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.

ON accident instead of BY Accident

Oh yes, this is pretty much the only Americanism that I don't like. I use quite a lot of Americanisms so they don't bother me but my colleague says "on accident" and it makes me want to peel my skin off.

The thing is as Wax pointed out may of the things that end up on threads like these are not Americanisms at all and are in daily use in Scotland and Ireland. They are not Americanisms adopted in these places we took them over there along with guising/trick or treating at Halloween and calling him Santa. They never stay lighthearted.

Oh and John McEnroe at Wimbledon trying to persistently rebrand The Quarter Finals as

The Round Of Sixteen

No John, No.

Steppen I regularly confuse people with “fortnight” although my friends here smile atme indulgently much as they do when I say swimming costume rather than bathing suit.

The one we found most difficult on moving here was that Americans don’t use “and” with numbers.

Eg “one hundred four” rather than “one hundred and four”.

The children found it quite difficult as their teachers were very strict about not using the “and”.

Yes I hate the thing with the dropping the "and" it affects years as well and was worse between 2000-2010

ie

Two Thousand One

No.

Where's the AND?

The exact same instead of exactly the same.
Field of play instead of football pitch.

It's the stress on words that I particularly don't like.

MAGazine, CIGarette etc

Ones I hate
my bad
Excited for
Wallah! It’s VOILA! VVVVV

But I think the Americans are amazingly inventive when it comes to cooking up new and succinct expressions. 24/7. Genius.

I've lived in America for more than a decade and have never heard anyone say 'on accident'. According to Wikipedia it's said more in the UK than in the US.

"In the US, on accident is about 1–2% as common, on average, as by accident (COCA). However, usage varies geographically; some regions use on accident much more than others.

In the UK, on accident is about 3% as common as by accident (BNC)."

Barton I still haven’t quite worked out American usage regarding “quarter”.

They talk about “quarters” for 25 cent pieces (obviously quarter dollars) and quarter pounders but fractions are definitely fourths.

In the other hand they talk about “quarts” of milk (quarter US gallon)

The pavement is the road, that tripped me up on my theory test when the question began “You are driving along the pavement and...” I was totally confused, why on earth would I be driving along the pavement?

And I see this 'not in anyway a negative thread' thread has turned into people listing the American phrases they hate.

well, fourths is the preferred American way of saying quarters isn;t it?
So maybe John Macenroe was confused!

And cattercorner which means diagonally opposite in the US. It is now one of my favourite words 🙂

The snobbery on MN about "americanisms" is embarrassing.

I’ve never heard “on accident” either.

Perhaps it’s regional.

I heard it on a US talk show literally the other day.

The other one I find quite amusing is that they think that American Independence is a really sensitive subject for British people and a sore point long remembered of that time we were bested.

This came up a lot in relation to Hamilton

Literally no one cares

The pavement is the road, that tripped me up on my theory test when the question began “You are driving along the pavement and...” I was totally confused, why on earth would I be driving along the pavement?

I had a sudden lightbulb moment when studying for my Texan driving license FV about exactly the same thing. .

It’s about like tap/faucet. It’s not that “Tap” isn’t used, it just has a specific meaning which suffered from U.K. usage.

Trendy it can be, especially when the sneering OP gets it wrong (see any one of a million Halloween threads with Scots and Irish posters frothing at the mouth)

Born and raised

The whole jelly thing was immensely baffling to me as a child. Their jelly was, it seems, jam. Our jelly was their Jello. Most confusing.

Oh, and fanny packs.

Call out, double down, raincheck, touch base, throw shade, ballpark figure, burglarized, home invasion, parking lot, woke, negatively impact and on and excruciatingly on. Can I get? No I'm the barman. I had an accident Thursday. My name's not Thursday, you had an accident on Thursday. And on ha!

is it cattercorner?

I thought it was kittycorner?

Although writing that I think I have it wrong.

The other one I find quite amusing is that they think that American Independence is a really sensitive subject for British people and a sore point long remembered of that time we were bested.

It's funny how things have reversed. Now Americans don't really give much of a shit about British people or what they say/do, while Brits are up in arms about Americanisms taking over their culture and language.

Just like to point out that I’m not here for any American bashing. But it’s true we are two nations divided by a common language.

Would love to hear from some Americans about any of our linguistic quirks that grind their gears but I suspect they don’t get in such a froth about it

Fanny for bum.
"meet with" vs "meet"
Pavement vs road
Trunk vs boot
Elevator vs Lift
Pantyhose vs Tights
Suspenders vs Braces
"to go" vs "take away"