Is this anti American

[NotNowPlzz]

I absolutely can't abide some americanisms creeping into everyday speech, particularly...

Takeout
Stay home.. supposed to be stay AT home
Go play... Supposed to be go AND play
And one I use movie, which is meant to be film

Am I being anti American?
YABU for yes
YANBU for no

[ssd]

Blimey. Life's too short op.

[NotNowPlzz]

I'm not losing sleep over it

[Tentatively]

YABU. Language and speech develop and change over time.

[CovidicusRex]

I don’t think they’re americanisms so much as poor grammar.

[dudsville]

Not all Americans speak the same way. If anything, the anti americanism is in making that assumption and then disregarding an entire population based on that assumption.

[mbosnz]

The English language has borrowed from other languages and cultures since time immemorial. Is there any particular reason why 'Americanisms' are so egregious?

(I used diaper instead of nappy - because I knew it drove my mother nuts )

[HirplesWithHaggis]

Yabu saying "movies", everyone knows they're "talkies" these days.

[80sMum]

Interesting. You're right, we tend to use "at" in the phrase, so it would usually be "stay at home" BUT in this particular instance it's a command rather than merely an observation.
The command "Stay home" seems similar to the familiar two-word commands "keep out", "stand back", "wait here" etc. So perhaps it was deemed better to omit the "at" for that reason, ie because it sounds more like a command.

[zingally]

Lock down is clearly opening up a hell of a lot of brain space for some people...


Language and it's usage is a constantly evolving thing. Who cares?

[SharonasCorona]

YANBU only is you add ‘get off off me’ to the list.

[Toilenstripes]

Most Americans don’t realise how disliked they are by the Brits until they move here or start reading Mumsnet. It’s hurtful at first.

[Moondust001]

Trash is actually older English than either rubbish or refuse. Fall was the name of the season in the 16th century, but the English changed it to autumn. Diaper is middle English, nappy is new- fangled. Eyeglasses is the original term, spectacles is newer. Faucet is the word we used to use, not tap. Candy was the original, dating back to the 1300s, sweets is the newcomer....

Don't you just hate it when nations update their language and then think everyone else has got it wrong....???

[RandomLondoner]

I don't see anything wrong with "stay home." Not an Americanism.

english.stackexchange.com/questions/37770/stay-home-vs-stay-at-home

[mindutopia]

I'm American and the only particularly American words or phrases I recognise are 'takeout' and 'movie'. Though I've found lots of British people say movie instead of film. I think it's more class-based than anything. None of the rest of it sounds like anything to me, except like someone said, maybe poor grammar.

[StoorieHoose]

What's your feeling about Halloween and Santa?

Both Americanisms to some Mnetters but actually Scots / Irish

[YgritteSnow]

@mindutopia do you feel disliked by the brits? Do you feel that MN generally openly shows dislike for Americans? Do you find it hurtful? As a pp claims?

[Biancadelrioisback]

This type of thread appears every so often.
It's like when people kick off when someone types "mom" instead of "mum" and instantly there are posts saying "oh are you American?" in an attempt to 'shame' the poster (usually completely ignoring the fact that language across the UK changes and "mom" for example is commonly used in many places here).
Do you think those who use Americanisms are less educated? A bit thick? Too obsessed with TV and/or films? If not, why does it bother you?
Language is dynamic. It changes to reflect our world and society.

[Spied]

My son 10 always uses the word garbage and refers to pounds as dollars.

[Spied]

All men are guys or dudes.

[dreamingbohemian]

Funny how no one ever gets upset about Canadianisms

[Sweetbabycheezits]

If language doesn't evolve, it can become extinct.
I have pretty thick skin, but these threads just make me sad. I'm American, and have lived in the UK for 14 years. My best friends (and my British DH) take the mick out of some of my word choices/accent sometimes, but if they ever thought it actually hurt my feelings, they'd be mortified! I never mind when people are genuinely curious about my accent or the Americanisms I can't shake no matter how long I live here, but threads like these come across as goady, let's talk about how stupid the Americans are. Hope that helps, OP.

[MouthBreathingRage]

Funny how no one ever gets upset about Canadianisms

Funny how no one gets upset about the fact that the whole English language is a bastardisation of German and Latin with a few other languages chucked in for good measure.

[NeutrinoWrangler]

Funny how no one ever gets upset about Canadianisms

Precisely!

I am irritated by many modern phrases and linguistic mannerisms. It started when I was barely a teenager, myself, so it's not a matter of a middle-aged woman looking down her nose at the degenerate youth of today. I'm just grumpy, I suppose.

In any case, I have sympathy for annoyance with other people's choice of word or phrasing-- but it is amusing that in threads of this kind the irritating words are so often deemed "American", as if their supposed place of origin is the root of the problem.

[RibenaMonsoon]

I say takeout. DH is south African and I guess I just picked it up from him. It's not all americanisms.

[Zilla1]

OP - Some Americanisms are innovations or influenced by other languages but in a few cases, Americans use the original English and it's British English which has innovated and is now using the awful neologism. Mindutopia and Sweetbabycheezits might sometimes be better understood by Shakespeare.

I'm not sure movies is any worse than films, flicks, pictures or ....