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.

I work in A shop and yesterday I served a young man who said can I grab a 20 deck of smokes! I wanted to say no unless you ask for them normally!

Took a while before I realised they meant 'articulated lorries'.

Tractor-trailer confuses Americans sometimes, too. I remember my 5th grade teacher telling our class full of farm kids about the Latin etymology of "tractor" as something that pulls, and that it doesn't have to be a plow.

Whilst in a local shop I heard an older group of American ladies ask if there was a local tannery. The girl behind the till directed them towards the local spray tanning place 😂
Then another member of their group asked them if they had any pictures. They were standing in front of a wall and table full of framed paintings and mounted prints. The girl serving looked at them very politely and you could see her thinking ‘there’s dozens of them, right in front of you’. After lots of repeating of the word ‘picture’, they then said ‘water picture’. Half of the prints on display were of the sea. Eventually, someone said ‘oh! Pitcher! You want a jug’ to which the sales girl had to say ‘sorry, we don’t sell those’ 😂 Sometimes we are very much divided by our common language (and generations)

"Salty" seems to be used much more in the UK than before

"Squiffy" is an odd one - it's got a few different meanings (bit odd, drunk, annoyed....) and tends to be a middle or upper class word. (I think - in my experience, anyway)

An expression that I find bemusing is being 'frustrated'.

It seems to be a real catch-all for a lot of different negative emotions: hurt, angry, sad, etc.

When I was on North Carolina, an American thought it very funny and British that I said 'half past 8' instead of 8.30. Never occurred to me before that this wasn't universal.

doesn't have to be a plow

er, you mean plough ...

an American thought it very funny and British that I said 'half past 8' instead of 8.30. Never occurred to me before that this wasn't universal

And in various bits of continental Europe, "half 8" would mean 7.30

Yes I remember that when staying in the Netherlands, their equivalent words for 'half past eight' meant 7.30. Very confusing! I suppose it was more like 'half TO' rather than half past, whereas we don't frame it that way.

So I have finally learned on here that 'quarter of' and 'quarter after' are the American equivalents of quarter to and quarter past. Is there really no equivalent term to 'half past'.? So you'd always just use 'eight thirty'? Or did there used to be such a term in the past?

I suppose it's not that surprising though, as there's no equivalent term for 'fortnight' for example.

@Pemba Americans would use “half past eight,” just not “half eight.”

Half past eight is used by some Americans, and I think would be understood by most, but eight thirty is much more common.

When I say half past people don't understand. Let alone half eight.

I hate SCKEDULE and DEEPOT (schedule and depot) also "can I get?" Not "please could I have?" If I worked in a cafe and someone said "can I get?" I'd be tempted to say "yes you can, it's all in the kitchen" as it implies they're going to make/get it themselves. Also "how are you?" "I'm good".....good at WHAT exactly? Grrrrrr it really annoys me!

If I worked in a cafe and someone said "can I get?" I'd be tempted to say "yes you can, it's all in the kitchen" as it implies they're going to make/get it themselves.

It really doesn't. "Can I get" is grammatically correct when asking for something. The only thing that one can quibble with grammatically in "can I get" is the use of "can" rather than "may" (A distinction that is fast dying out, in both British and American English, by the way.) The definition of "get" is "to come to have or hold (something); receive". So "can I get" is as correct as "can I have." "Get" does not have some sort of built-in reflexive as so many posters on MN seem to think.

The only thing that one can quibble with grammatically in "can I get" is the use of "can" rather than "may" (A distinction that is fast dying out, in both British and American English, by the way.)

Which is a shame as "can" and "may" are not synonyms. Even with all the words it has, "English" still sometimes has to borrow from other tongues. Something it does with effortless ease

As James Nicoll put it:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

'Can I get' is ambiguous; 'may I have' isn't, and therefore is surely preferable. Why use the former when the latter takes no longer to say?

But 'Can I get' isn't really ambiguous, is it? We all know what is meant by it. We just enjoy disingenuously claiming not to understand it, in order to express our disdain in a passive aggressive kind of way. Same with people who claim not to be abke to understand MN posts without paragraphs or with grammatical mistakes. I'm sure you could concoct a scenario where 'Can I get' would be ambiguous, but in reality it hardly ever would be.

'Can I get' is ambiguous;

is it ?

'may I have' isn't

Isn't it ?

and therefore is surely preferable. Why use the former when the latter takes no longer to say?

because they aren't synonyms ... "may" to my ears (and in my education) is a question relating to permission rather than possibility. Successive years of bad examples, usage and education might have eroded the distinction, but only to make conversation a bit less fluid.

That said, ultimately definition is decided by usage (thank goodness). Last thing we need is an Acadamie Anglais to argue over, as well as Brexit

Hm... perhaps when ordering food or drink, 'can I have' should be used rather than 'may I have' in places where they're likely to run out of your desired dish?

I thought "can I get ?" was more the US way ?

Can I get is very normal where I live, I don't think it's an Americanism. 'May I have...' is something I don't really hear and it's a phrase that feels unnatural to me. I associate it with books I read at primary school, along with 'Father Christmas', and 'little' instead of 'wee'.

By 'unnatural' I don't mean it's wrong, I mean it's unnatural to my speech pattern.

I always smile when I hear anything being ...izationonised in US English. George Bush used to do it a lot - is it a Southern/Texan thing I wonder?

This grumpy brit is rather less keen on "it's gone tits up" and "stop fannying about" as examples of English English idiom.

This grumpy brit is rather less keen on "it's gone tits up" and "stop fannying about" as examples of English English idiom.

Belly up ?