Americanisms

It doesn't mean that here. We don't have many "holidays" of your meaning other than Christmas, Bank Holidays and maybe Easter.

I'm aware of that, but for someone complaining about American English, you seem awful blind to the inconsistencies in your own dialect. Even over there, 'holiday' is mostly a singular noun, derived from 'holy day' and implying an event of a single day. Technically, the common Brit English use of it is actually incorrect. :p

Do you guys not get off for Guy Fawkes? No, not that kind of "get off", though far be it for me to judge if you prefer to celebrate with those kinds of fireworks.

I believe they do, think it's November 5. They also get that "Boxing Day" thing off, too.
 
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I don't think I've ever had the 5th of November off. Boxing day yes, 5th November, no.
 
Eh, it's still listed as a holiday in the guides I have here. Guess it's like Flag Day here - yes, it's technically a holiday, no, nobody gets the day off with pay.
 
I'm aware of that, but for someone complaining about American English, you seem awful blind to the inconsistencies in your own dialect. Even over there, 'holiday' is mostly a singular noun, derived from 'holy day' and implying an event of a single day. Technically, the common Brit English use of it is actually incorrect. :p

In casual conversation Holiday is more often replaced with Holidays, "i'm going on my holidays tomorrow", so technically the colloquialism is actually the correct use of the word.

Eh, it's still listed as a holiday in the guides I have here. Guess it's like Flag Day here - yes, it's technically a holiday, no, nobody gets the day off with pay.

It is referred to as Guy Fawkes "Night", not Guy Fawkes "Day", it has never been a holiday so your guide is wrong.
 
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In casual conversation Holiday is more often replaced with Holidays, "i'm going on my holidays tomorrow", so technically the colloquialism is actually the correct use of the word.

At least with the people in the UK I do business with, the singular and not the plural seems to be by far the more common usage - and Top Gear tends to confirm that. 'On holiday in Spain,' to quote at least one episode. In which case, if you're gone more than one day, it's technically wrong. :p
 
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As Spectre said 'Zed' is an abomination. You don't call a 'B' 'Bet" nor do you call 'G' 'Gam'. American English has a much more consistent truncation. The same can also be said for spelling, being as we were never conquered by some french bastard like the English we never felt obligated to depend on the French's incompetency in spelling. We spell words like 'labor' and 'color' the way they are in Latin, not the drunken mess that is the French written language. Yes I am aware of 'center', however that spelling was changed for ease and consistency.

There are a few more rants, such as American English's more accurate use of singular groups, but I'm too lazy to delve into that now.
 
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As Spectre said 'Zed' is an abomination. You don't call a 'B' 'Bet" nor do you call 'G' 'Gam'. American English has a much more consistent truncation. The same can also be said for spelling, being as we were never conquered by some french bastard like the English we never felt obligated to depend on the French's incompetency in spelling. We spell words like 'labor' and 'color' the way they are in Latin, not the drunken mess that is the French written language. Yes I am aware of 'center', however that spelling was changed for ease and consistency.

There are a few more rants, such as American English's more accurate use of singular groups, but I'm too lazy to delve into that now.

Americans need the language to be more simple :shifty::shifty:

see what i done thar
 
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Oh spotted on NCIS recently - the word bollocks and the word chips to mean French Fries, not in common usage in the US I think, it was funny Di Nozzo saying bollocks though!

Was it the episode with the British spy, or was DiNozzo (Yes, it's one word) doing his Connery impersonation?
 
At least with the people in the UK I do business with, the singular and not the plural seems to be by far the more common usage - and Top Gear tends to confirm that. 'On holiday in Spain,' to quote at least one episode. In which case, if you're gone more than one day, it's technically wrong. :p

I don't think there's a "right" or "wrong" about it really. Every country has differences, it doesn't mean one is wrong.
 
I find myself using British word usage occasionally. Must be the copious amounts of British comedy and Top Gear I watch.
 
I don't think there's a "right" or "wrong" about it really. Every country has differences, it doesn't mean one is wrong.

Surprised to hear that from a Brit. Usually it's the, "it's English because it came from England, speak correctly!" to which I respond with something about them losing a few wars to a couple of hicks on this side of the pond. :mrgreen:

I could care less which way things are said or pronounced. Things are bound to differ when you live this far apart. Hell, over here we can't figure out what to call things like Coke or Pepsi. Where I live, it's soda, my cousins live ~300 miles away and they call it pop, and everyone down in San Antonio (Texas) where my aunt lives calls it a Coke. You go to get some food, and they ask you, what kind of Coke do you want? :lol: My first time down there I said, uhh do you have cherry? Caught me off guard. Language is actually a very interesting thing to study.
 
Was it the episode with the British spy, or was DiNozzo (Yes, it's one word) doing his Connery impersonation?
No I was not season 8. Can not remember which but he was talking to Ziva - work environment male to female saying Bollocks, not here I think.

Oh I remember another one not language per se. McGee went into a container and said it was like a TARDIS! woa.
 
I wonder if the internet and people talking to other people everywhere will eventually kill off local dialects and merge everything into one language.
 
Ok so while I do say quite a few of these and I understand how this might of a grammatical annoyance to some, there's still a great sense of anal retentiveness here.

1. When people ask for something, I often hear: "Can I get a..." It infuriates me. It's not New York. It's not the 90s. You're not in Central Perk with the rest of the Friends. Really." Steve, Rossendale, Lancashire

Steve - The cashier at McDonalds is not going to understand "May I have a", this is not a formal setting. And if it was, we'd be using "I'll have" or "I would like". "May I have" is one of my annoyances, it's passive.

