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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate Americanisms...?

768 replies

Groof · 05/01/2025 22:54

I think maybe because it feels like all English-speaking cultures are becoming boring and homogenous.

New ones I've noticed that people in the UK didn't routinely say five years ago but are now EVERYWHERE:

  • birth control (instead of 'contraception' or 'the pill')
  • wait list (instead of waiting list)
  • reach out

Which ones do you hate or AIBU?

OP posts:
Lingoqueen · 06/01/2025 06:17

Americans don't understand when we say a bulb has fused, they say fused with what ?

I think they say burnt out

In electrical we say earth they say grounded

Anti clockwise they say counter clockwise

They sometimes pronounce
Route as 'Rowt'

Butteredtoast55 · 06/01/2025 06:31

Train station instead of railway station (but I think that train has well and truly left the station as it's now ubiquitous
Can I get
Could care less
To go instead of 'to take away'
New Year's instead of New Year, which was even used on the BBC this year (clutches pearls!)

CouldItBeAnyMoreObvious · 06/01/2025 06:36

Groof · 05/01/2025 22:54

I think maybe because it feels like all English-speaking cultures are becoming boring and homogenous.

New ones I've noticed that people in the UK didn't routinely say five years ago but are now EVERYWHERE:

  • birth control (instead of 'contraception' or 'the pill')
  • wait list (instead of waiting list)
  • reach out

Which ones do you hate or AIBU?

Horseback riding
Gotten
American spelling (using z instead of s, missing the u from words such as colour)
Can I get...
And the most ugly, incorrect, and status revealing of all - 'my baby daddy'

But brave to start the thread, as many will start wittering about 'evolution' of language and how 'it ised to be an English English word back in 45BC, so it is allowed'....

CouldItBeAnyMoreObvious · 06/01/2025 06:40

Lingoqueen · 06/01/2025 06:17

Americans don't understand when we say a bulb has fused, they say fused with what ?

I think they say burnt out

In electrical we say earth they say grounded

Anti clockwise they say counter clockwise

They sometimes pronounce
Route as 'Rowt'

The best though...

Bouy pronounced as boo-ey!7

SemperIdem · 06/01/2025 06:42

Addicting instead of addictive really irritates me and seems to be a fairly new word. I don’t remember hearing it pre-2020ish, having consumed plenty of American media over the years.

NewGreenDuck · 06/01/2025 06:52

Burglarize. It's burgled for crying out loud!

Disasterclass · 06/01/2025 06:57

Gotten irritates me. It feels like a word which is fine to say colloquially but shouldn't be written down.

There was a review in the guardian on Saturday of a book about British English words that have recently become popular in the US. One of which was the term ginger for red heads. So it goes both ways

Disasterclass · 06/01/2025 07:13

The book is called Gobsmacked by Ben Yagoda, in case anyone is interested

BarbaraHoward · 06/01/2025 07:20

Goldenbear · 06/01/2025 01:26

I think you are right about that as I live in the south east of England and I don't hear any of the words you have listed being used on a regular basis except, 'Halloween' when it is Halloween.

Show quote history

It happens a lot on here - Irish and Scottish posters speaking the way we've always spoken are often accused of issuing Americanisms, which Are Bad on MN.

I think because it's informal here, people write the way they speak rather than the way they would write a formal letter, and then different = bad = American.

Some examples on this thread like "ghosting" aren't Americanisms at all, they're just new. I doubt anyone was talking about ghosting in the US 30 years ago, it's a new term for the modern era used internationally.

BarbaraHoward · 06/01/2025 07:25

GiraffesAtThePark · 06/01/2025 03:36

Gotten was good enough for Shakespeare and so I don’t understand the hate of it. It’s also been normal to use it in some parts of the UK like Scotland. The same people who are snobbish about it and have to correct it on MN threads are often the people who use structures such as “I was stood” or “I was sat”.

Or correct "needs done" to "needs doing".

Cosyblankets · 06/01/2025 07:30

raysan · 05/01/2025 23:39

Guys
(When it is used for a mixed or even female group)
There are so many alternatives that are not 'default male'. Depending on context, could be: Yous, you, you all, colleagues, everyone, all, team, lasses, ladies, comrades.

There are articles on why the word is non-inclusive if you dont believe me. Also try asking "what do guys look for in a partner" or "how many guys have you dated/ has your partner dated?"

Yous?
Really? You're suggesting this is better?

Oneearringlost · 06/01/2025 07:33

Junior doctors have been renamed 'residents'. They no longer even sleep when they're on call, anymore, as it's shifts, so it's wrong anyway...( not that they slept much even when they did have on call rooms).

Laserwho · 06/01/2025 07:33

YankSplaining · 06/01/2025 00:30

“Can you get me a soda?” means you don’t particularly care which kind you get.

”The Pill” drives me insane - there are all different types of pills in the world, so what makes contraceptive pills worthy of being “the” pill? I would understand if it was still 1960-something, but it’s not. “The spectrum” drives me crazy for the same reason.

I agree that “birth control” meaning specifically “oral contraceptives” is annoying.

Show quote history

Because a pill in the UK is called a tablet, at least it is where I live in the UK so the pill is a different word

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 07:53

SleepyCrow15 · 06/01/2025 00:40

“Let’s go to the art exhibit” instead of exhibition.

