Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
MudpiesinEssex · 06/01/2025 13:59

"Yer nuthin' but a yeller coyote!"

BlockPattern · 06/01/2025 14:03

There are more English speaking people living in North America than there are in Britain. American English is spoken globally as a second or third language, not British English. Hth hun

schnubbins · 06/01/2025 14:08

Lately on CNN discussing" See ree ya" instead of Syria .Drives me bonkers

Dreamingoftheunknown · 06/01/2025 14:10

Lemonyfuckit · 06/01/2025 13:54

Appreciate it's because I'm British not American but to my ear "can I get" sounds so impolite compared to "please may I have" - maybe because Americans don't say please as much as British people (maybe other nationalities don't either? - I think the British are mocked by other nations for being "overly" polite with the please thank yous and definitely sorry)..

‘Can I get’ is not just used in America. I’m Irish and usually say something like ‘can I get a coffee please?’ or ‘can I have a coffee please’. Using ‘can I get’ doesn’t mean you need to leave out the please part. You can still be polite.

The word ‘may’ isn’t really used much here in Ireland, that’s the main difference.

The verb ‘to get’ includes the meaning ‘to receive’. There’s no implication that you’ll be vaulting the counter to help yourself as some people appear to think. Similarly, if you get a letter in the post, or you get a small gift from your friend, it means you receive them. I really don’t understand why people appear to have such a problem with the term.

RaraRachael · 06/01/2025 14:14

@Dreamingoftheunknown Same in Scotland. Nobody uses the word "may".
If I said "Please may I have ...." in a shop they'd think I was very pretentious.

poetryandwine · 06/01/2025 14:17

KeenGreen · 05/01/2025 23:02

Some Americanisms annoy me,
but not the ones you list.

One that annoys me is ‘I could care less’ when it should be ‘couldn’t’

The spelling irritates me (irrationally) or more so when Americans try to correct it eg if someone posts something from UK.

Minor annoyances though

Americans who know better also know that ‘could care less’ is wrong. I don’t know how the British developed this association.

I haven’t RTFT so apologies if someone has already pointed this out.

Pallisers · 06/01/2025 14:20

CuddlyDodoToy · 06/01/2025 13:47

All Hallows Eve.

Does anyone in England actually say All Hallows Eve? (actually if I were to say it I'd probably say "the eve of All Hallows")

x2boys · 06/01/2025 14:21

The way the pronounce route,to rhyme with shout rather than shoot.

jannier · 06/01/2025 14:23

Dontlletmedownbruce · 05/01/2025 23:24

What i don't like is that its not the words themselves but the fact that it reflects someone who has spent too much time on YouTube or watching US TV. A lot of kids are using these phrases now and it's from YouTube, my DS sometimes does this too.

I had a colleague who lived in US for years and spoke in her original accent but had lots of litte phrases and I thought that was lovely because it was organic. She would say 'will you come with?' Or 'hurry up already'. But when I hear this from someone who has never crossed the Atlantic it makes me mad!

Agree

tillytoodles1 · 06/01/2025 14:23

lazyarse123 · 05/01/2025 23:05

Pissed instead of pissed off. Happens on here all the time and I struggle to not correct it.

My Englisn brother is married to an American woman. One day their daughter was annoyed and told her Mum she was "pissed off" waiting.
SiL knew exactly where she'd picked that one up.

InsomniacA · 06/01/2025 14:29

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 00:19

Gotten is just bad English not an Americanism.

'With much ado at length have gotten leave, To look upon my sometimes royal master's face'. -from Richard III

Interesting. Shakespeare used 'gotten'.

Elsvieta · 06/01/2025 14:36

gotmyknickersinatwist · 06/01/2025 12:46

I didn't realise there was much of a difference in the English pronunciation of these words. Maybe I've only ever heard English people say 'arse' but it could be either to my ear.
Depending on the English accent I suppose, ass would have a shorter more 'clipped' sound with an 'a for apple' pronunciation, whereas arse would have a longer softer 'aw' sound.

You need a good strong rhotic accent to truly appreciate the beauty of the word arse.

Call me juvenile, but that particular difference did give me a giggle when I saw an ad for the US TV show Our Souls At Night.

Turophilic · 06/01/2025 14:46

@Kaleidoscopic101 - a dump truck isn't a bin truck. They are totally different things.

Dump trucks are mostly used in construction. The back is on a hydraulic mechanism that raises the front up high so the load (hardcore, soil, whatever) can all tip out of the back.

Muck in Bob The Builder is a dump truck - well, a specialised one called a digger dummper that is dual purpose. (I spent WAAAAAY too long having to play Bob the Builder when the DC were little)

Iloveyoubut · 06/01/2025 14:47

StMarie4me · 06/01/2025 13:54

My daughter has 8 prescription medications every month. She can call them what she likes tbf. She'd rather not need them.

I’ve already explained on another thread… and I am also on a lot of medication, I think it’s not the term meds, it’s the people I’ve known for a long time who suddenly adopted the term. As I said, I’ve wrest explained it. I’m allowed to be irritated by something too! It was something that irritated within the group of people I know. Hope your daughter is doing ok X

ObelixtheGaul · 06/01/2025 14:52

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 13:55

So reading these posts I think this is what I have deduced.

