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?

I've been having further thoughts on the "train station" thing. Is it really an Americanism? I question this because I've just been listening to Simon and Garfunkel (American, I think) and their song "Homeward Bound" (1966). It starts:

"I'm sitting in the railway station" (my emphasis)

Curious. Unless it's a development during the last 50 years, which is certainly possible, but since Americans don't use trains much - outside the cities - because their country is so big, I am starting to wonder if the term "train station" actually originated in the UK (where there are a lot of them).

Leonard I grew up 100 yards away from a stopping place for trains on a council estate in Scotland and we always called it the 'train station' (but more usually just the station), we'd have considered 'railway station' in everyday conversation a bit pretentious and snobby. Similarly Father Christmas. He was always Santa or Santa Claus. Was surprised to read on here that these were considered Americanisms.

I have never heard "railway station" used in the US (had forgotten about that song), but I have heard "railroad station."

They probably used railway station as the extra syllable suited the lyric.

Didn't Paul Simon write that song either in or remembering a time in England? He spent some time there, and that is where he had a relationship with "Cathy" who is mentioned in a few of his songs.
May be way he used "railway station".

TheFreaks You are right. Evidently he actually began to write the song in the railway station.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeward_Bound_(song)

Yes, he wrote it in Widnes- there's a plaque on the platform- while living in London and touring the North of England and is on record as saying that the "home" in the song refers to London not New York, so I'm sure it was a conscious anglicism. There is a cover of the song by Bob Dylan in which he sings railROAD station, I remember that jumping out at me the first time I heard it as I was a bit of a Paul Simon nerd as a teenager and knew the original so well.

Yay! I'm a fount of useless knowledge and a must on your pub quiz team (do Americans have those? ).
Sadly though, I have no other talent whatsoever.
I'm surprised we're not all more Americanised with the huge film and TV influence we have. I don't watch much tegular TV, but bingewatch box sets on Netflix.
Recently I've been watching: Bosch, 13 Reasons Why, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, House of Cards, Designated Survivor etc. And nary a Britush series amongst them, I'm ashamed to say.

Not read all the thread but since it was asked on pages 1 & 2, I am Irish born and bred and I say ZEE, it's not an Americanism either, everyone I know does, we were taught that way in school, back in the days of two channels and definitely no American shows

Bathroom, santa and train station are not Americanisms not in Ireland anyway, we have always used them here

do Americans have those?

Yes, we do. Usually called trivia contests rather than quizzes. DH plays with his buddies every Tuesday night and sometimes cheats by texting me secretly under the table.

"Americans have no problem saying briton"
But how do you distinguish between Britain and Briton if they both come out as "bridden"?
There are very few North Americans who don't pronounce t as d if it falls in the middle of a word. If a North American pronounces t as t rather than d, other North Americans honestly believe they're speaking with a British accent. And that's without the almost ubiquitous North American pronunciation of o as ah.
I think you've got your feathers ruffled, Maths, and you're just making things up.

It's usually very clear from context. How do you distinguish between homophones you encounter? Briton is a word rarely used anyway. You are more likely to hear 'we British' or 'the British' than 'Britons" outside of a context of archaeology.

Dp is American - my previously Geordie children now sound American. In a few short months of them meeting it's all candy mom garbage movie and crisps are now chips amongst other things.

Dp was incredibly confused the first time he text asking what we where up to and I said I had taken the Bairn to the park. He replied asking who Bairn was

I'm going with it, to be fair I've even started doing it myself because it's just easier and saves a lot of confusion - chips/fries/crisps probably being the most confusing when we all mean different things.

He calls dd boo boo which she found hilarious at first but now loves as it's their little thing.

He is actually American tho and the kids are picking it up directly so I guess slightly different to having no American connection. Still slightly annoying tho it's like learning a new language at times.

No one I know says "bridden." We don't pronounce the "t" as sharply as most British people would, but it is most definitely not a "dd" sound. It's more like Brit'n. It is true that in most American accents Britain and Briton will be perfect homophones, but not with "bridden."

I can't imagine saying railway station. I'd feel like I'd been transported to a Victorian period drama. I don't think I know anyone who would say railway station.

Do people who use it also refer to their bedchamber?

'Railway station' scans better than bus station or train station for the purposes of the Paul Simon song. It had to be a station he was sitting at because of the following rhyme with 'destination'.

Wrt the British ear and American pronunciation of 'T' - it's not as simple as every T in mid word replaced every time by a D. The average British ear is not attuned to the variations of T pronunciation in the US, not only in different US accents but in individual words within each accent. If an American tried replacing Ts with Ds wholesale in the manner suggested by MN the result would be very strange indeed.

My dd is 6 and watches American videos on YouTube and she is becoming so American it's unreal

I think that children are like sponges and absorb things so fast without realising.

I would find it difficult to understand that with a grown up with zero connection to America.

I'm Canadian and a lot of people here definitely have what my mum would call a lazy "t" (pronounced as "d"). To me it sounds as if many American accents swallow the "t", as in "innernational" instead of "international". I'm Canadian and that's what I hear.

As to the op's dp - it's probably not a conscious affectation. I tend to mimic accents without intending to - apparently it means I'm a sympathetic soul Perhaps the op is just watching too much American media and is picking it up? I doubt it's something the op struggling against is going to be able to change.

Andylion - for years my kids thought the position-holder was called the Left-Handed Governor :D

I didn't know 'lew-tenant' was an Americanism. How else do you pronounce it?
I have a standard mc southeast accent, no difference between Britain and Briton. Don't think I've ever actually said Briton unless singing along to the last night of the Proms Literally just heard American say Briton on tv and it's definitely a t, not d.
My ex-DP used to annoy me by using American English, in fairness he's not from the UK and that's how he learned English, still annoying. He'd say movie for example. I know it's becoming accepted but I don't like it. It's film, or we're going to the cinema. ('Pictures' is old - fashioned though).
Never heard of 'upsy-stairsy' but I just about remember them being called moving stairs, anyone else? Or as my sister used to call them as a small child, 'steppelators'

broken It's meant to be 'lef-ten-ant' but I actually find it almost unbearably pretentious when people actually say that.

Seoul, why do you find it pretentious? Where I live (& where we have an LG as the Queen's representative) my grandparents said lef-tenant and so did my parents and so do I and so do my kids. No-one's doing despite a deep-seated urge to say lew-tenant. We just say it leftenant because that's the way we've learned it (to me being pretentious is at least in part acting against your natural inclinations in order to attempt to impress).

Probably because where I grew up, people saying it WERE saying it to be pretentious.

Quite hard to get that deep-seated feeling out of your head when it's in there.

It's like people saying 'loo'. Yes, I know to some people it is just natural, but it sounds so twee to me.

I live in the Middle East, kids here can develop a wierd American accent despite not being at American school or having any connection to America. We have friends who are Scottish and Irish, their kids sound either very English or American. My daughter uses Americanisms all the time. This morning she asks if she could 'take her sister a shower'. Ahggggggggghhhhhhh. She often doesn't 'wanna do...'something. All said with a very RP accent. Drives me mad! My fault for letting her arch too much YouTube! She will learn..I hope.