I’ve really tried to understand “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”, but I just can’t.

CongraDulations.

pronouncing words such as ammunition, ending in ‘tion’ , as ammuni’shin’ instead of ‘shun’.

I have to admit it all looks a bit petty written down, but I read somewhere that some people’s brains process these things in a different way and find it more grating than other people do.

It is correct to I say I could care less because it’s not the complete phrase and meant in a different way. It means I could care even more less than I do but I won’t.

KimberleyClark · 06/01/2025 07:56

RitaFromThePitCanteen · 05/01/2025 23:47

Prideful instead of proud and obligated instead of obliged are others that I'm starting to hear from other Brits. I wonder why the rate of adoption of Americanisms is speeding up. Is it because we have greater access to American telly than we used to?

I actually think prideful is a useful distinction. There is being proud of something or someone, and there is being too prideful to ask for help or to admit you are wrong.

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 07:56

HotCrossBunplease · 06/01/2025 01:56

I don’t dislike Americanisms and I find it linguistically interesting to see them being widely adopted in the UK. What I find particularly fascinating is that British people have been watching American TV and films (movies!) for almost 100 years yet some Americanisms only seem to have fully caught on since the advent of You Tube and Tik Tok. It’s not as if we hadn’t heard Americans say “birth control” and “meds” a zillion times in the 70s and 80s, but the terms really weren’t widely used here until the last 10 years or so. I think that it has something to do with more exposure to normal Americans as opposed to actors reading a script.

A few I have noticed are:

Regular to mean “standard size” or normal eg I’ll have a regular coffee

Fine print instead of small print

Bake sale

Season for series when talking about TV

Math (more in the phrase “You do the math! than talking generally about the school subject)

”The Feds”- street slang for the police

Retainer rather than braces (teeth)

My son is eight and lives a bit of “divided by a common language” chat though- he was questioning me the other day about why Americans say things like “Five hundred twenty” instead of “Five hundred AND twenty”. I couldn’t explain it but like that he noticed.

Yeah season is because there actually used to be a television season than ran September to May kinda like a football season. Series never made sense to me here.

RabbitsRock · 06/01/2025 08:09

Happy Holidays
Gotten
Can I get?

RabbitsRock · 06/01/2025 08:10

Younger folks tend to say “ Perfect” a lot during a transaction at my till - wondering if that’s an Americanism?

HotCrossBunplease · 06/01/2025 08:13

mathanxiety · 06/01/2025 05:01

I think you've misinterpreted my tone there.

Hand on heart, I don't recall ever seeing "standard" on a clothing label in Britain or Ireland.

"I'm just a regular guy" does not mean "I'm just a normal guy". "Normal" is not a term that people generally use to describe themselves in the US, and they are not implying it when they use the word "regular". They mean "average", which does not mean or imply "normal". It means a person whose station in life, experiences, education, taste, and opinions are similar to those of many others. If you say you're normal, what does that make others who are not like you? There's an implication there that is avoided.

Show quote history

No, I think you misjudged the impact of your tone.

If people in the US don’t use “normal”, who are you to tell me what we mean when we say it?

HotCrossBunplease · 06/01/2025 08:14

Mac and cheese

Optigan · 06/01/2025 08:16

mathanxiety · 06/01/2025 00:25

Cheap and discounted = discount store.

Donated previously loved items = thrift, aka opportunity store (in Australia). Called a charity shop in the UK.

Show quote history

Do the proceeds of a thrift (US) or opportunity (Aus) store go to charity?

I'm in the UK and I wouldn't refer to any secondhand shop as being a 'charity' shop - only those that are run by and support charities.

If it's purely selling used goods I would call it 'the secondhand [whatever it sells] shop, e.g. 'secondhand book shop, secondhand furniture shop'. Or possibly 'vintage' if it's selling clothes.

Deedee248 · 06/01/2025 08:39

CosyOpalMoose · 06/01/2025 00:46

A bunch of.
Fine for things that come in bunches, flowers, grapes, bananas.
Not good as a general word for quantity.

Totally agree with this. I’m always hearing ‘a bunch of guys’ to which my response is that guys don’t come in bunches.

Also ‘obligated’ really does my head in. Aaaargh!!!

ErrolTheDragon · 06/01/2025 08:59

Yous?
Really? You're suggesting this is better?

Depends where you live - absolutely fine in some regions.

Annabella92 · 06/01/2025 09:02

daisychain01 · 06/01/2025 02:49

Surely that's Stoicism (Ancient Greek/Roman philosophy) not nihilism...

nihilism is believing life is meaningless, stoicism is quite the reverse.

Show quote history

I was responding to a comment which suggested the poster might find peace if they stopped caring about something they believed was important. And that it would make them happier. Caring about nothing is not making people happier.

Stoicism was really just borne to help soldiers endure intolerable conditions and circumstances.

BarbaraHoward · 06/01/2025 09:03

ErrolTheDragon · 06/01/2025 08:59

Yous?
Really? You're suggesting this is better?

Depends where you live - absolutely fine in some regions.

Yes I love youse. Formal English really lacks a distinction between the single and plural you.