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?

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.

If the anti-Americanism I see here on MN is any indicator it's nowhere near equivalent. I can't think of a single person I know or have worked with who dislikes or looks down on the Brits. Quite the opposite really.

Teal garden. What are you talking about?

We're not miscalling our gardens at all

Just because you call something a yard doesn't make people in the UK wrong

I'm very happy for Americans to speak how they will except off of but I don't want us speaking like them, that's all.

Were British, they're American. I want to keep it that way.

I may give in though. I'm horrified to realise I have adopted the term 'sourced', a term I vociferously loathed back in the day.

Who really gives a shit as long as you can communicate?

Hack, not it’s not a hack its a tip, shortcut. I hack on a horse FFS

The only one which I really dislike is DH and I being referred to as, “You guys.” Don’t know why - probably just an age thing.

However, I can easily find a British trait which I hate far more. Using the word, “Of” instead of “Have”. Makes no sense whatsoever.

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.

I've lived in the US for over 13 years and still have an English accent. Which is annoying, as I find English accents quite grating to the ear.

Speaking of linguistic influences from Scotland on American English, the term "high school" that is used almost universally in the US for secondary school came directly from Scotland. The first school to call itself a high school was (and is) the Royal High School in Edinburgh. An early school in the US was modeled on the Royal High School and the name spread.

MMDDYY I mean, what the fuck is that all about?!? It’s all over the place and it offends my eyes.

So when you are looking on a calendar for the date, do you look for the day first or the month?

So when you are looking on a calendar for the date, do you look for the day first or the month?

Well, the year first, then the month, then the day.
Which as I said, I’d my preferred order written down as 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?

😂
Communicate.

If only everyone could communism as well as me 😂😂

*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 any Brits who have lost their accents living there! Although they use elevator vs lift and similar. That's what I would consider code switching, and it's what I do here as well. Like, I am trying to adapt--but losing my accent wouldn't be natural and I think people would be very weirded out by it! Like Amanda Buffamontizi

• So when you are looking on a calendar for the date, do you look for the day first or the month?

Well, the year first, then the month, then the day.
Which as I said, I’d my preferred order written down as well*

So why is it strange for it to be the month then the day? Or were you joking?

I love the diffent use of "momentarily"

US - IN a moment
UK - FOR a moment

We were once flying out of New York on an American airline, and the pilot announced that we would be in the air "momentarily" 😂

The person I was talking about was a schoolgirl. You are more sensitive to peer pressure at that age. An adult probably wouldn't change their accent deliberately, but might well pick up some of the intonation unconsciously.

When I look at a calendar, having turned to the correct month, I then look for the week and then the date within the week.

I think people would be very weirded out by it!

Or they would find it most odd!

I don't know any Brits who have lost their accents living there!

Hell, no - it's my greatest selling point and had got me further than I deserve! (Agree with whoever complained of "off of" - truly vile, but I think it has polluted both UK and US English, hasn't it?)

So why is it strange for it to be the month then the day? Or were you joking?

Are you serious?
I said it makes no sense to do month day year. It’s illogical. It should be in ascending or descending order.

If I would look for a specific day in a calendar. Ie a date of birth, I would look for year, then month, then date. So the increments of time are in descending order, biggest to smallest.
Writing as DD MM YY or YY MM DD is logical.

MM DD YY is not, the increments are not in a logical order.
Your calendar example doesn’t prove your point, it proves mine. If you wanted to look for what day you were born on, would you look for the year first, or the month?

I love the differences between the many varieties of spoken English. I can frequently be bewildered by them though!

Earlier on someone said British people said Los Angeles wrongly as "Los Angie-lees". How are we meant to say it please?

I know my attempts at Maryland and New Orleans are laughable but I didn't know I had LA wrong. Maybe I should stick to LA ...

I am frequently frustrated by any native speaker of English assuming their native version is the right one and everyone else is wrong. There are very few differences in grammar between British and American English. I don't know enough about other countries such as Canada and New Zealand.

I've lived and worked in a number of countries over my life and I've found that many highly educated Europeans take pride in knowing when to use American and when to use British. The Northern Europeans certainly seemed to share the British approach to swearing . Personally I learned quite a lot of American terms through watching films with subtitles in other languages I knew. Some of my areas of ignorance were very very funny.

I don't like vocal fry though, or that awful YouTube voice. My teens watch loads of stuff and it's pretty obvious that you can be a cool American/British/Scandi YouTuber and not sound like a twat. Quite why so many adopt fake idiocy I feel I'm too old to understand .

Los AN-juh-lus or something similar. Emphasis is on the AN. No lee that rhymes with me sound.

@TealWater
That is one of the things that annoy me about the UK on here. It is a yard, not a garden. A garden, to me, is a rockery bed with flowers. Whenever someone says they are standing in their garden, I immediately picture them standing right in the middle/on of daisies and other planted flowers. I wish people on here would get out of that habit and use proper terminology. It is back yard or front yard. Not 'garden'. You can have a garden in a back yard. You can't have a back yard 'in' a garden. Lawn, is not actually a garden. A garden is planted flowers in groups. You wouldn't play in a garden, would you? You'd be standing/destroying flowers. Some people just have a couple of tall trees, a shed and swings/trampoline in their back yard, and no actual flowers. So it cannot, logically, be called a garden. It is not a garden. It is a yard
Just do one.

I'm always amused that Calais in Maine is pronounced Callus, considering how many people there are French speakers.

We're not bashing Americans/American culture here I hope?

It's certainly not my intention to do that.

I simply don't want Americanisms in British culture. Very happy for Americanisms to thrive in America! But not here please.

Jena in Germany is Yayna, but a town with the same name in the US is G-na.

Or there is Dez Moynes instead of Day Mwan.