Americanisms

[SecretsInSpitalfield]

I have family in the US. I love going there. Since lockdown my DS’s (9 and 11) have said ‘OMG’ and ‘like’ about a thousand times a day!

Do our lovely cousins across the pond have this with their DC? Is it normal?

Car yard is a place where second hand cars are sold.

In the US, that would be a used car lot.

On the "girlfriend" as friend or as intimate partner, I think increasingly lesbians would say "partner" in the US, not "girlfriend." In fact, "partner" in the US is increasingly used for an intimate partner in straight relationships as well (at one time it had a connotation of a gay relationship).

These are back yards, in British terms.

One British English term that has increasing currency in the US is "bespoke." The usual term would be "custom" or "customized" but many people are recognizing that "bespoke" is less cumbersome and more precise.

I was delighted when I moved from a terraced house with only a yard, to a suburban house with a small garden.

lottie your posted photo reminds me of when I first lived in Scotland, and a friend said that his parents lived in a tenement flat. I knew that his father was a lawyer, so I was a bit shocked. "Tenement" in the US nearly always has a connotation of slum housing, mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

My brothers wife is American and they live in America. They have a three year old daughter. When they were visiting us last summer she asked for some chips with her sandwich. My Dd looked confused until I said she means crisps! We also said yo gurt in our house for yogurt for ages afterwards.

Apparently that photo is from Islington, London in the 1960s but yes, the height of the buildings suggests tenements, doesn't it.

On bespoke and customized, I think you customize i.e. adapt, something that already exists, whereas something bespoke is made specifically for you. Though you can get things 'custom made' can't you. But basically, I think bespoke sound smore upmarket and personal. More likely to be hand made by a craftsperson, than being custom made in a factory.

So I wonder if people are using 'bespoke' to try to make things sound more fancy. A bit like the rather wanky trend here for people here (or maybe it's only journalists) to say they 'sourced' ingredients, rather than 'bought them from a shop'. As if they'd personally travelled the world in search of the perfect bunch of chives, or whatever.

Or "curated?" WTF is that anyway?

"Sourced" comes from computing - Unix in particular. So you sourced your code from somewhere i.e. found an example that someone else had written and cut and paste it into your own.

But as for sourced for your shopping, yes, it's pretentious, and "curated" - well it deserves a place in Pseuds Corner of Private Eye.

I"m Irish, one night in a pub in New York we were talking to locals. My friend and I were talking about having good craic ...they thought we were talking bought crack. Very awkward.

Interesting about the pronunciation of "craic" relative to the Craig/Creg debate upthread. I know I read somewhere that the standard US pronunciation (Creg) is related to Gaelic (specifically Scots Gaelic) somehow, but I can't find anything to support that. I should have saved the source.

'Curated' yes, exactly!

Sourced is a perfectly good word in many contexts, including culinary ones; when perhaps you've been to a number of markets, tasted every specialist olive oil, talked to the producers, then ordered a case of the particular type and vintage that perfectly complements your signature salad (at your michelin-starred restaurant).

My kids have grown up in America. They very rarely say OMG or 'like', unless pretending to be annoying teenagers from a tv show. Mostly I hear things like 'he's just vibing', 'yeet' and other meme talk like describing a cat as a 'hecking chonk'.

something understandable but American (like takeout instead of takeaway)*

@francienolan
I was delighted to find out American's use takeout, as a westcoast Scot that was a word I had always used. English DH is noticing that the USA uses a fair number of Words also used in Scotland.

Sorry for the rouge apostrophe!

American corporation as an employer here. I'm still taken aback at the standard out of office response of "[...] in case of emergency you may reach me at [personal phone]".

"Reach at" is just ghastly! It's on! I can't help myself.

Also, and this may be cultural rather than linguistic, "you may" in my mind also implies "but also, you may not. And that might be because I can't be arsed to pick up".

@midwesteaster there are lots of things shared between the US and Scotland it seems!

Nor do I believe that American's don't occasionally do the same to British people who use expressions which they can understand, but don't use themselves.
The difference is that Americans don't dislike/look down on the British. I've mentioned before that all my friends and family and people we run into in the states find my husband's accent delightful. He has never had an issue there with people "not understanding" him. I'm very jealous

I wonder what it would be like if your husband lived there permanently francienolan? It put me in mind of someone at school who went to live there, and came back with a strong American accent. She said a British accent was novel at first, but then to be accepted she had to adopt an American one. Now whether she was a one off, I don't know.

There is an expression for it for e.g people who talk one way at home and another outside - code switching.

I don’t know why people get worked up about things like this. They’re only words, as long as people can communism what’s the harm? However, the one Americanism that really does annoy me, because it’s so stupid an illogical, is their date format.
MMDDYY I mean, what the fuck is that all about?!? It’s all over the place and it offends my eyes.

DDMMYY, in ascending order, is so much more logical, and linear.

Although my personal favourite is YYMMDD then when you add in HHMMSS it’s always in order! Genius.

The difference is that Americans don't dislike/look down on the British

Some do. Some will mock the expressions, and look at you with derision.
Just for saying lift. There’s dickheads all over the world

MMDDYY I mean, what the fuck is that all about?!?

For us, this can be a real problem for numbers up to 12. So is 8/4/20 August, or is it, as I intended today?

What happens to my classic English accented DH and DC living in the USA is that they constantly get told by people they love their accents.
DH who is unused to his accent being commented on finds this a little trying at times.
As a Scot with a softish accent ( I lived in England for several decades) I get told I speak English very well. When explaining I come from Scotland I have been asked if I learned English on arrival in the USA. I have also been offered maps in other languages much to my families amusement.
But I am understood perfectly well.

I don’t know why people get worked up about things like this. They’re only words, as long as people can communism what’s the harm?

eh?