To ask if do (or will) miss British English?

[daimbarsatemydogsbone]

License plate - Number plate
Driver's license - Driving licence
Windshield - Windscreen
Envision - Envisage
Bring (instead of take)

So much British English is being replaced with the US versions.

UK courtroom dramas now feature lawyers shouting "objection!" and judges saying "sustained" - something that never actually happens in UK courts but the writers have all grown up watching US dramas and films.

I know it's inevitable but I celebrated the little differences - they seem to become fewer and fewer each year.

Teachers at my local pool wearing T-shirts with “swim instructor” on them

What happened to swimming teachers?

@MajorCarolDanvers, "It is outwith the understanding of many on MN that there are different dialects across the UK." That is a sentence that could not be repeated too many times for its elegant sufficiency.

I wish outwith had been part of my native vocabulary. I had a Scottish father but I never heard him say it. He retained a strong Scottish accent despite being born in Cornwall and having lived the last 50 years of his life outwith the borders of Scotland.

@TomPinch

Pissed can mean angry in Scotland too.

True.

If you are pissed off - it means you are angry.

I don't think it's xenophobic to find it jarring when someone with a certain accent says something not normally heard in that accent, like trashcan in a yorkshire accent for example.

I dislike movies and movie which are really common now, and I don't like season but definitely say it sometimes. Dates like November fifth or even worse, November five, grate as well.

A question though, my husband is from Warrington, and him and all his friends say pants instead of trousers. I mither him for it, but he insists it's dialect. Anyone from the Warrington region able to confirm that?

Pants in liverpool.means trousers.

@MajorCarolDanvers

Language evolves. I enjoy teaching my English colleagues how to use good Scottish words everyday.

"Everyday" does not mean the same as "every day"! Come on, that is basic!

I’m curious about where the Santa/Father Christmas divide comes from

Im mid 50’s and was brought up with FC and so were my children, but I also know my Irish friends say Santa/y and always have done.

There is a tide of American vocabulary, idiom, grammar and pronunciation washing over us and we are losing our own expressions as a result. I hate that. The BBC is particularly bad. Testimony is everywhere instead of evidence, which is what we give in court here. A BBC news reader even pronounced it as testimoany rather than testim'ny. A BBC presenter told us that someone made a phone call Thursday and send an email Friday, instead of on Thursday and on Friday. Another one on a politics programme says welcome to the show instead of programme, and says thanks guys to two guests. Youngsters all say I am going out on the weekend instead of at the weekend or on Christmas instead of at Christmas. BBC newsreaders tell us that a ship sunk, rather than sank in the Channel and that someone sung rather than sang. Women are sexually harASSed rather than harassed. A BBC news reports tells us that someone showed up instead of turned up or arrived. A presenter says something was brushed under the rug. You mean under the carpet, don't you? Cancel culture and calling out - what's that? - bring me out in hives. You can't cancel a person - only an appointment, arrangement, agreement or contract. And you don't debate me but against me or protest something instead of protest against something.

[quote Anonymous48]@EmmaWoodhousestreehouse

Americans don’t seem to like saying please or thank you. It’s very rude.

I don't know where you get that impression. If anything, in my experience Americans tend to be more polite.

I happen to think you are very rude.[/quote]
I notice this in films when people are in pubs/bars. They never say please when asking for a drink.

I hate the word get/got being used instead of “have”.

Someone mentioned pictures versus movies. Although we would go to the pictures rather than the movies, pictures also comes from an American term: motion pictures.

@AffIt

I work in a global organisation, and have a particular loathing of 'obligated' - obliged is fine, thanks.

In saying that, language is a fluid thing and it changes and evolves with time. I can't get too upset about these things.

I'm also Scottish, so the word 'outwith' is a standard part of my vocabulary and I pity the fools who don't use this lovely, lovely word.

I adore ‘outwith’! Useful and elegant. Recently started to use it. Don’t know how I managed before :)

I agree OP.
And on all these threads you see the same thing - people saying “but language evolves”. This isn’t evolution though. Evolution is things like new phrases developing eg “girl power” when the Spice Girls started. What we have now is just people trying to be cool by adopting americanisms. I hate it.

“Empire English” ie South African, Australian and NZ English aren’t the sane as either British or American.
Language is an evolving thing. Only dead languages don’t change.

Just like middle and old English would sound like a foreign language to modern ears.
Words come in and out of use and the meanings change.

In Australia we use both British English and American English (plus our own additions) and many words or phrases will be used interchangeably by the same person. Language changes and evolves all the time. How we speak now is very different to even 200 years ago.

If it makes you feel better OP, sometimes it goes the other way.

My youngest was a big Peppa Pig fan and the when she was two asked me for a plaster - with her speech being still unclear it took me a while to figure out what she wanted. She also seems to have absorbed bathing costume for bathing suit and trolley for shopping cart.

@Thighdentitycrisis

I’m curious about where the Santa/Father Christmas divide comes from

Im mid 50’s and was brought up with FC and so were my children, but I also know my Irish friends say Santa/y and always have done.

Do they use Santa in Scotland? I seem to recall that it's why Canadians use it rather than Father Christmas.

@ginger1982

I would have said it was strange that the same word was used for two different but common occurrences , but actually I remember it differently.

I'm pissed = I'm angry.
I'm steaming = I'm drunk.

@Mypathtriedtokillme

“Empire English” ie South African, Australian and NZ English aren’t the sane as either British or American. Language is an evolving thing. Only dead languages don’t change.

Just like middle and old English would sound like a foreign language to modern ears.
Words come in and out of use and the meanings change.

Quite a few of my family and in-laws speak like this, some with an accent based on mid-20th century RP with flat vowels. They sound like Tyrion Lannister!

I think it's more a style of English than anything else. Compared to British or American English it's abrupt and laconic.

‘Most’ is the one that irritates me a lot. I live in the US and people use most instead of almost on a regular basis.

‘Most everyone came to see the show’. WTF?

It’s not so much American English that bothers me, but global Business English. I work for a global firm with staff from almost every country on earth. The language everyone uses is just so dull (now including mine). I love to read a book or turn on Radio 4 just to encounter words and phrases I don’t see every day.

@Abitofalark

There is a tide of American vocabulary, idiom, grammar and pronunciation washing over us and we are losing our own expressions as a result. I hate that. The BBC is particularly bad. Testimony is everywhere instead of evidence, which is what we give in court here. A BBC news reader even pronounced it as testimoany rather than testim'ny. A BBC presenter told us that someone made a phone call Thursday and send an email Friday, instead of on Thursday and on Friday. Another one on a politics programme says welcome to the show instead of programme, and says thanks guys to two guests. Youngsters all say I am going out on the weekend instead of at the weekend or on Christmas instead of at Christmas. BBC newsreaders tell us that a ship sunk, rather than sank in the Channel and that someone sung rather than sang. Women are sexually harASSed rather than harassed. A BBC news reports tells us that someone showed up instead of turned up or arrived. A presenter says something was brushed under the rug. You mean under the carpet, don't you? Cancel culture and calling out - what's that? - bring me out in hives. You can't cancel a person - only an appointment, arrangement, agreement or contract. And you don't debate me but against me or protest something instead of protest against something.

Is a lack of paragraphs peculiarly British then?

I can't bear it. Why has a film become a movie? Excited about has become excited for, which means something different anyway. Very annoying. I agree with the other examples on here.

When did hi become hey? Instead of a gentle greeting, it screams for your attention!

We all still talk proper in Yorkshire.

@Skyll

Gotten is used in Ireland and Scotland and never fell out of use.

I'm in Ireland - never heard gotten used, so it's not standard in terms of Hiberno-English.