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?

@Zarkingbell and others

Los Angeles, the city is a Spanish name (Ciudad de Los Angeles or City of the Angels) and my British husband pronounces it like you and it bothers the hell out of me. I'm Mexican American and a spanish language speaker so I expect it to sound like it's meant to be pronounced:

Lohs Ahn-heh-less

It's not hard but if it's too hard to say, LA is better but please don't say "Laws Ann Gel Ees". It's horrible!

I lived in England for nearly nine years and I still have a lot of English expressions that I use and I sometimes have to adopt a sort of English inflection when I say them. My husband has lived in the US for over 15 years and his northern accent is mild but it's still there. I personally don't hear it anymore but it's a HUGE selling point and gets lots of attention from people.

There are place names here that I really try to avoid saying, because I know I am saying them a little bit wrongly but feel ridiculous trying to pronounce them as a person in the US would - New Orleans and Raleigh, as well as Des Moines and Los Angeles come to mind.

Just don't say New Or-LEANS. It's New OR-lins. Quite a few Americans get it wrong too. The only exception is when it's in a song and needed for the rhyme.

I kind of mumble it and hope for the best.

Norlins and Meruland, Nooyawk
Hooston, I would say Hewston

Sorry, Merulun is more like it (imv)

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?*

If I’m looking for something this year which would already be up in the calendar, why would I then look for it again? Birthdays, I would go to the month then the year, I wouldn’t go back to the year they were born.

If I was looking for a specific date as you mentioned for something in the PAST, yes I would do the year than the month.
Btw I know what day I was born, don’t need to go back and check again 😉.

• Birthdays, I would go to the month then the day

I do cringe at Brits, including radio and TV journalists, saying 'Mitch-igan' instead of 'Mish-igan'.

(Similarly Pew-tin for Putin, (poo-tin) just to cast the net of British incompetence more widely).

I have just heard an American speaking talking about the Kennedy Dine-asty from - Merry len.

If I was looking for a specific date as you mentioned for something in the PAST, yes I would do the year than the month.
Btw I know what day I was born, don’t need to go back and check again 😉

Exactly, if you were looking for a date in the past, or indeed the future, you would look for the year first. As I said is logical.
You’re being contrary for a random reason, but you’re proving my point .
I didn’t say a birthday, I said a specific day, for example the day you were born.

Ps calendars are usually used to find a date in the PAST, as well as the FUTURE

You’re being contrary for a random reason, but you’re proving my point

I am not. You are taking it that way.

I agree with you that when looking in the past and future (meaning not in the current year) then yes the year would go first. However if it is something in the current year, I wouldn’t look at the year, I would look for the month because I wouldn’t need to look at the year.

Once you've used MM DD YY for a while it works perfectly well, IME.

If it's what you're used to it's OK, but when we are used to DDMMYYYY we can be really thrown, unless you know the context.

I agree with you that when looking in the past and future (meaning not in the current year) then yes the year would go first. However if it is something in the current year, I wouldn’t look at the year, I would look for the month because I wouldn’t need to look at the year

I said MM DD YY was illogical.
It is.
I’m sure if you’re used to it, it’s perfectly fine, like anything else.

But it’s an illogical order.

But in order to try and say it does make sense, you’ve said if you were looking in a calendar you’d go for the month first, then day.
To which I pointed out, you’d also go for the year first.
Written dates are not only relevant for the year you’re in, you know.
So your argument is also a bit illogical, because you seem to be basing it on only looking for a date in the current year, whereas the year is a pretty important component of a written date I’d think.
Not sure why you seem to think the year in a written date isn’t important..

I mean, I’m not protesting for it to be amended, I don’t actually care, but it’s an illogical order, and your calendar example proves it’s illogical, because in looking for a date you wouldn’t look for a month before a year, and written dates are not reset annually

If it's what you're used to it's OK, but when we are used to DDMMYYYY we can be really thrown, unless you know the context.

Indeed - occasionally I look at a date on Mumsnet and have to consciously stop and think about what it really means. I think I got to that point about 3 years into living in the US.

It annoys me how many (usually southern) English people complain about so-called Americanisms that are normal speech in other parts of the UK.

Halloween is the least of it.

"I do cringe at Brits, including radio and TV journalists, saying 'Mitch-igan' instead of 'Mish-igan'."

I really doubt you have ever heard that, especially on TV. No one thinks it's pronounced like Mitch.

Yes! Grown women saying ‘math’ and ‘salty!

I’m American but haven’t lived there in a long time. My dd loves Full House (the original, like from the 80s). The other day I shouted at her and she said “so rude!!” I nearly strangled her.

Ah the usual MN American bashing threads. There's so much snobbery here over language. And agree with a pp about many parts of the UK using some of these so called Americanisms as part of their usual dialect. My husband says math. He is from NI. It's his dialect. Many people in the midlands/north of England say mom. Language evolves.

I really doubt you have ever heard that, especially on TV. No one thinks it's pronounced like Mitch.

How odd that you should disbelieve me. I hear it quite often. Likewise Pew-tin.

I don't think I've ever heard journalists say Mitchelin Guide - but have heard that in real life. The US however, is not France, so people don't think to soften their pronunciation.

Stoke on Trent used to have the Michelin Tyre Factory - known as The Mitch. Meesh e lan, the French way, sounded a bit pretentious.

Do Americans talk about Stat for statistics, so Math & Stat where we would say Maths & Stats?

Of course, the Mi(t)chelin Man! (Nooo-one ever said 'Meesh-el-an Man').

In real life I've also heard 'nitch' for niche.

The only common and correct 'itch for ich' word I can think of is rich.

Oh and the 'which witch is which' spelling tongue-twister works, because both witches sound the same.

Do Americans talk about Stat for statistics, so Math & Stat where we would say Maths & Stats?

No, we say stats for statistics. No idea why we pluralize it but not math.