DH using American words... AIBU?

[Sleeplesss]

I met my DH 10 years ago and we have a really good relationship. One thing, though, that has always bugged me a little is that he uses some American words. Think along the lines of calling a lift and elevator or calling a mobile phone a cell phone. I have never made an issue of this but normally correct him in a jokey way rather than make a fuss of it. Tonight he said cell phone and I did the jokingly correcting him thing and he has got really upset with me. Saying I'm making him feel stupid. Obviously that is not what I'm trying to do but at the same time, it really really grates in me. I explained to him, in the nicest possible way, that if it were me, I'd rather be corrected as it's a habit I'd want to break. He's been to America once and doesn't have any American friends/family so it obviously must come from watching American tv. When I suggested that to him, he said that I don't know that for certain. Yes I do, where else could it possibly come from?

So I'm just wondering, is it wrong of me to want him to break this habit? AIBU?

@Strokethefurrywall

Ahhh but does your scottish husband “go for the messages”? 🤣🤣

This thread has gotten like totally awesome.period!

Ah, but twot is how the placename/surname is pronounced in N Scotland (not purely American)

Still, sounds silly. Especially when said by Jason Statham in his latest high brow thespian outing.

I’ll give you that ;)

@tartantrewsweddingblues - he did for a while but I grew up in London and my parents are forrin' folk so I had no fucking clue what he was talking about. He says groceries now too, make life easy

Another one was when he talked about babies "greetin'", a word which is like nails down a blackboard for me.

And ending every question with "do ya ken?" - No, I don't know ken

Controlling? Condescending? The OP is being neither of these things. Her DP is NOT American, he has been to America ONCE. It would be understandable if he spent lots of time travelling to America for work or if he had lived there for an extended period of time, but he hasn't. So there is no reason for him to say 'cell phone' or 'sidewalk' or 'Fall' or 'jello'. Fucking hell, it's annoying me and I don't have to live with him!

Y'all just need to stop watching our TV and movies and such. That'll fix it.

Personally I couldn't care less about cell phone etc but I draw the line at having to spell sulphur as sulfur to make it easier for idiots.

You like potato and I like potahto
You like tomato and I like tomahto
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto
Let's call the whole thing off

True, Seneca, but our light entertainment is awful at the moment. Same for kids tv too (which is why our kids say elevator/mommy/diaper/candy etc. Although, that could be their autism too. I’ve noticed a lot of autistic kids have an American twang. I’m just happy they can talk :) )

3out Ours has its shortcomings, too, which is why I have BritBox, a streaming service available in North America, for British TV content.

Controlling? Condescending? The OP is being neither of these things... So there is no reason for him to say 'cell phone' or 'sidewalk' or 'Fall' or 'jello'
Hes a grown man and as long as he is polite and people can understand him, an use whatever words he likes. He's been doing it since they got together. She could have just not had a second date. If someone hasa harmless habit but it pisses you off and makes you want to force them to change just don't be in a relationship with them!!

Wow. I accept it’s maybe a bit surprising when I say “trash can” instead of “litter bin” but it’s genuinely mind boggling to me that there’s anyone under the age of fifty who’s bothered by me saying “can I get a coffee” or “let’s watch a movie”.

Why? What is it about being English or British or whatever that you’re worried will be lost? You know people used to say “how do you do” instead of “hello” or (gasp) “hi”. Should we all go back to doing that too? When is proper English supposed to have hardened off and no longer be changeable?

Why is it so annoying? If some I knew from the U.S. spoke with British slang I could care less.

I'm with you op, it's also my pet peeve. My husband used to use American words for things, I didn't correct him, I just ignored him. He wrote bell peppers on the shopping list and I didn't buy any! The worst part was he tried to teach the kids to use American words, so I used the British words (we are Australian), he didn't like that so he stopped.

I thought a swede and turnip was too different things? Swede was more yellow/orange with a purplish skin and turnip smaller and whiter with a purplish skin??!!🤦‍♀️ Someone please tell me what I thought a turnip was then.........

"He wrote bell peppers on the shopping list and I didn't buy any!"
If you knew what he meant, that's just pretty.

Swedes and turnips are indeed different.

Rutabagas/swedes/neeps are yellow fleshed and are tender even when large. Turnips have white/purple skin and can really only be eaten when relatively small as they get very fibrous.

The word rutabaga comes from the Swedish 'rottebagge'.
So y'all are complaining about a Swedishism.

Kebob is spelled exactly like that in the US too. Not kebab. So the US pronunciation is perfectly fine given its spelling there.

A kebab (or kebob) isn't an English dish anyway. It's a bit silly to complain about some other English-speaking country's pronunciation that British-English speakers have probably altered from its original.

No I get where u r coming from. I know someone who says elevator and it drives me insane!! We r not in America so I correct them everytime x

And oh, the irony...

I suspect that many of your highly educated American friends would be somewhat nonplussed if their children suddenly started talking in a home countries accent, having never lived in the UK, or adopted a British vocabulary.

Americans might be nonplussed, but not because they thought their children (or friends, spouses, family members, etc) were being 'pretentious'. Pretentiousness seems to be a particularly egregious NO NO for the English.

I'd giggle if I heard a grown man using American words like cell and elevator and think they'd been watching too much American teenage TV

Why only 'American teenage TV'?

Plenty of entertainment aimed at an adult audience crosses the pond from the US. Ever heard of Breaking Bad?

And American adults use terms like cellphone, movie, candy, trunk, hood, zucchini, cilantro, and so on.

The same would be true if someone from Wisconsin decided to adopts a cockney accent and slang having never lived in the east end of London.

Surely you can understand that?

I doubt if the people of Wisconsin would be too bothered by anyone's opinion of whether they were 'affected'.

Trick question: what if the people from Wisconsin adopted a Cornish accent and started serving pasties for dinner?

I live in South Wales and am welsh speaking, my children have always lived here and also are welsh speaking. Their dad is from a part of England they’ve never been too and all 4 children say certain words with a very obvious accent.
Who fucking cares?
If the OPs husband chooses to use those words that’s entirely up to him, they are perfectly valid variations and the OP isn’t his parent and has no right to correct him however much it annoys her.