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.

Hot flashes
This did my head in on the pregnancy apps 🙄

“Welp!” used as an exclamation in exactly the same circumstances where a Brit might just say “Well!”

Have no idea why they use this one

'Through' for 'to' (the course runs Monday through Friday)

The way I see this one is that if, say, a program runs from Monday to Friday, it starts on Monday and ends on Thursday, running just up to Friday. If it runs Monday through Friday, it covers Friday as well.

I'm relieved to hear there are others who always call the big blue wobbly thing 'the sea' even if it's an ocean!

I'm America and I say kitty corner. What I hate over here is they say "pregnant for John", not "pregnant by John"

To me (Brit, FWIW), 'Monday to Friday' also means starting Monday, ending Friday.

I've never heard 'pregnant for', but see 'pregnant to' here all the time and really dislike that.

Also a fortnight is a mystery in America...

Up in the good old north of England, you'd sometimes hear that the course ran "Monday while Friday".

WaxMyrtle I say "Fixin' to" all the time!!!!!

ScreamingValenta my Derbyshire grandmother used to say this!

Is 'fixin to' like 'going to', or 'planning to'?

On a similar sort of note, I like the Irish 'after doing' something (although I'm not quite clear on whether it's a present continuous or a present perfect - i.e. you are doing it or you've (just) done it?)

Quite.
If something is quite good in America, it’s very good in the UK.

I remember being slightly miffed when an American colleague enthusiastically told me my presentation was ‘quite good’

On 'fortnight', my dc are growing up bilingual in Germany, only really hearing English from me on a daily basis, and the term came up in conversation a while ago. My 13yo was astonished that it was an actual word and that the name of the computer game had come from that word. I was more astonished that I'd clearly never used it to the dc before, or never explained it if I had

Happy NEW Year

When did they start saying 'hey'. It sounds like they're shouting. They always used to say 'hi', as did we; then they started saying "hey", and we're bloody copying. Again.

The use of the word Whimsy

I just told my American daughter that British people say aluminium and she laughed so hard she nearly crashed the truck.

I'll try fortnight on her next but maybe after we've stopped driving.

There are some Brit words that are don't have a good American alternative (and vice versa, I'm sure) but now that I know them I use them regardless of whether my friends etc. know what I'm talking about. A prime example is "Manky". One of my favorite words of all time.

I've never heard 'pregnant for',

I've always found it odd Americans say "named for" rather than "named after" ... but apparently it's English too ????

'Named for' is presumably a contraction of 'named for (relative's) sake', which is presumably where we originally get 'namesake' from?

Note values are described differently in America. A minim in UK is a half note in US, and a crotchet is a quarter note etc.

"Thank you"
"You're welcome" and I now say this all the time since visiting the US and can't stop it just comes out automatically ahhhhhh

I love differences in languages. However there is one thing that I CANNOT stand and it’s the teeth-grinding “Off of”.

As in “I bought the chair off of him”.

Can’t bloody stand the phrase, so unnecessary and horrible. It’s creeping into UK language too.