Americanisms

Shaunmg

Shaunmg

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Are you irritated by Americanisms creeping into the English language and culture? If you are, what winds you up? I was in the club house at the weekend and overheard a young fella referring to someone as “that dude wearing the white top”

I get irritated when someone asks the question on greeting them “ how are you?” then gets the Americanism reply “I’m good” It was always “fine thanks how are you”

Thanks to the Aussie soaps we are now even getting Australianisms cropping up. You don’t clatt tail or grass on someone, now you dobb them in.

What about for example; if you make an error when driving and the other driver sticks his single middle finger up at you. Whatever happened to the good old British two finger V sign? We were throwing V signs before America was ever discovered. As far as I’m concerned they can stick their middle finger where the sun doesn’t shine. It’s two fingers from me

By the way; it’s a bunker not a trap

Yours truly
Grumpyoldsod
 
Are you irritated by Americanisms creeping into the English language and culture? If you are, what winds you up? I was in the club house at the weekend and overheard a young fella referring to someone as “that dude wearing the white top”

I get irritated when someone asks the question on greeting them “ how are you?” then gets the Americanism reply “I’m good” It was always “fine thanks how are you”

Thanks to the Aussie soaps we are now even getting Australianisms cropping up. You don’t clatt tail or grass on someone, now you dobb them in.

What about for example; if you make an error when driving and the other driver sticks his single middle finger up at you. Whatever happened to the good old British two finger V sign? We were throwing V signs before America was ever discovered. As far as I’m concerned they can stick their middle finger where the sun doesn’t shine. It’s two fingers from me

By the way; it’s a bunker not a trap

Yours truly
Grumpyoldsod
Click to expand...

Hey, like take a chill pill, buddy.
 
I earn my crust at an American Bank ( and no - the 2008 meltdown was not because I pushed the wrong button...)

I have the daily 'pleasure' of having Americanisms, blended with 'business speak'

I was on a conf call last week where a 'dude' said : " we have already built the pipes, it's now up to us what we flow through them..."

Thank god I was on mute at the time !!!
 
relax pardner, you hail from these parts?

dont go dissing my home boys in the good ole U S of A Homey!

these dudes get down and get with it, if it werent fer them we'd have no poarch or sidewalk, trunk of the car, 4x4's, SUV's or guys called Bubba!
 
No way I could let this one go without contributing ...

Defense and offense is the correct way to describe sports in America. Offence is what a rioter did and defence is a tactic in Chess.

On a slightly sidetrack, I can use the words "bollocks" and "wanker" on American radio as they are not on the banned list. I had a great 10 minutes live on air a couple of years back in which we kept referring to Tony Blair as a "complete wanker".

Magnificent race the Americans. This country would be in a right bloody mess without them.
 
I love the yanks and their language. Should we use it here ? Dunno, that's a personal choice.

We were in Pennsylvania in the summer and I had a discussion at a 4th of July party-thing with a guy who worked for a refuse collection company. He said that the guys who work for him chucking the bags of rubbish onto the trucks are called "Tossers". When I burst out laughing, his wife asked what was so funny and wanted to know what a "tosser" was in "England". I had to tell her explicitly. She was very embarrassed. Mercifully I was slightly half cut on the blue alcoholic liquid being freely served by this stage therefore not embarrassed at all.

Almost as good as me and the Boy bursting out laughing in the Capitol building in Washington DC when the tour guide said "Ok, everyone pick up their fannypacks and let's go".
 
I love it that the robot in Futurama is called Bender and that the yanks wouldn't understand why that in itself is mildly amusing (in a schoolboy humour way).

And please, no accusations of Homophobia, I'm not.

Personally I think a good old fashioned V sign is much better than the middle finger - primarily down to it's historical origins
 
there was this one time, I remember when in Africa I'd said my GF was in the toilet, the whole house erupted in laughter and they told all their friends who probably dined out for weeks.
Apparently toilet in the local tribe dialec and pronounced too-i-leeeeet means 'middle of the rubber tree'
We laughed and laughed, those crazy African kids :shakes head smiley:
 
Did you know lots of American language is actually closer to original 'proper' English (for want of a better term for it) than the language we speak now.

British English has evolved a lot more than American English, it's a common occurrence among colonised nations, as settlers tend to make more effort to maintain the mother tongue, whilst this doesn't happen in the homeland and the language evolves.

One thing that I'm not a fan of is using nouns as verbs.
E.g "I golfed" instead of "I played golf"
 
No way I could let this one go without contributing ...


On a slightly sidetrack, I can use the words "bollocks" and "wanker" on American radio as they are not on the banned list. I had a great 10 minutes live on air a couple of years back in which we kept referring to Tony Blair as a "complete wanker".

Magnificent race the Americans. This country would be in a right bloody mess without them.
Click to expand...

Good job you didn't tell them you enjoyed eating faggots, you'd have been deported :D
 
Are you irritated by Americanisms creeping into the English language and culture? If you are, what winds you up? I was in the club house at the weekend and overheard a young fella referring to someone as “that dude wearing the white top”
Click to expand...

calm down calm down (nodding head side to side) ;)
 
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