To hate Americanisms...?

[Groof]

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?

I should add, in the region of the US where I live, "torch" often refers to something that is actually flaming.

Also used as a verb meaning to set on fire.

As a child reading about someone "carrying a torch in their pocket" created quite the visual😂

Bored waiting in the queue at Pets at Home and just saw another one that regularly annoys me. They are selling poop bags. There is no need for the extra p. They are poo bags. We all poo. I do not poop.

One I've noticed loads lately is people saying "right?" instead of using tag questions.

The writers of Eastenders are terrible for it, as they seem to have every single character do it, and while it suits some characters, it's totally incongruous for other characters.

So for example, instead of saying "you are coming tonight, aren't you?" a character will say, "you are coming tonight, right?"
Or, instead of "She's the one with the fake eyebrows, isn't she?" it's "she's the one with the fake eyebrows, right?"

It's not the use of "right?" per se that annoys me, but more the seeming erasure of tag questions.

In Scotland it's definitely poop. Never heard poo till I moved to England.

Pooper scooper sounds better than pooer scooper 😁

Is carrying a torch for someone an American phrase ?

I assumed flashlight was American like sidewalk or dish soap?

Having a father who speaks RP English and a mother who speaks Hiberno-English does actually confer native fluency in both. Hence the ability to move seamlessly from one dialect to the other, aka code switching.

After several decades in the US, I've picked up American English too, though I draw the line at the silent H in 'herb'. Fyi, I believe I used the term "fluent speaker" of American English, not "native speaker"; there is a difference that I was careful to observe.

The possibility of having superior knowledge of everything is small, I agree, but as in all things, never zero.

South Park have a character called Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo so is it regional or have I remembered it wrong ? Americans on social media seem to say poop.

Same.

Hence the imagery of 'carrying a torch for Mildred'.

Is carrying a torch for someone an American phrase ?

Yes, meaning having a crush/unrequited love

Is it used that way in the UK?

Is carrying a torch for someone an American phrase ?

Yes, meaning having a crush/unrequited love

Is it used that way in the UK?

Cup cakes. Grrr. It’s fairy cakes.

So how come my son is not native fluent in Scottish English then, and does not code switch? Same scenario. Cf all the kids in his class who have parents with completely different accents/dialects to them because they moved to the area from other regions. Such as the boy with a US mother and Australian father who speaks with neither an Australian nor an American accent or vocabulary, even when with his relatives from those countries. Or Canadian London resident Katherine Ryan’s observational comedy about her daughter’s cut-glass English accent.

Yes, we use it too. And I'm pretty sure the mental image it might convey is the flaming torch variety not a battery operated one!

@HotCrossBunplease So how come my son is not native fluent in Scottish English then, and does not code switch?

I think @mathanxiety should have said 'can actually confer native fluency in both' rather than does. Because obviously some individuals can do this and others can't, similar to how some people can pick up accents (either temporarily or more permanently switching) and others can't.

My children are like HotCrossBun's son. They were raised by two Irish people who still speak with Irish accents and use a lot of Irish vernacular/hiberno-Irish and they went back to Ireland a lot. They use more Irish phrases and constructions than their friends but they certainly wouldn't be authorities on how english is spoken in Ireland.

FatOaf · Yesterday 14:15

But "uni" isn't a word:

It's an abbreviation, surely? I don't think I'd ever heard of it until I saw Neighbours, in 1998 (?).

I would go further and say that an individual who speaks instinctively with exactly the same accent and vocabulary as their parent who grew up elsewhere is a real rarity/oddity and she must be well aware of this as I am sure she has met hundreds of people who have grown up in a different place to their parents and do not code switch.

I've had posters tell me I couldn't possibly have attended a High School.

I'm fairly certain I wasn't imagining the Scumbags High School sign above the front door, anymore than the other 19,999-ish people who went there in the 40 years it was open under that name were.

I'm fine with films being called movies. Film isn't specific enough to only mean a form of moving picture entertainment (and that is where the word 'movie' comes from in any case), especially when America was far ahead in the genre. If it's OK to say Lego rather than Legos, there's no reason why Math should be less acceptable than Maths - both are abbreviating the word Mathematics, which most likely irritates an equal number of people.

And for all the complaints about people using American pronunciations, nobody seems to realise that this means that the words haven't been spoken in their particular region of the UK - like any word somebody pronounces incorrectly because they've only ever read it, that's down to not having heard it before.

Canadian here... I'd guess neither would be know down in the States. They're not used here, either. "Wooly" for "sweater?" 😂 That sounds funny to my ear! "Jumper" isn't used for sweater here, but I do recall it as a dress worn over a (usually) long-sleeve shirt as a kid.

I have,English friends living in Scotland. Their children have only lived in Scotland but have the sane English accent as their parents.
My daughter lived in England until 4. Within 6 weeks of moving here and attending nursery she had no English accent.

I see you are having trouble accepting what I am saying and asserting superior knowledge of my life there.

It is entirely possible that the dearth of Scottish English on radio and TV affects your child's exposure to your dialect. Similarly, it is entirely possible that a childhood spent listening to Radio 4 and watching British TV (yes, in Dublin) and hearing stories and poetry read in a cut glass accent makes a difference. My children needed no explanations for vocabulary in literature classes and unlike many of their friends, they watch British TV with no need for subtitles. One was able to explain to an English teacher that a zebra crossing was just a specially marked place where pedestrians could cross a road, not the analogy he was suggesting it was. And they also use the different pronunciations of Z and zebra depending on where they are and to whom they are speaking.

Shouldn't the fact that the progeny of Americans and Australians in your neck of the woods are unable or unwilling to use the code of their parents give you hope for the sturdiness of British English?

I've only heard "poop" said by Americans. In recent years I've heard it said here in Canada. But, "poo" is the more traditional word. However, "shit" is "shit."

I follow an American woman on Instagram and could never understand what sounded like "Laygoes"

Then I saw her kids were playing with Lego 😃