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 also use British vocabulary when in the UK. When I was a student in the UK, I also used British spelling in my essays and exams. But not everyone has the knack of switching easily. And there are British expressions that I use here in the US sometimes because I like them and they make more sense. Bespoke is one that is catching on. Bonkers is another.

This is honestly a non issue in the great scheme of things.

Unless he is doing other stuff to annoy you that is more serious.

Popular culture seeps in whether you like it or not. My daughters say 'Wait....what?' They've definitely got it from the American TV shows they watch.

Take heed OP, before you know it he'll be referring to his fanny

Maybe op should?

I thought that a sharpie was a knife not a felt-tipped pen.

Speaking of taking arugula to a barbecue, if it's not a whole hog slow cooked overnight with wood smoke in a pit in the ground, it's not barbecue. But many Americans not from the South make this mistake as well.

This is honestly a non issue in the great scheme of things.

It's not a big deal but it would irk me I think. Not using American slang, but making a decision to use American words for things when you've spent decades using the British word. It would just seem a bit weird.

Imagine walking into Tesco and asking them where they kept the diapers. Wouldn't you feel like a bit of a prat?

if it's not a whole hog slow cooked overnight with wood smoke in a pit in the ground, it's not barbecue.

Sounds amazing although my standards are much lower. My only non negotiable is that it must be cooked over coals. Gas barbecues are just sad little impostors.

My daughter asked if we could go to the store to buy candy

I had this from one of mine - part of a phase during which he also started referring to the 'sidewalk' and the elevator among other things.

It irritates me massively so I told him that no we couldn't, but we could go to the shop to buy sweets if he promised to start talking properly!

The words candy and store in a sentence have me immediately humming The Leader of the Pack.

Why so threatened by the normal evolution of language?

I agree that gas grills are sad. You might as well just cook the stuff inside.

Eastern North Carolina has the best barbecue in my opinion. The classic sauce there is not sweet; it is mainly vinegar and lots of pepper. It's origin is from early Scottish settlers. Supposedly they were also the first to fry chicken.

Scottish people were the first to fry chicken you say?

Does not surprise me one little bit!

Etymology

"Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper"
—One of the earliest known uses of the word in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.[1]

The Middle English word diaper originally referred to a type of cloth rather than the use thereof; "diaper" was the term for a pattern of repeated, rhombic shapes, and later came to describe a white cotton or linen fabric with this pattern.[2] The first cloth diapers consisted of a specific type of soft tissue sheet, cut into geometric shapes. This type of pattern was called diapering and eventually gave its name to the cloth used to make diapers and then to the diaper itself, which was traced back to 1590s England.[3] This usage stuck in the United States and Canada following the British colonization of North America, but in the United Kingdom the word "nappy" took its place. Most sources believe nappy is a diminutive form of the word napkin, which itself was originally a diminutive.[4]

I hate 'yard' for garden!

Yard means something different in the UK so any Brit using it for garden here is a prat, IMO.

I think I was first irritated by it when I was only about 10, when relatives who'd emigrated to the US sent my younger brother a book about birds for Christmas.
It began (still remember it!) 'Early some morning, look out your window. (Not out OF). Do you see birds in your yard?'

It was about American birds, too, so useless for us - cheapskates had probably had it as a present for their own son and passed it on. And the language was extremely babyish for my brother even then. So I was pissed off (not pissed!) on 3 counts.

An American niece loves some of our expressions - bonkers is one and on her last visit she pounced gleefully on 'up the duff' , or rather oop the doof, as pronounced by her up-north cousins.

I'm a kiwi so speak a mix of both British and American english. It's not my fault it's just the way we speak - colonial roots added to lots of American culture from TV :(

I don't know anyone in real life who says Father Christmas. We say Santa Claus. In fact when I was a child we said Santy Claus. We also said mammy, not mum. It's not an "Americanism". I'm a bit ancient though 😁

A related use of napkin in the US is "sanitary napkin" although now I think the most common term is "pad."

what gets me here though is the association of class with language, let alone accent.

Can never remember if I'm supposed to say loo or toilet, napkin or serviette. Thank god I never eat tea or call my DH 'hun' ;)

Susie Dent has an interesting programme on R 4 (on catch up. Called Americanize, I think). Many 'American' words are arctually British. trash is in Shakespeare, Wow is an old Scottish word.

And 'ize' instead of 'use' is in the OED as it's closer to the Greek origin, or something like that.

I have no problem with American words be becoming part of our everyday vocabulary. we have lots of words from so ,any languages and cultures. Even The word shy is a Viking word (so said the folks in Horrible Histories so it must be true ).

YANBU, Americanisms are bloody irritating.
Some friends and my DD, who have always lived in England, often ask a question by putting the word "right" on the end of a statement e.g." We are going for a meal on Sunday, RIGHT?" Grr, I hate it. Also "my bad" makes me want to kick something.

Just joining the chorus of those fighting against the tide to retain shhh schedule! All my young trainees look at me askance when I ask them not to say "skedule".

"Fatha Christmas" sounds terribly terribly posh to me (born and bred in Scotland), like someone that Nanny would tell you about. Always always Santa where I come from so away with you the person who said "we're British we say Father Christmas". Just not true.

OP, what does your DH say when you tell him that saying "diaper" will make him sound like a fool in the actual real world where your baby will be growing up, rather than the world of You Tube and telly that he currently inhabits?

Just joining the chorus of those fighting against the tide to retain shhh schedule! All my young trainees look at me askance when I ask them not to say "skedule".

And they're right to, as you are being rude. It is a recognised way of pronouncing the word and you can obviously understand what they mean. Picking up on someone's accent or dialect is really not necessary and is a surefire way to make people feel ill at ease in your company.

I agree about not wanting your son to speak this way. Given how hated Trump is amongst most people in the UK, I think it could lead to your son getting nasty comments at school or elsewhere.

Also "my bad" makes me want to kick something.

Your love and pity doth the impression fill,
Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow;
For what care I who calls me well or ill,
So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow?

Shakespeare, Sonnet 112

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