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?

Asmoto most Americans would be OK with "Tylenol" as that's a brand name everyone uses, like nurofen for ibuprofen here. The drug is called acetaminophen over there.

Cross post.

There is an official EU document that refers to "diapers" in the English version. It was almost enough to make me vote for that Farage chap! Can you imagine the outrage if official EU French documents used Canadian French?

(Not really about the Farage point.)

I always ask for Acetaminophen for Paracetamol.

My daughters Dad is American. The other day she said -I will just get my bag out of the trunk.
I cringed inside.

@DanyellasDonkey. It could be worse. They could be asking for a movie at the end of semester

I'm an American who has lived here for 10 years and have had all my children here with my British husband. The looks I get when we go "home" each summer and I'm trying to coax a reluctant toddler with "please get in the buggy!". The Americans think I'm an idiot American putting it on but my kids know the British-English vocabulary not the American. If I told my toddler to get in the carriage they'd have no idea what I was talking about. My five year old now corrects my Americanisms but he still says "zee" not "zed" so all is not lost. I realize though I've been here too long as I can no longer automatically switch between and have to really think about who I'm talking to and what I'm trying to say!

I'll reach out to you then @MaroonPencil and we can shhh schedule in a movie.

What should you ask for if you want paracetamol? Just in case I ever find myself in that position?

OxyContin.

I hate the way my dh calls trousers "pants" and actual pants/knickers "underpants".

I'm the opposite to you tickityboohoo - Londoner but have lived in the Caribbean for almost a decade.

Everything here is gas station, diaper, sidewalk, trash, candy etc. I say "I've got to get gas" and I used to say "pampers" instead of nappies but don't use candy or trash. Biscuits are cookies in our house, unless you're talking about rich teas, in which case they are most definitely biscuits.

Z is Zee - this is all from the kids really, they have slight American accents on certain words and use far more Americanisms than we do, due to their peers. I also use the word groceries and grocery store instead of supermarket bizarrely.

I think in general conversation, I use words that those around me use and given I'm surrounded by Americans, it's become a habit I think. I don't act like a twat though, nor do I pretend to be American (!)

'The other day she said -I will just get my bag out of the trunk.'

Last year after returning to the UK, I got into the car on the left side, keys in hand. Turned to sling my bag in the back with the kids and DD2 raised her eyebrows and asked, 'Is Dad coming to drive us then?' D'oh.

@expatinscotland. I do that alot too. Although I've never been to America. I just forget that I'm driving

When I was growing up it was all "rack off" and "get of my back"
Aussie soaps were very popular

Born and bred British here and when I was growing up we learnt A,B,C rhyme and finished it with Zee and not Zed cause it rhymed better, yet when I spell my name out (has a Z in it) I say it Zed

Loathe "diapers".

And "buddy".

Also "dude".

Oxycontin is not Paracetamol! Oxycontin's an opoid. 😱

I believe the US equivalent of paracetamol is actually acetaminophen - marketed as Tylenol.

I called DS5 dude the other day and was told "I am not dude, not at all."

Bill Bryson's book, "Mother Tongue" explains that many American words in fact used to be British English but we stopped using them until now, when they have come back - mostly via television.

But apparently some everyday words used in British English actually originated in America. "Commuter" and "Teenager" for example.

I have read quite a few books written by American authors and set in America and some of the language has rubbed off on me, so I find I do use bathroom, movie, mad (for angry) and probably a few others. But I say biscuit, not cookie (although I think cookie has its origin in Dutch) and trousers, not pants. I have recently started to say train station - it actually makes more sense, like bus station - but the ones without a ticket office ( just a machine) are train stops.

I spell realize like I just did, rather than realise. According to the OED realize is more correct although it grudgingly accepts that realise is OK nowadays.

One really odd thing is that I find myself varying pronounciation depending on if I'm reading an American book or a British one. "Shedule/Skedule" being just one example. It just seems to happen automatically. Weird.

Ds1 does this it winds me up no end he has a summer vacation and eats candy and cookies for a long time he believed our currency was $ and he takes out the trash can etc hes born and bred in Bolton

Does his accent unconsciously change when he e.g. talks to an Aussie? If so it's supposed to be due to high empathy.

Huh, I never realised this. My DSis and I have always had this problem. It would drive our DM bananas as we'd always have a different accent or pick up different terms.

My DM once shouted at me for saying "zee". Now I love in Canada she doesn't bat and eyelid that my DDs are picking up "zee" instead of "zed." I'm struggling since I have DH's Scottish, my English and the Canadian all around eight on the border to America ;)

Oxycontin is not Paracetamol! Oxycontin's an opoid.

It was a joke.

My dad gets so irritated if railway stations are referred to as "train stations"-it really irks him

What else would you call it?

Could it be the Irish influence? My DP who's from Ireland uses what I thought were Americanisms but on meeting his elderly mum and 27 (!!) elderly aunts and uncles who all said "pants" for trousers and various other things like "zee" I realised it was Irishisms he was using.

I suppose the Americanisms did have to come from somewhere back in the 18th century when the dialects started to diverge.

Where in Ireland do people say zee? I've genuinely never encountered it.