Ball, Worcester
-What's the ****ing difference?

50. "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" has to be the worst. Opposite meaning of what they're trying to say. Jonathan, Birmingham
-The only comment that actually has merit.

Let's not forget than the UK has some pretty useless phrases as well. For instance, why do they call bathrooms the "loo"?
"the reason that the English "loo" is so named because the toilet was commonly located in room 100 of buildings and the two ("loo" and "100") look very much the same."

The English have their dumbass slang and we have ours. End of story.
 

RedDeadFred

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May 13, 2009
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Daveman said:
The fuck? since when is "train station" american. What a bunch of fucking morons, not one of them mentioned the horrible use of "I could care less". There is nothing more retarded than that.

I have to say some of those are irritating but mostly just not at all. In fact I think some of those are just regional creations and not americanisms at all.
The very last one mentions the horrible use of "I could care less."
 

Lukeje

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Dr_Matt said:
Don't know what #29 is complaining about - the two phrases don't mean the same thing. Fortnightly would mean once every two weeks, whereas bi-weekly is twice a week.
Some Americans use both to mean fortnightly.
 

Dumbfish1

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Oct 17, 2008
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Atobe-sama said:
Wow that was fun. Not only do half of those not exist, but Britain still loses for inventing the word "burgle." Try explaining that one.
What do you mean, because it sounds silly?
 

thewinner194

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Nov 26, 2010
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Okay, so everyone's aware that American English and British English are two completely different dialects and therefore are bound to have innumerable differences in minor areas such as the usage, spelling, and pronunciation of certain words, right? Right? Because this isn't all that big of a deal...