  1. Some phrases people don’t like aren’t actually Americanisms but a evolution of the English language they don’t like so blame American English.
  2. Some words (gotten) for which they blame Americans are actually old English words.
  3. There are a lot of British phases/sayings that are equally confusing or strange but it’s only the American ones that seem to be an issue. Taking the piss is a good example.
  4. That English snobbery has crept into the post in a few places about it being ‘our language’.
  5. Some words pointed out are actually American in origin (cell phone rather than mobile home) so aren’t wrong and it would suggest the British have invented their own word (perfectly fine).
  6. Some phrases claimed to be American are words or sayings a number of North Americans have never heard or don’t agree with.

Sure there are some sayings or words I dislike but there is also an undertone of discrimination which I think is best avoided.

Oh, believe me, those same types of people who don't like 'Americanisms' are the very reason most regional dialects have died out.

It's snobbery, it's been applied to all regions of England with an accent that isn't 'quayte nayce' (which, by the way, is written in the accent common to Royalty, which actually has it's roots in Germanic mispronunciation).

It's been applied to the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish, to the point of denying entire generations the opportunity to learn their own language in their own schools.

For those of us in England, from a rich and varied distinctive dialectical variances, we have been left with smatterings of vernacular that, if it were up to these people, we'd be prohibited from using in public.

Whilst it is necessary in the modern country where we all move about much more than we used to, for us to understand one another, therefore some standardisation had to happen, this attitude that 'our' language must only be spoken in a certain way has its roots in deeply embedded class divide.

I apologise to all Americans, but you are only going through what every person in this country who has a regional accent and uses any form of local vernacular, has gone through in this country .

gotmyknickersinatwist · 06/01/2025 14:57

Openuniversity22 · 06/01/2025 13:58

Hearing British people say ‘movie’ instead of film really sets my teeth on edge.

Everyone on here seems to say movie too, rather than film. When did saying film become such a crime?!

Math instead of maths is another one!

It's 'fil-um'. You're welcome.

AvidAunt · 06/01/2025 15:01

Annabella92 · 05/01/2025 23:24

It's the death of culture. All distinctions are being eroded. We're all going into the blender now, it's big America globohomo

It's always interesting getting outside perspective; I'm American and from my viewpoint, America is so regionalized that I don't hear very many of the examples listed or if I do, they're stark signifiers of a specific area of the country from which the speaker hails. Ya'll and could care less (in lieu of couldn't) typically indicate that the speaker is from the Southern US and here in the Northeast, those phrases are like nails on a chalkboard.

gotmyknickersinatwist · 06/01/2025 15:04

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 13:44

The saying is “I could care less but I don”t.

Take off you hoser?

But that doesn't make sense.
I couldn't care less means I care so very little that it's not possible for me to care any less.

imtoo · 06/01/2025 15:05

Kaleidoscopic101 · 05/01/2025 23:01

  • Privacy pounced Pr-eye-vacy instead of Privacy
  • Store instead of Shop
  • Cart instead of Basket or Trolley
  • Dump or Garbage truck instead of bin lorry or rubbish truck
  • Trash instead of rubbish
  • Patriotic pronounced Payte-riotic instead of Pat-riotic
  • Bangs instead of Fringe
Edited

You’re just listing American words. I’ve never heard anyone here say bangs instead of fringe.

gotmyknickersinatwist · 06/01/2025 15:06

AvidAunt · 06/01/2025 15:01

It's always interesting getting outside perspective; I'm American and from my viewpoint, America is so regionalized that I don't hear very many of the examples listed or if I do, they're stark signifiers of a specific area of the country from which the speaker hails. Ya'll and could care less (in lieu of couldn't) typically indicate that the speaker is from the Southern US and here in the Northeast, those phrases are like nails on a chalkboard.

I think 'I could care less' would only really make sense if it was said in a sarcastic way, which I don't think it is. As in, 'yeah, like I could care less'.

AvidAunt · 06/01/2025 15:08

kronic · 05/01/2025 23:37

Another thing which happens a lot now, is someone will say , for example, " I am loving this " instead of " I love this".

I'm American and I hate this as well. I'm in a home decorating group on Facebook with many women from the Southern US and they use that often. I'm in the Northeast and we do not. Most commonly, I see the phrase "I am wanting" in lieu of I want. Example, I am wanting a new sofa. Wanting means a lack there of, not a desire! Words have meaning and it's annoying.

WashingDryingForEver · 06/01/2025 15:12

CharlotteCChapel · 05/01/2025 23:28

Flavourful rather than flavoursome. Adjectives being used as adverbs, you do things properly not proper. It took months to get DGS to say sweets rather than candy.

I think a, lot of the problem is that bec a lot of Americans don't understand English words a lot of social media creators use the American version which we also understand leading to people think that American English is the correct version.

Adjectives being used as adverbs

My pet hate. ‘You did amazing’. I truly despise it.

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 15:17

schnubbins · 06/01/2025 14:08

Lately on CNN discussing" See ree ya" instead of Syria .Drives me bonkers

It drives you honkers that someone uses their accent to say a country correctly?

As neither the UK nor USA speak natively a Syrian language this is just discriminatory.

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 15:18

gotmyknickersinatwist · 06/01/2025 15:06

I think 'I could care less' would only really make sense if it was said in a sarcastic way, which I don't think it is. As in, 'yeah, like I could care less'.

It IS meant to be sarcastic.. I could care less but I don’t.

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 15:19

gotmyknickersinatwist · 06/01/2025 15:04

But that doesn't make sense.
I couldn't care less means I care so very little that it's not possible for me to care any less.

It’s a sarcastic saying. I didn’t make it up.

it’s like saying taking the oiss - literal usage of this saying is crazy.

Sayings aren’t always meant to be literal!

Swipe left for the next trending thread