4. Using 24/7 rather than "24 hours, 7 days a week" or even just plain "all day, every day". Simon Ball, Worcester

We like things short and sweet, we don't have time to sit there and roll out 20 different words for something that can be said in 1 second.

11. Transportation. What's wrong with transport? Greg Porter, Hercules, CA, US

What? WHAT?! THEY'RE BOTH THE SAME THING. In fact, Transportation is more of a noun than transport is because transport is also a verb!

14. I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself. I've never lived nor been to the US either. Graham Nicholson, Glasgow

My labmate nat also got pissed off at this one. Just because they expect a cart to be like a wooden box being towed by a cow. The trolley in San Diego is the train that takes you around downtown and old town, and even down to Tijuana.

16. "I'm good" for "I'm well". That'll do for a start. Mike, Bridgend, Wales

I say this all the time, but I guess I'm good with this complaint as it's not really proper.

22. Train station. My teeth are on edge every time I hear it. Who started it? Have they been punished? Chris Capewell, Queens Park, London

Chris Capewell, I'm coming to your house and cooking you and your mentally disabled anal retentive spawn. WTF IS WRONG WITH TRAIN STATION? WTF DO YOU SAY? Train Stop? Train Junction? Train Depot? You're retarded.

31. "Hike" a price. Does that mean people who do that are hikers? No, hikers are ramblers! M Holloway, Accrington

You are also fucking retarded:

hike
- 6 dictionary results
hike
? ?/ha?k/ Show Spelled [hahyk] Show IPA verb, hiked, hik?ing, noun
?verb (used without object)
1.
to walk or march a great distance, especially through rural areas, for pleasure, exercise, military training, or the like.
2.
to move up or rise, as out of place or position (often followed by up ): My shirt hikes up if I don't wear a belt.
3.
Nautical . to hold oneself outboard on the windward side of a heeling sailboat to reduce the amount of heel.
Ad
?verb (used with object)
4.
to move, draw, or raise with a jerk (often followed by up ): to hike up one's socks.
5.
to increase, often sharply and unexpectedly: to hike the price of milk.


36. Surely the most irritating is: "You do the Math." Math? It's MATHS. Michael Zealey, London

Math is fewer letters than maths and is easier to say. Do the math, which word has fewer letters.

38. My worst horror is expiration, as in "expiration date". Whatever happened to expiry? Christina Vakomies, London

THEY'RE THE SAME FUCKING WORD!!!!!

42. Period instead of full stop. Stuart Oliver, Sunderland

Fuck you, your name is Stuart. You sound like a girly man. Go plug up your full stop with a "sanitary towel".



I hate it when British people say "Innit", and don't pronounce the R in a letter. It's "Cart" not "caaaaaaaaaaaaaat". Also, "Me" instead of "my". It doesn't annoy me, but if you can be this anal retentive then so can I. It's "my friends" not "me friends". Edit: Ooh and one thing that REALLLLY annoys me is the way you guys say "At" instead of "Ate" like "Eight".


Apparently the western US is the only place where we say 'Gotta' instead of "got to". Is this true?


Edit: Oh and I love how no-one here has picked on the southern dialect. "I seen it go by", "I'm fixin to go to the bar", "I'm fixin to meet up with Tom", "I'm fixin to get me a new car".
 
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It's "Cart" not "caaaaaaaaaaaaaat". Also, "Me" instead of "my". It doesn't annoy me, but if you can be this anal retentive then so can I. It's "my friends" not "me friends".

I believe caaaaaaaaaaaaaat is the Aussie pronunciation :p. I have to agree with you on your hated from "innit", it's horrible.

There are no Americanisms that annoy me really, I never understood the frequent use of "take care" at the end of a conversation but that's just me.

With that said, I believe there are some words that will never sound right coming from certain accents. An example is that I've heard a man from the US use the word "quid" over here which just sounded horrible. It's a bit like the fact that British people cannot say faggot without sounding silly, and Americans bollocks or bugger without sounding equally foolish.
 
Steve said:
You're not in Central Perk with the rest of the Friends, this is Englandland my good sir.

Which reminds me...

hellobv.jpgHow YOU doin?

in a hideous attempt at an American accent can still be heard over 500 times in a single night in English bars. It needs to die.

And yes, I know that Americans are actually pronouncing/spelling it all right and we're wrong and jaguar is jagwarrr becuase that's what the Incas called their sports cars and it's actually called 'my country tis of thee' and you saved our ass in world war two but not after our huge army got defeated by a bunch of colonial farmers and my dental care is awful and we're all gay and
 
Come to Baaaahst'n in yah caaaaaaah. You'll change yah mind soon enough :D

:lol: you're right.

Were the original Bostonians British?
 
'my country tis of thee'
Yeah, it was weird when I realized where the tune came from. Considering the Star-Spangled Banner used the tune of an old drinking song, in America's defense it's just carrying on a grand old (old by the American definition, not the British one) tradition.

:lol: you're right.
Were the original Bostonians British?

Yup, them Puritans yo (c'mon dude, it's on the east coast in a region called New England, of course they were :p). Still no excuse for how revolting the current accent is.
 
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Apparently the western US is the only place where we say 'Gotta' instead of "got to". Is this true?
No.

I don't really get why some people get so uptight about someone else speaking differently. I'm actually at a point where I like it. I do have one pet peeve however, and that is Matthew Keenan (some Australian commentator) lending his voice to part of Tour de France action and he absolutely loves the word debut fitting it 20-30 times in a span of 2 hrs. I've nothing against the word (or the guy) but his pronunciation as day-boo just irritates the fuck out of me.
 
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