Comprehensive list of Americanisms

[12fromcold]

Some I love, some I hate. Let's try and get them all here! Especially interested in the ones that are only a slight variation from the British counterpart.

Macaroni AND cheese
Hide and GO seek
GotTEN

I'll remember more and come back.

That one puzzled me too, Kescilly. I don't think I've heard 'hide and go seek'.

@mathanxiety it’s entirely possible that the phrase is used in some part of the US, but I’ve never heard it. That’s (one of) the problem(s) with generalizations about Americans. People can be unaware of how much things may different across the country.

I often find comments about Americans depressing anyway. I need to learn to keep moving when I see someone making comments about Americans.

It's hide and go seek here.

One American's never get is goat instead of apartment.

It took my a while to realise 'I'm all set' meant 'no thank you'.

Although I've heard it on TWO British tv shows recently!

Biscuits are savoury scones.

Pasta being called noodles. DH is fully aware that if I ever catch him calling penne or fusilli 'noodles' again I'll rip his throat out with my teeth.

One American's never get is goat instead of apartment.

To be fair, this Brit doesn't get it either ?

I've never heard the term juggernaut used in (Northern) Ireland. I thought a juggernaut was specifically one of those big American style lorries with a bonnet and a huge smoking engine out the front.

Is a juggernaut just a bog standard large lorry?

I really like great job! But you have to say it in an american accent because it just sounds wrong in a british one.

It took me 3 summers at camp but I came round to saying bathroom instead of toilet, but have now settled on the more British I'm nipping to the loo.

I used to struggle with the climbing lingo - in the UK it's a BEElay, and in the states its a buhLAY. Same word, different emphasis. Threw me every single time because I couldnt remember which way round it was supposed to be.

I quite like y'all.

I once asked my boss for a rubber. Oops. Although every American I''ve told that story to has reflected on it and said, well I guess that makes sense, an eraser is made of rubber.

Being a French teacher I'm always fascinated by the way words of French origin differ in American vs British English. The emphasis often seems to be on the last syllable in America and the first in the UK. For example garage and beret.

The poster who mentioned Porsche earlier - I pronounce it like Portia too, but because it's a German name and that's how it's supposed to be pronounced, not because it's an American pronunciation.

I got told off by a Brit for using "blocks" as part of a direction - as in 'that place is three blocks over'. Apparently, that's an Americanism which doesn't work in the UK though the other Brit with us said she'd heard Brits use it and it made perfect sense. I now more often use how many roads over instead.

I wouldn't call them Americanisms but Redneck-American metaphors such as "mad as a hornet in a coke can" (self-explanatory I think for being really pissed off) or "body like a back road" (positive - curvy and fun to explore compared to city/suburb roads that in the US are mainly in a semi-grid pattern, apparently this one is very confusing to use in the UK as people kept thinking it was an insult, that I meant dilapidated and not taken care of, which is awkward as it's also a fun song by Sam Hunt). When I get nostalgic, I watch Sh%t Southern Women Say on youtube with grape soda, food, drinks & fun metaphors are about the only thing I miss.

To add further confusion to 'how many classes in high school' (pretty much all questions to the US systems is that it's complicated and everywhere is different): I went to two high schools. One had four classes a day and we'd switch mid-year so there would 8 total in the year & all of them had exams and the second had 7 classes a day with most classes were all year and most people had at least one study hall and only the main subjects had exams (and some people had extra classes at the technical school or the community college). The other high school my brother went to had the split system DoubleNegativePanda mentioned but divided by weeks - one week A, one week B, repeat - and had specializations like business which changed what you needed to graduate. It's a clusterfuck with very little consistency.

@DGRossetti

One American's never get is goat instead of apartment.
*
To be fair, this Brit doesn't get it either ?**

Oops I meant flat not goat lol!!!

Itsy Bitsy Spider instead of Incy Wincy Spider
Pronouncing vehicle as ve-hickle

When I hear Vee-hickle I am immediately transported back to Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane in the Dukes of Hazzard. What was his Bassett hound called?

It's just normal vehicle where I am. I think that's more of a southern thing.

DS has always said hoooo tayal for 'hotel' and still does. There's a few words he pronounces in a really southern way. It's brilliant.

Always makes people bust up laughing.

I think that's more of a southern thing.

Only some Southerners. I'm a Southerner, and I do not say vee-hickle, nor do most of the people I know.

A rain check is an actual thing. You go to the supermarket and find an item advertised at a certain lower than normal price is sold out. So you go to the customer service desk and ask for a chit allowing you to buy that item at the sale price next time they have it in stock even if it's not on sale. You produce the chit at the checkout and the cashier is supposed to honour it.
The concept started out with outdoor events, I believe.

The term comes originally from baseball. When a game is cancelled or stopped because of rain, a check is given for a future game. Lots of American expressions come from sports, especially baseball

Lots of American expressions come from sports, especially baseball

Lots of English expressions come from sports

Just watching charmed. I love the show but this episode (we're off to see the wizard) REALLY bugs me.

Why?

Coronated!

No! The word is crowned your philistine idiot scriptwriters! I've just googled to check and even American language academics agree so clearly I'm right!

Lots of American expressions come from sports, especially baseball

Lots of English expressions come from sports

And lots of Brits use expressions derived from baseball without really knowing it (or what the terms originally meant), including "rain check" but also "coming out swinging", "stepping up to the plate", "throwing a curve ball", "in a pickle" and "ball park figure"

My addition to the thread is the concept of "midday", which to Brits means "about 12pm", but to Americans means "somewhere between about 12pm and 3pm"

And do UK MNers realise that UK keyboards are set up differently to US keyboards? I'm bilingual now so can use either , but it was a bit of a shock to find out that things like the " and @ are swapped over

'Out of left field'...

Out of left field'..

And "touch base", "way off base", "knock it out of the park", "screwball", "play hardball", "three strikes and you're out", "cover all the bases"...

There must be more I can't just think of right now too!