50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

[Sikratua]

I have a legitimate question:

How the fuck do you get "kernal" out of "colonel". I know it might not be pronounced like that everywhere, but I'm rather curious to see if any of you know, and how that bit ended up in the language to begin with.

How do you get "leftenant" out of lieutenant?

Because in old French lieu was luef.

According to Merriam-Webster, the origin of the word "Lieutenant:"

"Middle English, from Anglo-French lieu tenant, from liu + tenant holding, from tenir to hold, from Latin tençre? more at thin"

So, yeah. You're just wrong, buddy.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

I have a legitimate question:

How the fuck do you get "kernal" out of "colonel". I know it might not be pronounced like that everywhere, but I'm rather curious to see if any of you know, and how that bit ended up in the language to begin with.

How do you get "leftenant" out of lieutenant?

Because in old French lieu was luef.

I should probably mention that I'm from America and have no idea how that works*

So, say the word was lueftenant in Old French, Middle English didn't have a word for that rank, so they took it as their own, starting saying either luef-tenant or lef-tenant, and that was that for a while. Then when the languages evolved into Modern French and English, it became Lieutenant, but the old pronunciation remained the same.

So in "luef" is the f silent?

In French it would be, yes. Which is why it is Loo-tenant. But if a non-French speaking person came across it, they wouldn't know the 'f' was silent, so they would pronounce it with the rest of the word.

 

[Loop Stricken]

"that'll learn you"? Winningest? Who says these things? I live in America and I've never heard a lot of things on that list.

Well "that'll learn ya" was at least in Pirate Jenny...

 

[Mr. Brightside]

I have a legitimate question:

How the fuck do you get "kernal" out of "colonel". I know it might not be pronounced like that everywhere, but I'm rather curious to see if any of you know, and how that bit ended up in the language to begin with.

How do you get "leftenant" out of lieutenant?

Because in old French lieu was luef.

According to Merriam-Webster, the origin of the word "Lieutenant:"

"Middle English, from Anglo-French lieu tenant, from liu + tenant holding, from tenir to hold, from Latin tençre? more at thin"

So, yeah. You're just wrong, buddy.

According to the OED I'm right, so that's good enough for me.

 

[JaceArveduin]

epic snip

That's odd... Thanks for the info, now I just have to wonder how I learned to pronounce it correctly. xD

 

[chiggerwood]

How sad is your life when you're such a miserable pedantic git that you get pissed off at words? GO OUTSIDE the sun misses you. Meet a nice person, go on a date, strike up a conversation with an old friend, DO SOMETHING just quit being petty it's irritating at best.

You know what I'm gonna let Stephen fry take it from here.

 

[Tomster595]

"that'll learn you"? Winningest? Who says these things? I live in America and I've never heard a lot of things on that list.

Well "that'll learn ya" was at least in Pirate Jenny...

Well ok, I have heard that phrase, but only used comedically, never seriously. Also, can someone explain this to me? "46. I hear more and more people pronouncing the letter Z as "zee". Not happy about it! Ross, London" How the hell else would you say it.

 

[Raesvelg]

A lot of those aren't even "Americanisms"...

 

[CJ1145]

34, 35, 36, 38, 41, 42, 44, 45, and 49.

All of you. Turn in your licenses to have opinions please. You're clearly abusing them. I mean come on, that is the most nitpicky shit I've ever even heard, and really it reinforces British stereotypes I didn't even know existed until just now. Not to say I believe them, just illustrating that this article seems to have deliberately sought out utter wankers to get answers from.

 

[Grayjack]

As an American, I find that list funny. I use about half of those phrases.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

epic snip

That's odd... Thanks for the info, now I just have to wonder how I learned to pronounce it correctly. xD

Well it's pretty much only the British that say lef-tenant, so that'll be why. I, myself, say loo-tenant, simply because it's easier to say lol

 

[JaceArveduin]

"that'll learn you"? Winningest? Who says these things? I live in America and I've never heard a lot of things on that list.

Well "that'll learn ya" was at least in Pirate Jenny...

Well ok, I have heard that phrase, but only used comedically, never seriously. Also, can someone explain this to me? "46. I hear more and more people pronouncing the letter Z as "zee". Not happy about it! Ross, London" How the hell else would you say it.

Well, according to a friend of mine who showed me an episode of Top Gear regarding that letter, it's actually pronounced "zed" by others.

It makes the Vette sound funny, instead of Zee R, it kind of rushes together to become Zeddar.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

Next they should complain about french people speaking french, you know cause it's not like British english.


Seriously, American English is a dialect with different rules of grammar that was intentionally seperated from british english when we declared independence.

 

[Peteron]

I don't really see the problem here. Half the stuff I hear commonly and half I have never heard. Anyway, if they don't like it, they can deal with it.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

TBH, I don't see why most of the things on the list would annoy people, everyone speaks differently, not just Americans. Like there's a culture in the UK (particularly England and London) to say "Free" when meaning the number "Three", like "I'll take 'free' apples please", I hate that.

 

[Sikratua]

I have a legitimate question:

How the fuck do you get "kernal" out of "colonel". I know it might not be pronounced like that everywhere, but I'm rather curious to see if any of you know, and how that bit ended up in the language to begin with.

How do you get "leftenant" out of lieutenant?

Because in old French lieu was luef.

According to Merriam-Webster, the origin of the word "Lieutenant:"

"Middle English, from Anglo-French lieu tenant, from liu + tenant holding, from tenir to hold, from Latin tençre? more at thin"

So, yeah. You're just wrong, buddy.

According to the OED I'm right, so that's good enough for me.

So, what you're saying is, because the OED speculates on something, it's perfectly accurate. The word "Probably" is not a sign of accuracy in a reference book.

 

[infohippie]

HAW. I might as well say that I hate when British people eat crumpets, because nobody fucking eats crumpets. Not even British people eat crumpets.

A-hem. I eat crumpets, so do many people I know. They're pretty tasty, actually, dripping with butter and honey. In fact, I've got ten of them sitting in my fridge right now, and another ten in the freezer for when I run out. Who doesn't love a bit o' crumpet? ;D

Here's an American word that bugs me: Airplane. It's bloody aeroplane, not airplane.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

I have a legitimate question:

How the fuck do you get "kernal" out of "colonel". I know it might not be pronounced like that everywhere, but I'm rather curious to see if any of you know, and how that bit ended up in the language to begin with.

How do you get "leftenant" out of lieutenant?

Because in old French lieu was luef.

According to Merriam-Webster, the origin of the word "Lieutenant:"

"Middle English, from Anglo-French lieu tenant, from liu + tenant holding, from tenir to hold, from Latin tençre? more at thin"

So, yeah. You're just wrong, buddy.

According to the OED I'm right, so that's good enough for me.

So, what you're saying is, because the OED speculates on something, it's perfectly accurate. The word "Probably" is not a sign of accuracy in a reference book.

And, of course, the Merriam-Webster is 100% correct?

 

[Loop Stricken]

"that'll learn you"? Winningest? Who says these things? I live in America and I've never heard a lot of things on that list.

Well "that'll learn ya" was at least in Pirate Jenny...

Well ok, I have heard that phrase, but only used comedically, never seriously. Also, can someone explain this to me? "46. I hear more and more people pronouncing the letter Z as "zee". Not happy about it! Ross, London" How the hell else would you say it.

Zed.

It's been explained about seventeen times thus far.

Next they should complain about french people speaking french, you know cause it's not like British english.

We do. Have you not met the British?

 

[Laser Priest]

So what I'm gathering is "They speak differently, from us, and so they must be punished"...

This comes to mind.