[Closed] Which americanisms would you like to see erased from the english language?

"Can I get"

If you're going to moan about language, at least make an effort.

Americanisms and English language.

Capital letters, you see?

Did you know that "okay" is an Americanism. And "hello".

All of them.

"Can I get"

closely followed by:

"I'll take that with..."

You uneducated, impolite, imperialist slime!

As above all of them.

Was reading LOTR the other month it was so enjoyable to read something written in pure English without a single Americanism or cliche

Movies.

Awesome (in THAT context).

+1 "can I get" init

Every single bloody one!
Number 1:"Heads up" (used regularly on stw!)

"Step up to the plate"
etc etc

And AND AND! DID ANYONE HEAR THE M&S mother's day ad???? "MOM"? m[b]O[/b]m?? UNBELIEVABLE!! 👿

All the ones that duplicate the meaning of words or phrases already in current British English usage.

I'm amazed this has never cropped up before.

Winningest.

'erb

Is 'heads up' an Americanism?

I'm sorry to disagree, but the Americans gave us one of the finest neologisms ever coined.
Gentlemen, please put your hands together for 'embiggen'.

Overmountain

You uneducated, impolite, imperialist slime!

That's a little impolite to those who post on here from the US. And if you're English it's probably best if you ease off accusing others of imperialism. I blame a lack of education on your part 🙂

Howdy, the one that does my nut in is "He needs to step up to the plate", they use it on sports radio all the time. I'm trying to establish "He needs to step up to the cricket crease". I appreciate it hardly rolls off the tongue.

Anything spelled with a zee

Can I vote to save 'misunderestimate' as used by George W Bush?

But get rid of 24/7 etc....

[i]Is 'heads up' an Americanism?
[/i]

You are joking?!

First heard it on NYPD Blue!!

Was reading LOTR the other month it was so enjoyable to read something written in pure English without a single Americanism or cliche

😆

Another one the pillocks use at work is "reach out".
Too many meetings with yanks. Its not as if there aren't plenty of other ways to say it!

"swap out"

I've never "swapped out my crankset" in my life, I've changed them over

It is nice to hear people moaning about [i]Septics[/i] giving us back words and phrases that we exported and then forgot about.
Oh, [i]awesome[/i], [i]stoked[/i], [i]MaccyD[/i], and [i]customer focused[/i].

sssimon - Member

"swap out"

See also 'fry off'.

I like 'swap out' 😳

Why?
What's wrong with 'replace with' or 'change over', or even 'swap'?

Perfectly good phrases that have been in use for years?
Why suddenly start using a phrase from a different language and culture?

Serious question, btw.

I work with them all the time and I take every opportunity to re educate them but it's an uphill struggle when they can't even pronounce Norwich or Edinburgh properly! 😀

De-plane (grinds teeth.....). Otherwise know as "leaving a plane"

Change over ? Why not just say change ?

As it goes none. I don't have any problem with language evolving. Even if that change starts in the USA.

I work with them all the time and I take every opportunity to re educate them .......

Isn't this thread about American words and phrases which British people choose to use ?

Who are you reeducating .......the Brits ?

shipping as in posting something...apple store your item has been shipped...no it bloody hasn't its been parcelled and posted and stuck on a lorry !

Not a common one, but the US use of 'in back of' to mean 'behind' is an odd one - very jarring to read that if you're immersed in an American book.

Sweat pants

There are three creases to be found on the cricket square, these are bowling, return and popping crease, more options than your plate dude oh bugger!

But our language isn't evolving - it's being subsumed word by word into American English.

I've nothing against American English, but it's a different language.

That we enjoy Emglish as the lingua franca, allowing us to be lazy when it comes to learning other languages, simply shouting loudly and slowly at foreigners when we wish to be understood has been maintained by America. So when it comes to spoken English, they're the boss of us. It's painful for some to come to that realisation. But stopping the encroachment of Americanisms is as useful as King Canute telling to tide to go back out. Time to swap out those crappy old phrases we use all the time, give ourselves a reality check, wake up, smell the coffee and embrace it.

Elevator
Sidewalk
License plate (number plate, it's a f******* number plate in this country!)
Power outage

When No2 son kept using americanisms (Microsoft English, offer the option of English English you computer programming fools!) I said if he didn't stop I would pay his pocket money in dollars, took him a while to realise that $20 isn't the same as £20 😆

Or we could beat people who use americanisms until they stop doing so.

Anything that uses an unnecessary number of syllables.
......"Momentarily" meaning "soon", or "at this time" meaning "now"

cookies

I like Bill Bryson's use of language though but he's an honoury Brit now. He does make the point that a lot of the American language is old English with the way it is written and said

"reach out" / "out reach to" - you mean email or call?

"curate a list" - you mean write a list?

