AIBU to find his Americanisms really annoying

[WonderLime]

My DP is British. He's lived in England his whole life. His father is Irish and mother English. They both speak like respectable Brits.

He doesn't have any American friends. He's only visited America once - with me two years ago.

Despite this, he has a really annoying habit of using odd Americanisms in everyday conversations. For example, we were just talking and using letters in our conversation ("If you do A and B, you'll get X"), and he replied with "or you'll get 'Z'", as in 'Zee'.

I asked him what he'd just said, assuming he'd correct himself, but no he just 'Zee'!

It happened a couple of days ago too. We're having our first baby and were looking at nappies. Throughout the whole shopping trip he kept referring to them as 'diapers'.

I don't have any other active examples at he moment, but I know there has been their incidents. I'm sure it's getting worse the older he gets as I don't remember this when our relationship began 10 years ago. I think it's because he watches a LOT of American TV. Anime with American voiceovers, American dramas, American comedies, American Youtube videos, etc (also annoying but a separate issue).

I Just find the constant use of Americanisms really annoying but he thinks it's fine. I don't want him teaching our son this. AIBU?

Realize, organize, organization, etc make me wince. 'Of off' makes me shudder.

Nigel Farage et al complain about the UK becoming more European but don't seem to care about the Americanisation of the English language.

Realize, organize, organization, etc make me wince.

But these are correct British English spellings, as I and another PP pointed out. Check the OED.

Surprise, however, has an s, as does compromise. It's all in the origins.

'Off of' is a solid Dublinism. Often rendered as 'offa'.
Santa Claus is as Irish as Erin Go Bragh.
At home in Ireland we had a bathroom, not a toilet (though there was a toilet in it). This Irish bathroom of my youth had a bathtub in it.
And our sitting room had a couch, not a sofa.
We had a counter in the kitchen, not a worktop, and my class in school in the 70s/80s was about 50-50 divided between vayse and vase.

They speak with, we speak to.
They also speak to, but they mean 'address a topic'.
Our bathrooms contain a bath, theirs don't.
Puzzled because my American bathrooms have always contained baths, and as mentioned, my Irish bathroom was a bathroom, not a toilet.
Do they still say bangs for fringes and braids for plaits?
Yes. And no sign of that changing any time soon.
We have sea and they have ocean.
Yes, the Americans have oceans, namely the Atlantic and the Pacific. There is no need for Americans to refer to 'seas' at all unless they go abroad and encounter one.
Our garden, their backyard.
An American garden is a place where veggies or sometimes flowers are grown. You could have a garden within your backyard.
Etc etc. That's ok, use Americanisms over there, just don't use them here or you'll get laughed at.
Is the laughter the result of rudeness or insecurity?

At any rate, I'm more concerned that our child will pick up on his odd northern pronunciations ('baath instead of 'barth')
If you are serious, then that is horrible.
Is there any aspect of your DH's speech that meets with your approval? I hope I am wrong, but if I were your DH and felt my speech was coming under such scrutiny and being found so problematic, I might consider not saying much to you, just for a little peace. There is such a thing as being egregiously over-critical, and it is a relationship killer.

Isn't "brit" an Americanism? With American vowel pronunciation it's too hard for an American to say "briton".
No, I believe that came from 70s and 80s Ireland, short for British troops and British governments, for e.g. the slogan 'Brits out, peace in'. It was never a term used to express affection. It morphed into something a bit less negative as time went on and once it left its native land.
Americans have no problem saying 'Briton'.

mathanxiety

Oh for goodness sake, of course I'm not serious. Don't be so ridiculous. I made this post as a bit of a joke because I was bemused. I thought it was fairly clear I was joking about the northern pronunciations!

We asked a member of staff where there nearest cash machine was at an airport on the states. They had no idea what we were talking about.

Now you'd think working in an airport you would pick up some common words! Apart from that I can't really think of any other misunderstandings from my visits to the US (apart from who the hell thought candyfloss flavoured grapes would be a good idea).

ferberize the baby

WTF is that? Sounds scary...

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1418120488209365&id=1204929289528487

Ignore the 1st link. You might like the second one though

I used to work in the Courts, I'll never forget the sniggering when a witness stuck "So help me God" at the end of the oath.

Some Americanisms are sensible, my future DIL comes from Texas and asked me why I called the place on the front door the "letterbox" as it is not a box??
She told me that in the US it is called the "mail slot", we now all call it the "mailslot" with a Texan accent of course

HAHAHA~~i don't know the word nappy until i get to this website, and before that I only know diaper/napkin through google translation. I'm afraid the Americanism has been spread all over the world through internet, media, social app and so on. and maybe it's time for GreatBritain to be great again to carry forward its culture, of course British English.

