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.

Cockney rhyning slang e.g.s:
dog'n'bone = phone
apples'n' pears = stairs
whistle'n' flute = suit
boracic lint = skint i.e. has no money - this is usually shortened to brassic.
In fact many of them are shortened to just the first half of the pair - e.g. "I was just talkin to X on the dog, when I saw a bloke go past in a new whistle..."

that help?
useful when watching films like Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...

I've been laughing my head off at these posts...
I'm American, DH is British, ds and dd have only lived in England, so I have to listen to sweets, rubbish, zed, etc all day long...none of my accent/words rubbed off on my two at all!! To be fair, I have conformed somewhat...I've only even been a parent in England, so I am a Mummy, I used nappies and a pushchair, a dummy, etc. I also don't want my poor DCs to start school here using 'foreign' words (though it sounds like American is catching on!!).
I like it...there is about nothing cuter than my 2 year old correcting the way I pronounce 'zeebra'...it makes me laugh!!

"English" pronunciation of niche (it being a French-derived word) is neesh. Is it the same in America?

I say "neesh" for "niche" ie French style. But I've heard Americans say "nitch" and I wasn't sure whether or not they were meant to be saying "niche" or not.

bananapudding your spelling of pronunciation of schedule is much better than mine was. You are right..."skedule"I think is more southern...and I do say "sked-juhl"

funny innit? (see I have picked things up here too

WRT to "I'm good", I say it all the time. It may not be grammatically correct, but it does make sense.

Eg.
"would you like some more food?"
"no, I'm good with what I've got, thanks"

What really annoys me are the smart arses who think they are funny who respond with "I know you are, but did you want some more?"

Because I could reply with "sod off", which would be grammatically correct

I would say 'neesh' for niche...but I don't know if that's because I've picked that up here, or if I always pronounced it that way!!

lol
my little cousin asked for a dollar for the ice cream man
he is norn irish

never pardon btw always surrey...

This type of thread has been on before & it wasn't nearly as friendly as this one! Most encouraging - are MNers mellowing or maybe less anti-Americanism now that George Dubya has hit the road?

You say tomato, I say potato...

"You say tomato, I say potato..."

THat would make for an interesting pizza

Niche as nitch is an American sin, but Brits massacre plenty of French words such as herb with an h and filet with a t.

heavens, if this is the friendly to Americans thread I fear the previous ones. As someone mentioned earlier, it's considered acceptable to bash Americans in a way that would never fly with people from other countries/ethnicities.

What, why has no-one has mentioned

CLURK or CLARK for clerk?

Tut tut!

this is hardly a "bashing" thread - the previous ones I've seen have been far more vitriolic and "high-emotion".

I thought this thread was quite light-hearted compared to others!! It's not having a go at Americans, more at our kids and others who pick up the American terms for things such as garbage instead of rubbish and candy for sweets.

I want to know why going to play at someone's house after school is now known as a 'play-date'! What's that all about? I never used that term as a child!

People never just 'relax' any more, either. They 'chill out'!!

Oh, you haven't encountered the phenomenon of 'kicking back' then?

sounds to me like everyone is bashing everyone else. French, english american aussie. The common denominator is 'change', which no-one over 25 likes or embraces. Language evolves. Get used to it

I haven't seen any bashing Just laughing about different uses of language. Is that not ok?

bit OTT to call anything on this particular thread "bashing" - tis just a relatively light-hearted exchange of views.

grin

I feel decidedly un-bashed

We say neesh, at least I do. Rhyming slang cracks me up! Will have to watch Snatch again to look for instances of it.

"Kicking back" isn't as bad as "We're just chillaxin" which makes me want to vomit a little...

Hang on, let me make up for the lack of bashing

at Kaloki

I hope I wasn't bashing anyone - just commenting that a few words sound harsh to my ear. That's not a reflection on the people who say them. I couldn't live here if I thought the entire country warranted a bashing purely on the way people use language!

I think we should, I personally am declaring war on America!