"touch base" - you mean talk to?

"27.5" - you mean marketing fodder?

Just **** off and don't come back until you can make proper beer.

until you can make proper beer

Some of the finest beers being currently brewed by UK independents are analogs of American Pale Ales. And they're lovely.

Why suddenly start using a phrase from a different language and culture?

I only said I liked that phrase, didn't say I used it!

Anyhow, it's evolution of language isn't it? Not too long ago we were just grunting in different pitches to communicate.

The way to fight against the Ameriglobalization of what used to be English is to promote the use of dialect to maintain ones cultural heritage and sustain the local identities which characterise this green and pleasant land.

Anyhow, it's evolution of language isn't it? Not too long ago we were just grunting in different pitches to communicate.

I fairly sure we didn't go from grunting in different pitches to speaking English.

We'll bearing in mind English is a mongrel language with roots based in Latin,, a wide variety of Celtic languages, French, old German, Norse and a whole lot more I fail to see what's the problem with more input from elsewhere.

Languages evolve over time as populations move around. Nowadays there is so much information movement that all langauges are evolving and changing.

....sorry, too pedantic? ( by the way, the English word pedant is from the French word pedant (accent on the e) and is itself based on the Italian word pedante which actually means "teacher" and that itself has a Latin and then a Greek basis...etc etc.)

Ok Then I would go for "Hello" as it's a made up word and banning it for being an Americanism would be a laugh as we would all have to say "Ahoyhoy" as a greeting on the phone as Alexander Graham Bell intended 😉

"analogs of" - you mean similar to or inspired by 🙂

Anyway, us Brits invented Pale Ale (along with most of the stuff that's worth having).

Anything spelled with a zee

The obsession with removing the letter "z" from words which should, by their etymology, contain one is a peculiar trait of poorly educated English people - if anything, the so called "American" spellings are the more traditional, with the "s" spellings being the upstart interlopers. A quick look through the OED will tell you that the -ize spellings are often the older, for example, the earliest record of "organize" is 1425 - before America was even discovered and "realise" dates back to 1611, with "realise" not appearing until over a century later in 1755.

There are a small number of words where the -ize ending is not used, because that section of the word comes from a different root word, rather than being a verb ending - e.g. always promise, because it comes from "mise" meaning sending - but these are the exception, not the rule - the idea that the rule should be one way or another (i.e. all z's or no z's) is seriously misinformed.

"analogs of" - you mean similar to or inspired by

Surely the problem is not using the word analogue correctly, it's spelling it incorrectly.

bearnecessities - Member

Anyhow, it's evolution of language isn't it?

The replacement of perfectly good, commonly used words and phrases by americanisms is not evolution.
It's more of a surrender. Or a betrayal. 😀

muddy@rseguy - Member

We'll bearing in mind English is a mongrel language with roots based in Latin,, a wide variety of Celtic languages, French, old German, Norse and a whole lot more I fail to see what's the problem with more input from elsewhere.

It's not 'more input'.
British English is being replaced, not added to.

Or did they mean pronouncing z as "zee" rather than "zed"?

"analogs of" - you mean similar to or inspired by

Well done. You understood me. Even though, that wasn't quite what I meant, but anyway, moving on...

Anyway, us Brits invented Pale Ale (along with most of the stuff that's worth having).

Simply reminding you that Americans brew some rather fine beers these days. It's not all Bud, Miller and Schlitz. And it hasn't been for a while. IIRC, there were plenty fine brews available from American Microbreweries (as they were known back then) when I used to go there for work in the mid nineties. Around the time that UK real ale production was dying on its arse and everyone was drinking fricking Caffereys. 😀

The replacement of perfectly good, commonly used words and phrases by americanisms is not evolution.
It's more of a surrender. Or a betrayal.

[b]Now[/b] we get to the issue!

Let's face it, if you have such strong feelings about English as it was when you were taught, then that's fair enough, but you should probably apply such stringency to your grammatical skillz before getting all uppity. 😉

Edit:

I fairly sure we didn't go from grunting in different pitches to speaking English

Bristol?

Gotten

Hey ho, as always the glib tounge in cheek thread becomes something entirely different!

Arseholes who say MOM, you're from Oldham, not California...

DD - I actually agree with you, I remember tucking into some pretty nice stuff from Boston quite a while back.

Anyway, back on topic...

"color way" - aarrgghhh

bearnecessities - Member

Now we get to the issue!

Let's face it, if you have such strong feelings about English as it was when you were taught, then that's fair enough, but you should probably apply such stringency to your grammatical skillz before getting all uppity.

As to my grammatical skillz, well, we all make mistakes, innit?
I don't use spellcheck on here either, as I'm sure you've noticed 🙂

Moe - Member

Hey ho, as always the glib tounge in cheek thread becomes something entirely different!