These Americanisms are just pants!

I had a boyfriend from Arizona years ago and he used to say 'burglarized' instead of 'burgled', always made me laugh! Why make the word longer unnecessarily?!

Thanks for mentioning 'mailslot' HazelBite, had never heard it before, I like it!

As an American living in the UK with English DH and English DCs, I feel very qualified to comment.

I can understand your irritation OP - your DP is trying to sound like something he isn't. Maybe "what he is" is something you thought you had in common and now he seems to be rejecting that, so you may feel on some level he is rejecting you?

The irritation goes both ways, believe me: in the US people get just as wound up (which yes, is a term not used in the US as it is here!) when Americans use "British" expressions and don't have a "reason", like a British parent or upbringing. When my brothers hear me using British expressions they stick out their pinkies and call me "pretentious". People assume if you use British expressions you must watch too much "Masterpiece Theatre". Although why they think "flat", a one-syllable word, is more "pretentious" than "apartment", a three-syllable word, is anyone's guess.

That said, there is one British irritation that completely baffles me: I have never understood why the word "gotten" is SOOOOOO controversial, when I've heard plenty of British people say "eaten", "beaten" - it's just a past participle of "get".

Some random observations from reading the thread:

Brits are quite right to be bemused at the American use of the word "bathroom" - I never realised how bizarre the sentence "the dog just went to the bathroom on the floor" was till I came here.

To the PP in the Deep South who said her use of the word "cross" is not the same as it would be there - I have a lot of relations from the Deep South and I very distinctly remember my grandmother and a cousin using the word "cross" exactly as you would.

Brits are also completely right to be irritated by "off of" but not because it's an Americanism - it's just plain wrong.

"Ferberizing" a baby means sleep training by using controlled crying - "cry it out". It was started by Dr Richard Ferber. There is a sleep training method started by a person whose name I don't think we are allowed to mention on MN and she used a lot of Ferber's methods.

I use Anericanisms all the time: bathroom, train station (didn't even realise that was one!), cookie (that's what it says on the bag though), can I get, etc etc

But I will never tolerate "entree" for main meal. That's my sticking point.

mommy I like gotten! It is, as you said, the past particle of get, formed in the same way as eaten, beaten, forgotten, hidden, forbidden, etc. It is a very old formation that predates modern America, it didn't evolve there. It fell out of use in Britain, though it used to be widely used here.

I think it sounds better and less clumsy than 'got' in the right context i.e. to have obtained, achieved or become something (I'd gotten better by then, he's gotten some beer for us etc.)

I hate hearing the criticism of American English variations as if they are wrong and Americans are incapable of using 'our' language. They have their own form, which has evolved separately to ours.

I know a woman who says "Did you get an owie?" to her son when he hurts himself.

Or "Oh did you get a boo-boo!?:

So annoying. She's from Cheshire!

"Ferberizing" a baby means sleep training by using controlled crying

I read that as Febrezing!

Freaks, is "forgotten" permitted in the UK? If yes, that makes the distaste for "gotten" even more irrational.

There are loads more since I first read this that I had never realised were americanisms because they are perfectly normal speech in Scotland and as others have said Ireland.
I have never referred to it as a railway station for one. It's always been train station and train tracks. Off of probably isn't entirely correct but is something I would say as well as the often mocked by Billy Connolly 'come on get off' which I have heard myself say to the dc and snigger.

It's not hugely important but still a little irritating when these threads pop up and everyone is saying but in Britain we don't do/say that when in certain parts of Britain we really do. It's right up there with Americans going on about a British accent as if he are all just some homogeneous mass.

Yes it is, mommy, it's not just permitted, it's the usual, correct form. Yes, the distaste for 'gotten' is weird.

LottieandMia - yes indeed 'reach out' is a bloody annoying everyday term. Instead of having some kind of meaning like reaching out to get something it is now used instead of 'thank you for contacting us'.

I sent a message to Etsy regarding using the site, and received a gushing response that began 'Thank you for reaching out...' which seemed so pathetically OTT that I never did sign up. I suspects lots of 'Huns' would have followed.

My kids have American accents. I hate it. Its all the YouTube etc they watch.

I say 'the flicks' for the cinema. But, oddly, occasionally I do slip and say 'movies'. I like to think that I do the latter knowingly, but now I'm not sure...

I have a friend the same age as me (40ish) who worked in the US for a bit when we were at uni. She STILL uses some US-isms from that time –PBJ, bathroom for loo,candy...

My DP says 'Can I get a...' in cafes etc and it makes me want to wallop him round the head with my (imaginary) Nora Batty handbag.

I also loathe 'my bad'.