People using "Americanisms"

[Blue Dwr]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Several "Americanisms" piss me off!

"Reaching out" when talking/contacting someone.
"I'll get a...." as opposed to "please can I have"

Plus spelling.

Z used in place of S, example colonize and colonise
S used in place of C, example offense and offence

Both examples used in this thread by, I assume, people educated in the UK..

Funnily enough though, the omission of the letter U in words like colour doesn't bother me. Hey oh.

[Croesy Blue]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Can I get a coffee? Instead Can I have a coffee , that seems to be an Americanism or is it juts bad grammar?

I was on holiday once and an American in a bar asked a friend how long we were on holiday for, to which the English chap replied 'A fortnight'. The American asks 'What the hell is a fortnight' I had to explain to him in was 14 days and a shortening fourteen nights. He said ' Jeez you guys sure do have a strange language'!! Oh the irony.

I think having a word for 2 weeks is quite a novel thing, I'm not aware of it in any other languages.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Staycation is another one which you'll never hear me saying.

[lardy]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Can I get a coffee? Instead Can I have a coffee , that seems to be an Americanism or is it juts bad grammar?

I was on holiday once and an American in a bar asked a friend how long we were on holiday for, to which the English chap replied 'A fortnight'. The American asks 'What the hell is a fortnight' I had to explain to him in was 14 days and a shortening fourteen nights. He said ' Jeez you guys sure do have a strange language'!! Oh the irony.

He would have understood if you said fortnite.

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Staycation is another one which you'll never hear me saying.

For sure.

[Croesy Blue]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Staycation is another one which you'll never hear me saying.

I always thought a staycation was when you took time off work but stayed in your house but it now seems to be a holiday where you don't fly.

People were probably saying they'dl never use google as a verb 20 years ago, or saying they'd always say smiley rather than emoji. Language evolves and we start using them without realising it.

[xsnaggle]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

I think having a word for 2 weeks is quite a novel thing, I'm not aware of it in any other languages.

French maybe?

[xsnaggle]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Where did the use of ‘sick’ as being used to describe something as being great come from? Did it hail from some Germanic/French word? My American and Canadian colleagues use it every day... and now my kids do too ... Bloody Germans!!!

Some of the words younger people use that mean the opposite what they appear began I read, because of predictive text. A texter would start to type the word he wanted but the predictor put up something else which was not corrected. There was one word in particular that was commented on. I believe from then on it became the in thing , a bit like 'bad' and 'wicked'.

[Croesy Blue]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

French maybe?

French is the one language I'm sure don't have it, they do use lendemain for the day after tomorrow, but we have overmorrow it's just never used.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Several "Americanisms" piss me off!

"Reaching out" when talking/contacting someone.
"I'll get a...." as opposed to "please can I have"

Plus spelling.

Z used in place of S, example colonize and colonise
S used in place of C, example offense and offence

Both examples used in this thread by, I assume, people educated in the UK..

Funnily enough though, the omission of the letter U in words like colour doesn't bother me. Hey oh.

The USA had a stab at making spelling more regular whereas we are left with anomalies such as:

practice (noun), practise (verb)
licence (noun), license (verb)

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Out of the ones I mentioned, back in the day and get go have been around long enough for children to hear them and think that they have always been around, therefore they're perfectly legitimate for them to use and they'd be right - I daresay, answering questions with so falls into the same category as well.

However, the three at the bottom of my message (north of, speaks to and moving forward) fascinate me because they're almost exclusively used by adults in my experience - if I had to guess where they originated, I think it may well be in a kind of media speak, because I barely hear them in face to face conversation,

'North of' and 'South of' have a certain logic whereby those directions are related to up and down - just as we say 'up in Scotland' or 'down in Cornwall'.
However, wearing my cartographer's hat I would say that we have only considered 'North' as 'up' since maps were presented that way.
Historically, many maps used to have East at the top, hence the terms 'to orient', 'orient(at)ed', 'disorient(at)ed' etc.
In those days we would have perhaps said 'up in Norfolk' and 'down in Wales'.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

But so means because, whereas Well indicates an answer to what was asked. As for 'nice' my understanding has always been that nice originally meant fine as in very slim, for example 'a nice distinction' between two points of view. But I believe that the word had several differing meanings.

The word 'nice' came to us via the Latin word 'nascire' and meaning 'not knowing' (or 'no science', as it were).
In due course it came to mean, in turn: ignorant, foolish, timid, fastidious, dainty, careful and, eventually, pleasant.

[Wash DC Blue]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

I probably have quite a bizarre vernacular nowadays.
A hybrid of words, spellings and pronunciations.

I still have that smooth, melodious Newport twang though...Rewnd the Rewndabewt 😁

[life on mars]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

Deplane is the laziest I've heard ,and its lacks a plainness

[tforturton]

Re: People using "Americanisms"

One I've noticed creeping in recently, is to say 'two times' instead of 'twice'. As in "I watched City two times last week". Why is that? It's easier to say twice, surely?