"this hour"

Or did they mean pronouncing z as "zee" rather than "zed"?

I think aracer was having a little joke when he said "Anything spelled with a zee".

Anything that uses an unnecessary number of syllables.
......"Momentarily" meaning "soon"

Except that's not what it means; it means "for a moment", not "in a moment".

I flew to Europe a couple of weeks back and the Captain announced that we would "be in the air momentarily"; I thought, I bloody hope not.

ernie knows me too well - I was getting a bit worried there for a while that the standard of pedantry on here was slipping. Though it's a multilayered joke, and you'd have had to read my contributions to the MH370 thread to get all the subtleties 😉

Can I get, is a bit aggravating because it's wrong and sounds rude. Worse is the use of like, like, [i]literally[/i] all the time. It's like - so annoying.

I really like southern American accents and think a lot of American phrases add to our language not detract from it.

whats worse is brits using american pronunciation of english words. I heard a pure (uk) fud on radio 4 say route (as in pout) instead of route (as in soot). If fekn radio 4 are at it we are all doomed.

"Dude", "cool" ... what do I know I am alien zombie maggot anyway. 😆

Math
Hi, I'm your new best friend
Is that to go....
Heads up (note to self, be careful)
De-plane
Do you have de-caff? :wink (Nancy Reagan at Buck House)

All of them please.

Stoked

I'm in/from the US and I don't take any offense at the opinions expressed in the thread and I must agree that we have most certainly convoluted the use of English as it was once was.

Worse is the use of like, like, literally all the time. It's like - so annoying.

This^^^^----especially prevalent among younger people, who use "like" half a dozen times in a sentence--almost as irritating as someone who says "umm" about every 4 or 5 words when speaking.
Edit

gotten

Eh? A more "correct" past participle of "got", which was exported to the New World and neatly maintained without Brits making the effort and you're complaining?

You need to be careful: getting into this sort if ill informed chauvinism can confuse a stupid person.

busydog - Member

I'm in/from the US and I don't take any offense at the opinions expressed in the thread

Good.
Non intended on my part I can assure you. 🙂

ourmaninthenorth - Member

gotten

Eh? A more "correct" past participle of "got", which was exported to the New World and neatly maintained without Brits making the effort and you're complaining?

Hmm.
You could look at it another way:
American English an British English are very different languages.
Therefore, 'gotten' was not maintained by busydog and his countrymen, it was appropriated.
It could be said that it is no longer a synonym for 'got', despite what some British English users, so eager to ape American culture, might think.

You need to be careful: getting into this sort if ill informed chauvinism can confuse a stupid person.

They're not different languages though are they? I can't remember needing an interpreter when conversing with an American. Can you? At most, they might be considered different dialects - though even that would be a stretch.

Depends on who you speak to DD*.

For the purposes of our current discussion, I am taking the position that they are. 🙂

I would argue that if Scots English can be classed as a separate language, then American English should be thought of as worthy of the same honour.

*Most linguists say no.
I say yes. Bloody linguists, who the hell do they think they are anyway, coming round here with their research, facts and perfectly reasonable hypotheses?
😀

From [i]Mother Tongue[/i], by Bill Bryson:

One of the undoubted virtues of English is that it is a fluid and democratic language in which meanings shift and change in response to the pressures of common usage rather than the dictates of committees. It is a natural process that has been going on for centuries. To interfere with that process is arguably both arrogant and futile, since clearly the weight of usage will push new meanings into currency no matter how many authorities hurl themselves into the path of change.
But at the same time there is a case for resisting change - at least slapdash change. As John Ciardi observed, resistance may in the end prove futile, but at least it tests the changes and makes them prove their worth.

I would argue that if Scots English can be classed as a separate language, then American English should be thought of as worthy of the same honour.

Sometimes relatively obscure British dialect words have been carried overseas, where they have unexpectedly prospered. The usual American word for stealing a look, peek, was originally a dialect word in England, existing in only three pockets of East Anglia - but that was the area from which many of the first immigrants came. Three of the most pervasive Australianisms, fair dinkum, cobber and no worries, appear to have their roots in English dialectical expressions.

Rusty 😆

Well, it's an opinion, CZ. 🙂

Personally, I love the way British English continues with it's natural evolution - immigration and assimilation have enriched our language immessurably and hopefully will continue to do so.

However, there is simply no excuse for our media to promote americanisms where a perfectly satisfactory British English equivalent is in common usage.
It's cultural vandalism and should be treated with laughter, ridicule and contempt.

Both my stepdaughters talk like they're in an episode of 'Friends'.
I blame their mother for not beating it out of them when she had the chance and I also blame the media for it's wholesale acceptance and promotion of American Culture in preference to our own.