50 Americanisms That Brits Apparently Hate

Recommended Videos

Roserari

New member
Jul 11, 2011
227
0
0
Easton Dark said:
Deplane?

I have never heard someone say deplane ever, anywhere.
^ Which brings me to believe this entire article is something cooked up by someone wanting to stir up a discussion rather than doing some proper journalism.
 

Klarinette

New member
May 21, 2009
1,173
0
0
Um... some of these are a little anal-retentive. Variations of a language are going to happen in other countries; that's how language, as a whole, evolves in the first place. Besides, fuckloads of English words are stolen and bastardized from Latin anyway, which I'm sure probably pissed off at least a few people back in the day.
 

Stalydan

New member
Mar 18, 2011
510
0
0
Versuvius said:
snave said:
Amphoteric said:
I get pissed off at the phrase "Big Rig".

The one that annoys me the most however is the way Americans say Aluminium. THERE'S A SECOND "I" IN THERE YOU KNOW.
snip
English: Aluminium / American: Aluminum. Get your hate the right way around >.>
Yeah I'm pretty sure that he means the way that Americans actually SAY the word Aluminium without including the second I that is used in UK English.
 

Scrubiii

New member
Apr 19, 2011
244
0
0
I must admit that I grin immaturely each time I hear an American talk about a "fanny pack"
 

Bobzer77

New member
May 14, 2008
717
0
0
Ryu-Kage said:
42. Period instead of full stop. Stuart Oliver, Sunderland
So, does that mean sentences should end with a "full stop" mark? It sounds more like a definition of "period" rather than a replacement word.
Why do your sentences end with a "period" mark?

It just ends with a full stop, or a period.
 

Artina89

New member
Oct 27, 2008
3,624
0
0
I don't mind americanisms. A lot of my friends are from the US and Canada and I found that article to be an overreaction on the part of the brits interviewed. It's just the way someone talks. Don't make a big deal out of it. Also, I have always used the term train station. When has that been a bad use of english? Also, I have never heard the word "deplane" and when I asked my friends who live in the US, they never heard it either. They must get some weird folk going to the Netherlands...
 

E.Blackadder

New member
Apr 26, 2011
52
0
0
In the 70s or 80s or some weird decade in the 20th century a lot of French people were getting pissed off with 'Franglais', where lots of french people were incorperating English into French. Goscinny and Uderzo even got a Asterix comic out of it (not a big book type one, just a page or two).
 

sune-ku

Cynical optimist
Mar 25, 2009
195
0
0
Look here everyone, that was simply an article on an exceedingly British website, where British people were engaging in an extremely British past-time of discontented grumbling amongst like-minded people. Nobody asked for Americans to intrude and read it. That's like eavesdropping on the neighbours whilst they're having a moan about how you need to trim your side of the hedge, then confronting them the next day and being all defensive about how you like it looking natural and prefer it the way it is. They weren't going to say anything to you, but now you've put them in an awkward situation where they have to justify and argue their side. Then things can only escalate. Soon you'll have the neighbours creeping into you're garden at night with clippers while you're planting weeds in theirs and... oh wait, sorry I've let the analogy run away with itself! I think the point I was making was, don't take it as a personal attack, just a few people grumbling away about how "people wouldn't speak like that if it was up to us!" without thinking that this was would end up as an actual debate.

It is rather interesting though, the differences between our two vernaculars. I think perhaps a thread should be started to document noted examples, without argument over which is correct or better.
 

Artina89

New member
Oct 27, 2008
3,624
0
0
WhySoElitist said:
devotedsniper said:
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)

WhySoElitist said:
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
I come from Yorkshire and no one I know from that area say "ten while five" we all say "ten to five". So it might be just something your house guest says, or he/she could have spent time somewhere else before coming to visit you.
 

Vykrel

New member
Feb 26, 2009
1,317
0
0
SirBryghtside said:
2.
characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.
i basically meant that one. these people seem to think themselves better than others that use phrases or words that they dont like. you know what i mean? its the word that came to my mind when i read most of these complaints.
 

wangdalfthegay

New member
Sep 30, 2009
13
0
0
Actually, in the UK we DO refer to people of South Asian descent (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) as Asian, which, while technically right (since they are from the asian continent) leads to some confusian when people of East Asian descent are also referred to as Asian. What peeves me off is when people refer to East Asians (Thais, Koreans, Japanese etc.) all as 'Chinese,' or South Asians all as 'Indian.' That just smacks of ignorance and/or laziness.


I prefer the terms 'brown' and 'yellow.' Some would argue they're racist but a lot of S.Asians call themselves brown, and it's only fair if European-descendeds are 'white' and African-descendeds are 'black.'


ALSO: A full stop is what goes at the end of a sentence. A period is when a woman bleeds from her vagina.
 

Andaxay

Thinking with Portals
Jun 4, 2008
513
0
0
As a Brit, I was ashamed by some of that stuff in the article. How are people "disgusted" by some of these terms? Languages adapt and change all the time and it's perfectly acceptable. I don't agree with something like text speak, but I don't mind Americanisms at all. We don't all say "thou hast" and "why art" any more, it's perfectly acceptable to not do that, but American phrases are unacceptable? Silly.
 

fragmaster09

New member
Nov 15, 2010
209
0
0
Nuuu said:
Some of them seem to be a bit over-reactive to small phrases. So what, you said cart instead of trolley once, how is that a reason to be digusted with yourself?
i would find myself disgusted with myself if i said z wrong (saying it like 'bee', but with a z, instead of like 'head' but wiyh a z), so he can be disgusted for saying shopping trolley wrong, i personally hate 'parking lot' when it's a car park, because CARS PARK there, and not always a lot... sometimes very little
 

megamanenm

New member
Apr 7, 2009
487
0
0
Kair said:
megamanenm said:
Kair said:
megamanenm said:
Kair said:
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.
I see your point, but using that rule only we would get sentenced that are paragraphs long if we mention every single detail. Most of the meaning of a sentence is actually left to context, not the words themselves.
 

Fleeker

New member
Jan 24, 2011
82
0
0
The difference is local use or slang of a language....even within the US or any 2 parts of any nation you run into different speech patterns and different pronunciations.

I think the article is weak it is just people being upset that different areas in the world pronounce and use language differently....I know that Mass., NJ, PA, and CA use English differently and I'm betting the same people complaining in the article can find similiar types of differences they are whining about in London and Manchester.

This is just people being mad that people are different from them. Pathetic BBC I thought you had more sense then to promote bigoted views.
 

tsb247

New member
Mar 6, 2009
1,783
0
0
I can agree with some of these, but others are a little ridiculous. Quite a few of these, "Americanisms," are only heard in certain parts of the U.S., or they are only used in certain dialects.
 

fragmaster09

New member
Nov 15, 2010
209
0
0
Kalezian said:
excellent, I now have a list of phrases to use when I troll anyone from England and Europe.


and then soon later, I WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

...THROUGH TROLL SCIENCE!


and/or improper usage of grammar, whichever really...
no... i have troll repellant and English stiff-upper-lip abilities, THOU CANST NOT DEFEATETH ME!!!