50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate
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dear people who made this list:
get over it, its not your country, and your opinion of how we talk is meaningless, you guys talk weird too so just deal with it, move on and continue letting your tabloid reporters murder your royalty and generally stalk people
dear people who made this list:
get over it, its not your country, and your opinion of how we talk is meaningless, you guys talk weird too so just deal with it, move on and continue letting your tabloid reporters murder your royalty and generally stalk people
Some: I have never heard of before.
A few: I agree with, mainly in a grammar sense.
All: I describe as "*****, *****, *****, moan, moan, moan."
A few: I agree with, mainly in a grammar sense.
All: I describe as "*****, *****, *****, moan, moan, moan."
Agreed.Nuuu said:
Then what is the proper way to pronounce Z? What a dick.
Found in the comments by Pcaldato, and just had to share it.
Some of these, in fact quite a lot of these are just rediculous and I think its just a load of old people moaning.
I mean really? Train Station is american and the word season is american? What the hell!?
I mean really? Train Station is american and the word season is american? What the hell!?
Okay, first of all American English and British English are separate languages in their own right as far as I'm concerned.
Secondly an "Americanisation" is when a word or phrase from American English seeps into another language (in this instance British English).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanization
So we "uptight" British are, in my opinion at least, only preserving are language much in the same way the french try to preserve theirs against words of any English derivation.
In Britain Z's are pronounced zed not zee i don't really care how Americans pronounce it if I'm totally honest.
OT: I hate it when British people use Z's instead of S's (such as above in Americanisation) and yeah a few are irrelevant or just pronunciation but it is just a lighthearted article from a British news company.
Secondly an "Americanisation" is when a word or phrase from American English seeps into another language (in this instance British English).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanization
So we "uptight" British are, in my opinion at least, only preserving are language much in the same way the french try to preserve theirs against words of any English derivation.
In Britain Z's are pronounced zed not zee i don't really care how Americans pronounce it if I'm totally honest.
OT: I hate it when British people use Z's instead of S's (such as above in Americanisation) and yeah a few are irrelevant or just pronunciation but it is just a lighthearted article from a British news company.
Since when was the word "Mathsematics" spelled with an "s" after the "t" ?Jonesy911 said:
It's an abbreviation, like you said, so the s should be understood and abbreviated.
1 British idiom that Americans hate: THEIR FOOD! *hawhawhaw*
Sorry if that joke was made already, everyone.
Sorry if that joke was made already, everyone.
As a Brit, most of these are just a case of language adapting. I per a bit a saw on Q.I. a few years back, it was noted that the British of several hundred years ago would listen to us speaking today and be horrified at how we've butchered their language. Some of those even make perfect sense - '24/7' is an efficient expression, so is 'turning 21', 'two-time' works fine being that there aren't any suitable alternatives when you start getting past quadruple or 'four-time', and what else are we supposed to say instead of 'train station'?
Of course, a few of them are just bad English regardless of which side of the Atlantic you live on - 'could care less', the 'million and a half' would be wrong too though I've never heard anyone say it, same for the 'medal' one, and do people really say 'winningest'? Yeah, that one's just obnoxious.
Of course, a few of them are just bad English regardless of which side of the Atlantic you live on - 'could care less', the 'million and a half' would be wrong too though I've never heard anyone say it, same for the 'medal' one, and do people really say 'winningest'? Yeah, that one's just obnoxious.
Hooray for generalizations!
Of the legitimate ones, most Americans don't use them; and I'd wager a few Brits do use them.
The rest are just nit-picky, if not made up altogether.
On top of that, languages evolve. The English spoken in England is not the same English that was spoken there 10 years, 50 years, or even centuries ago. English had changed over the course of time even before the colonizing of the Americas. Then the American (continental) English started evolving along different lines, but the "original" English across the pond continued to evolve on its own as well. Get over it.
Of the legitimate ones, most Americans don't use them; and I'd wager a few Brits do use them.
The rest are just nit-picky, if not made up altogether.
On top of that, languages evolve. The English spoken in England is not the same English that was spoken there 10 years, 50 years, or even centuries ago. English had changed over the course of time even before the colonizing of the Americas. Then the American (continental) English started evolving along different lines, but the "original" English across the pond continued to evolve on its own as well. Get over it.
Well, as a Brit, I can say none of these (or at least the ones I bothered to read) irritate me.
The one thing that gets to me, is when Americans on xbox live tell me to "speak English" or even worse; "speak American". That irritates the hell out of me. But then again, it's xbox live, near enough everone are pricks.
The one thing that gets to me, is when Americans on xbox live tell me to "speak English" or even worse; "speak American". That irritates the hell out of me. But then again, it's xbox live, near enough everone are pricks.
Bleh, Americans butcher the language. What's new? Stop overreacting and let our language be ruined.
