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?

Which is why dog biscuits and kibble are the same thing.

They are the same category: dog food, but they are different. Kibble is pellet type food served as the main meal. Biscuits are cookies for dogs (though not sweet) given as treats. At least where I live.

How about Craig rhyming with vague?

With my DH the kids were trying to explain the difference and said he wouldn't pronounce "snail" as "snell". It's the same "ai" sound.

You can imagine how the lockdown hours are just flying by in this house! 😂

@isabellerossignol Are you from NI? Because they sound exactly the same to me to😂

Yank here. No, it's not normal and my kids never talked that way.

Where in the US do they live?

My American nieces and nephews have developed an English accent thanks to Peppa Pig. My kids say trash, sidewalk and pants for trousers thanks to bloody you tube.

Biscuits are kibble in CO where my family are.

What's the British term for sidewalk?

Pavement:)

On a related note, I love the US, but frequently I have to stop listening to some US podcasts as I often find the voices and vocabulary grating. I know it’s bad to admit it

I feel exactly the same way about English accents. Ugh.

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!

I have three American children and none of them would dream of saying OMG.

They do use 'like' far too much. But then so do their English, Scottish and Australian cousins.

I recommend reading “Made in America” if you’re at all interested in the etymology of American English. I work in a customer facing role where I deal with British and American customers everyday, I have become bilingual in my own language, because of the idiosyncrasies of our dialects.

*Which is why dog biscuits and kibble are the same thing.
*
They are the same category: dog food, but they are different. Kibble is pellet type food served as the main meal. Biscuits are cookies for dogs (though not sweet) given as treats. At least where I live.

Exactly. It's the difference between dog food and dog treats. I'm an American, and from the south.

Yeah a colleague from work uses all these Americanlsms, she's in her 30s and from Newcastle. It sounds really affected. She was talking about a pant suit the other day instead of a trouser suit.

*I've noticed that a lot of people don't watch films anymore, it's "movies". And tv programmes are "shows

When someone talks about going to a movie, I think 'when the fuck did you become Richie Cunningham'? Season for British TV series, especially when British TV series tend to be only 6 episodes long and somewhat shorter than a season of the year.

My pet peeve is when people use American sporting metaphors, especially when there's perfectly acceptable British equivalents.

'step up to the plate' - step up to the crease.

'Bowled me a curve ball' - bowled me a googly.

'smashed it out the park - knocked it for six.

I say pants because I'm from Lancashire.
I often tell my youngest to take his pants out of his pants! But he knows what I mean.

I don't say pant suit though! That really is an Americanism.

Pavement

How odd. In the US pavement is a general term for any asphalt surface, like a parking lot or a road.

'Bowled me a curve ball' - bowled me a googly.

No one in the US would say this. It would be either threw or less commonly pitched. There's no bowling in baseball.

@Ifeelinclined - I'm a New Yorker. Nice to meet you.

Bowled me a curve ball'

Sorry meant threw, getting my metaphors mixed up.

Hi @MissConductUS, nice to meet you too!

I don't know anyone of any age who says OMG in speech. People might write it in text messages every now and then but no one says it aloud. Sometimes people might say "oh my gosh", but not the abbreviation. And where I live in the Bible Belt you almost never hear "oh my God."

It's interesting to me that we have the US Post Office in the States, but we call it "mail', and the UK has the Royal Mail but calls it "post".

In NZ we have NZ Post - but we call it "mail". Never thought about it before, but it is strange.

Makes my teeth itch is Canadian.

I’m Canadian and have never heard anyone say this, ever.

I just love a good America bashing thread! It’s not even Halloween, op!

For what it’s worth, my American husband believes British food is shite and can’t understand why Brits have crooked teeth. I guess it goes both ways, eh?

Using “like” every fourth word reminds me of that valley girl speak that was popular a while ago. Horrible.

I live on the west coast. Husband is southern California born and raised. He uses the British terms for everything because he thinks our terms “make more sense”. He practices his best British accent around the house too.

The only thing I actually prefer is the way they use “purchase” a lot more than Brits do. I like “purchase” and have found myself saying it instead of “buy” most of the time. Last time I spoke to my mum she said I said “military” the “American way” (milly-tairy).

I always find it amusing the way British people say “Los Angeles”, sounds something like “Los Angie-lees”.

'OMG' and 'like' are not exclusively American. I've been hearing both in the UK for years - and hate them.

'Gotten' and 'gifting' have crept into our vocabulary from America but, strictly speaking, they are not ungrammatical at all. I don't use them but have to accept their use as they are not wrong.

At the least the habit of going upward when speaking at the end of a sentence, as if there is a question mark, seems to have died down.

My 12yo growing up in the US uses “somewhat” and “at this point” constantly. It makes me want to scream