To demand that my son does not say "candy"?

[Heqet]

I rather suspect I am. He says "cayndy" in a very american accent. I HATE it. I snap that he is not american and the word is SWEETS, or CHOCOLATE

erm, depending on whether he is talking about sweets or chocolate

It drives me up the wall, this fake american accent.

Ugh "candy" also sets my teeth on edge, I would definitely correct DS if he said that. He does a fake US accent once in a while he's 4) but not with actual US words - so far I've tried to ignore it.

I also loathe "Can I get..." in shops/cafes etc. don't know why but it seems so bloody rude. I say "Please can I have". DP has picked this up and once actually said it to me when I asked him what drink he would like - I was not pleased!

I wouldn't have considered "what" rude.

Cannot stand the "you do the math", it is awful.

"Can I get"? almost drives me to distraction. I get this from customers all the time and I am now on the verge of answering "Yes you can get (whatever it is)" and then waiting until they ask if they can "have" the said item. Why oh why is this becoming so common? Its wrong, wrong, wrong and sounds so ignorant and stupid.

Lots of people refer to secondary school as 'senior' school .I bought some school trousers from Woolies (RIP) closing down sale labelled as being for'senior school'

And dont get me started on people using 'brought' instead of 'bought'.

That's a very good point, TC, about the sn/language delay. Perhaps I can try to tell myself that every time I feel like chewing off my leg in frustration

It may be technically incorrect to use American words, but languages change all the time anyway. Many of the 'proper english words' you use are originally french.

Also when you hear strangers in shops using american words you should consider that they may well BE american rather than assuming they are somehow ignorant.

In any case why would sounding american make people angry? Imagine saying out loud "Stop that you sound like a nigerian!"

Putting on a fake accent irritates me.

If I met a stranger, I wouldn't be irritated by their accent because I would assume it was their accent.

If I knew someone and they spoke with a broad yorkshire accent, then one day decided to switch to speaking with a french accent, I would first check they had not received a head injury, and if they hadn't, would file them under 'plonker'.

My children escape this filing because they are young.

Oh yes, and saying cayndy in said fake accent irritates me. which was my original moan of course.

It's fake. To say the american word, in the american accent, when you are not american, is irritating.

To me, anyway.

And yes, if they said it in a fake nigerian accent I'd be just as irritated and would tell them to stop.

It's the silly fake accent that gets me!!!!

My dd said "garbage" the other day - I said "no, it's a bin". Then she was saying Diaper instead of Nappy grr.

I also keep hearing "cupcakes", to me that's fairy cakes. DD also pronounced the animal Puma, as "Pooma" after watching Go Diego Go - that really got my back up, had to explain that is not how we say it here.

Also, I've been hearing people calling 'Sixth-year Prom' instead of 'Ball' - what's that all about!

Have you seen this news item about regional accents thriving and giving people a sense of identity. In kids, do you think putting on accents is partly experimentation with their identity?

Fake accents are irritating, but maybe best to ignore as a passing phase.

yy, onagar and flock. Accents and words are fun to play with and change all the time anyway. I'm an Australian who has lived in Britain for a long time and has mixed with a lot of Americans and I spent my childhood and teenage years with my accent and vocabulary floating around all over the place.

Perhaps all those who object to their children using different words from the ones they grew up with should reject every manifestation of globalisation and edit their own tv preferences in protest. You don't have to watch The Wire, The West Wing, The Sopranos, House, etc, etc - and your kids don't have to watch Ben 10 either.

Take a stand if you want to (although I can think of many more important battles to fight) but don't whinge (Australianism) about it.

Oh, but I want to whinge about it! If people stopped whinging about stuff that doesn't matter, people would barely speak at all.

Mumsnet would certainly be quiet, that's for sure!

"Cool" and "awesome" drive me mad.

We have such a rich language, full of marvellously descriptive words and we get the same two adjectives over and over, so they mean precisely nothing.

It's like, really so annoying, right?

DD watches Cbeebies, because on the foreign imports they over dub the American or Canadian accents with English ones!

Thank-you Cbeebies!

I hate "24/7" and "you do the math". Except if obviously said ironically.

Do you think Jay-Z has to call himself Jay-Zed when he comes touring over here?

My GRANNY who is about 82 told me on the phone last week, in her wee Scottish accent, that she has had her "heating on 24/7"

No idea where some of DD's accents come from - until 4 she only watched CBeebies if anything, yet had a Texan drawl at times - we stayed in a ho-tay-el, lived up a hee-yill. What was that about?? I'm still doggedly holding out, calling iced cakes Fairy Cakes not Cupcakes (much to the amusement of my US friend's teenage son the other day who wasn't sure he wanted to be seen with fairy cakes)

24/7 - irritating beyond belief in any accent!

DH irritates me by asking if we are "good to go" - what happened to being "ready"

Riven - wonder if your daughter's new communication aid will be missing the letter "T" as it appears to be optional in Basingstoke!! (DD1 wants a lift from work today at four thir'y)

"If people stopped whinging about stuff that doesn't matter, people would barely speak at all"

Good point! Do carry on then.

My back hurts, I'm sick of the snow, I wish my husband would get his arse back from London so he can keep the kids busy for a bit, my house is a tip but I can't be bothered to sort it out, my legs hurt, I think I need to take water tablets but I can't with the new meds I'm on, the cat has no food left and I can't get to a shop, it's cold cos the kids want to play outside and keep leaving the pigging door open, my eye itches but when I rub it it feels like I am rubbing grit into it, there's nothing interesting on the tv and next door's dog won't stop barking

Manchestermummy - is your MIL from Notts or Derbys? Because ther's a regional thing about 'tuffees' to cover all sweets - ot there was when I grew up there, anyway. But pronounced tuffees, not toffees.

'erbs' aways used to annoy me,until I read that originally in England,during the 17th & 18th centuries,'h' wasn't pronounced at the front of a word.It seems that America has just kept the older pronounciation,while we eventually began to sound the 'h' again during the 1800's.For some reason it no longer irritates me.
Fake accents are very annoying though.I had a public school educated child here the other day,who said 'diapers'.V.Odd.

They say toffees in Manchester as well to cover all sweets. Irks me as well.

Chill folks/calm down or whatever way you want to put it.

For you lot north of the border I think you will find that the proper words for biscuit/sweeties altho not in common use, are actually cookies and candy.

If you come across a Scottish/English translating dictionary you wil see quite a few in there. I reckon they nicked them off us tho

I hate people who put on fake accents as well, the one I hate the most is trying to be posh when they fail miserably [pmsl]

Can't stand diapers tho.

P.S I went to High School too.