Sorry, I'm going to have to correct you on that. Being that 'mathematics' is always written in the pluralised form, you wouldn't for example write that 'many fairgrounds' could be abbreviated to 'many fair'. Abbreviations don't always have to be a case of removing every single letter after a certain point. It's a bit like the correct abbreviation of 'would not' is 'won't' whereby we're picking letters almost at random out of the middle to remove. I'm not saying America shouldn't use 'math' since as I said before, it's just the way language evolves, but if the Gods of language all got together and decreed that everybody had to use the exact same language depending on what was more gramatically correct, they'd pick 'maths' over 'math'.Innegativeion said:
Of course, in German it's Mathematik so maybe we should just all go with what they say instead.
Many people in the states do pronounce it Zee-Bra so that point is not going to go far.Mr Fatherland said:
Most of these phrases fall into three categories:
Unheard of by most of the US population such as Deplane.
Just a difference in dialect/choice of words. Most fall under this category such as season instead of series, cart instead of trolley, Zee instead of Zed, and so forth. Math instead of maths could arguably belong here as well as both are abbreviations.
Legitimately using the language wrong. I could care less on my part.
not that i disagree, i actually hardly use the word "mathematics" anymore, I just use the specific sub-division of maths I'm using at the moment, but what if you are speaking of a singular function in maths? or what if you are speaking of a wide variety of maths?Leo257 said:
That's the only problem I have with it, is that the base form of it is always plural when 99% of the time you aren't speaking of plural topics in maths, so to use it in plural form always seems..not quite right.
yes it's an abbreviation, for mathematics, however I think there should be a singular form when speaking of a singular topic in mathematics.
oh and to say no one would ever use "math" or any form of "mathematic"
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=is+this+math
I believe strongly that distinctions between dialects are a good thing, so I do not think of either American English or British English as being "wrong," but rather different reflections of the English language.
But, I've noticed that some Brits assume that since English was born in England, their forms are the only correct ones. American English has actually in many ways been more conservative in its grammar and lexicon, maintaining many original constructions that were lost in British English. This happens often when dialects arise following the spread of a language...I am told Quebec French is the same way as compared to the French of Europe.
So, I wanted to just point out a few things, because I am pretentious jerk who loves language and loves to point out linguistic misconceptions.
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3: Two-time and three-time make more grammatical sense, as using words like "double" and "triple" is inconsistent, because the construction fizzles out as you go on, most people stopping at "quadruple" or "quintuple" (ew). German, at least, maintains consistency in this regard.
Though I honestly prefer the sound of "single," "double," "triple," etc.
11. "Transportation" is good, because it creates a visible distinction between a noun and a verbal form, a distinction that often does not exist in English. I prefer the distinction between "transportation," which is unambiguously a noun and "transport," which then could be used solely as a verb (though it isn't, even by Americans).
15. The case of "Gotten" is similar. Think of these forms: I go, I went, I have gone. I write, I wrote, I have written. The -en suffix indicates a specific combination of tense and aspect. Unfortunately, it is often lost (I say, I said, I have said). "Gotten" retains a distinction in form that American English has preserved.
"I've got" in American English usually (though I am only speaking from my experience) means "I have."
16. "I'm good" is grammatically correct. You do not usually use adverbial forms after forms of "to be." Would you ever say "I am happily" or "I am sadly"?
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As for the rest, lexical differences between dialects are to be expected and are completely fine. I would never say "shopping trolley." To me that sounds so...awful.
But, I've noticed that some Brits assume that since English was born in England, their forms are the only correct ones. American English has actually in many ways been more conservative in its grammar and lexicon, maintaining many original constructions that were lost in British English. This happens often when dialects arise following the spread of a language...I am told Quebec French is the same way as compared to the French of Europe.
So, I wanted to just point out a few things, because I am pretentious jerk who loves language and loves to point out linguistic misconceptions.
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3: Two-time and three-time make more grammatical sense, as using words like "double" and "triple" is inconsistent, because the construction fizzles out as you go on, most people stopping at "quadruple" or "quintuple" (ew). German, at least, maintains consistency in this regard.
Though I honestly prefer the sound of "single," "double," "triple," etc.
11. "Transportation" is good, because it creates a visible distinction between a noun and a verbal form, a distinction that often does not exist in English. I prefer the distinction between "transportation," which is unambiguously a noun and "transport," which then could be used solely as a verb (though it isn't, even by Americans).
15. The case of "Gotten" is similar. Think of these forms: I go, I went, I have gone. I write, I wrote, I have written. The -en suffix indicates a specific combination of tense and aspect. Unfortunately, it is often lost (I say, I said, I have said). "Gotten" retains a distinction in form that American English has preserved.
"I've got" in American English usually (though I am only speaking from my experience) means "I have."
16. "I'm good" is grammatically correct. You do not usually use adverbial forms after forms of "to be." Would you ever say "I am happily" or "I am sadly"?
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As for the rest, lexical differences between dialects are to be expected and are completely fine. I would never say "shopping trolley." To me that sounds so...awful.