Just for fun, American words for thing you love and hate

[CherryCherries]

Mine are, I love "stroller" as opposed to our "pushchair" and "take out the trash" as opposed to our "take the rubbish out."

I don't like "pants" as "trousers" or "pantyhose" as opposed to "tights." Or "fanny" for "bottom".

What are yours?

Not rtft but I like penitentiary for prison although I know the word prison is also used. Likewise correctional facility.

I adore the way in the South, kids refer to adults as Miss plus first name.
So when I met my friend from Houston’s kids for the first time, they referred to me as Miss Julia. I wish that would take off in the UK.
And also in the south, kids will say yes ma’am, not just to elders but generally, especially if being admonished by parents.
There’s so much I love about the South (possibly excluding the conservative Christianity)

@FierceBarrie

Spanish doesn't have a long a in taco

Spanish speakers don’t pronounce it tack-o!

Nor do they pronounce it 'tarco'.

It's a different sound altogether

I hate all Americanisms. They just annoy me so much. I was covering a lesson a few weeks ago where the kids had to write their favourite TV programme down in a different language. One child asked me what "TV programme" meant. I thought she was struggling with the translation. Nope! She didn't know what a programme was. When I explained, she said "Oh, a TV show!". What is wrong with the word programme that we have to replace it?

the spellings
color vs colour
specialize vs specialise

@sanityisamyth

I hate all Americanisms. They just annoy me so much. I was covering a lesson a few weeks ago where the kids had to write their favourite TV programme down in a different language. One child asked me what "TV programme" meant. I thought she was struggling with the translation. Nope! She didn't know what a programme was. When I explained, she said "Oh, a TV show!". What is wrong with the word programme that we have to replace it?

Exactly! A show has magicians, dancers, music etc etc. Panorama and Coronation Street are not "shows"!

Also, what's wrong with the word film? And operations?

i like Y'all, hood for bonnet, trunk for boot (car), Trash is better than rubbish, equally trash can, but i only use it for those really big bins you get outside shops.

i loathe cookies for biscuits, panties, and math.

A family member calls bathing suits "trunks." Swimming trunks is a phrase used in my part of Canada for men's swimming. My Dad called his swim suit trunks.

I think my family member uses trunks for everyone because he grew up in a family of 5 boys and no girls.

@Bitofachinwag

Also, what's wrong with the word film? And operations?

Well, it's not an accurate term anymore is it

@mathanxiety

Las Vegas - the Las sounds more like Los to my ears - a very soft a sound. More like Lahs Vegas. Very odd.

That flat A sound (as in British apple, pasta) is not used in the US as far as I can tell. I'm wracking my brains to come up with any examples and coming up empty.

The flat A is used in Maine in words like father pronounced fah-thuh.

'Wicked smaht' is another common one.

OTOH Chicago is pronounced Chicarrrrrgo up here for some reason.

Basically Mainers reverse how most other people pronounce the letter A.

@behindhereyes

I hate the word yard. In the US your front yard and back yard are what we would call our garden. In the US a garden is used more like a particular area in the yard like the vegetable garden or flower garden that might be within the yard. The word yard makes me think of a work yard or farm yard, not a nice garden.

You won't like 'dooryard' then...

:"46teninone

Bitofachinwag

Also, what's wrong with the word film? And operations?

Well, it's not an accurate term anymore is it"

What isn't accurate anymore? And why?

@Bitofachinwag

:"46teninone

Bitofachinwag

Also, what's wrong with the word film? And operations?

Well, it's not an accurate term anymore is it"

What isn't accurate anymore? And why?

Traditionally, films were recorded onto celluloid film stock through a photochemical process and then shown through a movie projector onto a large screen. Contemporary films are often fully digital through the entire process of production, distribution, and exhibition,

Well, I would call it a film projector .

The word movie is short for moving picture, isn't it?

Just thought of one; they say pasta like parster whereas we say pasta like past-ha (past they way northerners pronounce past.)

I love butter pronounced like budder, just like Ina

I like sidewalk. Say what you see. It’s at the side of the road and you walk on it.

The one I love is 'liquor store'. It sounds so husky and suggestive. Much better than the bewildering British 'off licence'.

I also like 'stroller'. It's just a nice sounding word, and let's be fair, 'buggy' is just plain silly.

I like 'median'. It's so efficient compared to 'central reservation'.

I can't stand the term "to nurse" meaning "to breastfeed" (and even worse the overly cutsie term "nursies"!!!) It seems overly twee and it seems like "we can't possible use the actual name of a female body part to describe a perfectly natural function so we'll come up with an opaque term to describe it." Also "to nurse" as in "to nurse back to health" implies care for someone who is sick or unwell. A breastfeeding child is not unwell - quite the opposite in fact!"

And yet the UK used the term ‘wet nurse’ for centuries.

Now I live in the US I find it really childish that people in the UK use the word nappies, a contraction of napkins. I never thought about it till I moved away but now I cringe a little when I hear it.

The original meaning of the word "nurse" is to suckle/nourish and has long been used in English prior to the American colonies being established, especially in "wet nurse." It's not a euphemism.

The meaning of to care for sick people comes much later.

Cross post with ZZTop on "wet-nurse." Also I agree that there is probably a much greater use of twee diminutives for words in British English than in American English.

I like bathing suit and sneakers and apartment. And The Subway.

I hate nearly all their food words though

Cups, coddling, broiling, Cilantro, scallions, egg plant (wtf).... Also "scarfing down" something (is that the same a scoff?). And Yo-grrt. Weiners as well. Seem to simultaneously be a slang name for a cock, a hot dog and a dachshund??

Oh and the combination of the words "don't" and "got" e.g.
"Oh I think I got it... No wait, I don't got it"

(You may be able to tell I don't actually know many Americans IRL, this is mainly from the telly )