American terms

[Barrow Boy]

A few that wind me up.

"For sure" = YES!
"That's a negative" = NO!
"At this moment in time = NOW!

 

[alan partridge]

Cor brilliant! Another thread on NSC about things that annoy us about them yanks. Great!

 

[Juan Albion]

It astonishes me how many in the UK lack the ability to understand that language and culture have always been changing, usually by importing and exporting.

 

[Juan Albion]

Such as ?

That's my point. Who knows? Can anyone say with any degree of certainty that all the phrases on this thread that have been attributed to the Yanks were actually invented by them? I doubt it very much.

The anti-Yank sentiments on here are often just another extension of some of our members' needs for a scapegoat in life it seems to me.

 

[NMH]

this "blame America for everything (even really trivial things that only a complete twat would worry about)" attitude is getting very tiresome.

i really can't be arsed to form complete sentences on this subject so i'll sum up what i want to say in a few bullet points:

* i am English
* i live in the US
* i hate the 'stereotypical American' too
* and yes, there are a few 'stereotypical Americans' around and they are arseholes
* most people i know over here are nice, well educated, liberal types
* there are a lot of wankers and annoying traits from England too, you know

The ENGLISH language is hurtling ever faster towards American language now that online sites insist that English spellings are wrong.
Anyway, almost all Americanisms make it here eventually. I found out once I moved there, and came back for visits. The term "check it out" was not used here in 1983, but by the end of the eighties ... it was used here.

One example that hasn't caught on much though, is "gross" as in "that's really gross" (disgusting/sick).

 

[NMH]

On another tangent - I find myself embarrassed by general British education many times when I read (for instance) ads on ebay, and Brit newspapers.

 

[dougdeep]

Builder Center, Plumb Center. Grr!!!

 

[philsussex]

But it's still OUR language that THEY'RE borrowing.

Therefore we have had far more influence over them than they have had over us.

Best of all, surely English is becoming more and more global with the spread of technology.

It's about time third world countries like France abandoned their petty dying languages and got on board with English!

 

[little al]

The ENGLISH language is hurtling ever faster towards American language now that online sites insist that English spellings are wrong.

Yes.

It's COLOUR not COLOR

 

[skipper734]

Phrases used in literature written by Americans.
The suit fit him well. (American)
The suit fitted him well. (English)
With my limited education, I know that technically they are both correct, but it just grates.

 

[philsussex]

Phrases used in literature written by Americans.
The suit fit him well. (American)
The suit fitted him well. (English)
With my limited education, I know that technically they are both correct, but it just grates.

To be honest, I wouldn't even have known that one of those was American English. I guess you hear it so much on tv that it just becomes normal.

 

[philsussex]

A few that wind me up.

"For sure" = YES!

I'd say that's more Formula 1 than American.

 

[Hunting 784561]

Americans use the phrase "to protest" as a verb, ie, they 'protest' the war, the white house, dog shit in the streets, etc.

I'm sure most well educated Brits would prefer to "protest against" all of the above.

 

[rcf0712]

A semester is HALF an academic year, whereas there are usually three terms in an academic year over here...

Also, the USA has many 'World' championships, that only American teams enter

we have 2 semesters featuring 2 terms in each here in Oz, and just to make it nice and easy, the school year starts and finishes in the same calendar year.

 

[Arthur]

Halloween can f*** off!

Yes I know it's origins are from this side of the pond but until recent years it's not really been a big thing over here.

The only thing worse than kids celebrating it is adults celebrating it.

And proms?? What's wrong with a bottle of Lambrini at a good old school disco?

 

[backson]

Things or people being named FOR something/someone rather than AFTER.

 

[Spiros]

3. The way that young British women now talk like ditsy American bimbos with likkle girlie voices: 'I'm like, kinda, y'now, sorta, ohmigod, like, err, ooh, Paris Hilton, ohmygod, she's just so, like, kinda, really kinda cool, y'know what I mean. I so admire her, like, really think she's, like, kinda fab.'

Known my daughter long have you?

You do realise she's only 15?

:reaches for shotgun:

 

[smudge]

Blimey, just because some people find the American use of English a bit odd, there's a few people getting on their high horses.
As Mr Winner would say, "Calm down dear".

 

[skipper734]

Blimey, just because some people find the American use of English a bit odd, there's a few people getting on their high horses.
As Mr Winner would say, "Calm down dear".

You are only saying that because they give you larger tips.

 

[beorhthelm]

It astonishes me how many in the UK lack the ability to understand that language and culture have always been changing, usually by importing and exporting.

i think the problem is that alot of the americanism cheapen rather than enrich the langauge. like use of "awesome" for something as trivial as having a good sandwich. see philsussex example, "The suit fit him well.", and the "can i get" annoyance (the answer should always simply be "yes/no"). and i think the overriding concern is *we* arent changing and evolving our language, we are importing a modified dialect and have little input to that evolution. some changes are OK, some arent. btw, at uni we had semester and terms, as pointed out the semester was half the acedemic year and the terms where seperated by the major holidays.

anyway, if "mothers day" seperates "mothering sunday" from original religious conetations, im all for it. christianity nicked yule and easter from the pagans, seems fair the secularist nick a few. Im quite happy to celebrate mum and give her a nice day out.