Americanisms...is it just me that finds them irritating?

lostinrates

Dunroamin wrote: »

The US forum I frequent has appallingly bad grammar etc and nobody would ever dream of correcting anybody else. I'm sure there's as much difference between US forum members as there is between those of us in the UK.

I used to be a member of an American owned forum with a hugely international membership where there were constant rows about spelling and grammar. In the end I left as it got too exhausting. Rows were often over such things as we have discussed here and we all got very heartfelt about it and whatever we were arguing. Now I just feel....I don't really mind anymore so long as both correct forms live on.

Nada666

Notre Dame, clique and route.

coolcait

adouglasmhor wrote: »

Sideburns are what I have always called them and I am 50, to me sideboards are items of furniture. They used to be called mutton chops.

I agree.

Sideboards are items of furniture.

Whereas, sidebreezers are the bits of male facial topiary formerly known as 'mutton chops'.

Sideburns are an alternative English name for sidebreezers.

US English vocabulary doesn't bother me in the slightest.

US English grammar variants don't particularly irk me either.

The phrase 'can I get' must have been in regular use in my part of Scotland for several decades. When I was a child, parents would often say to their demanding children "C'n-ah-git, c'n-ah-git!". Naw! Ye cannae!"

I don't think they were telling us to stop using the phrase 'Can I get'. They were telling us to stop asking for things.

My personal bugbear is the 'should of/would of/could of'; 'I have went'; 'I have wrote'; 'I done'; 'I seen'; 'I never went out last Saturday' approach to grammar.

Ten after four? Ten past four? Not that much difference really.

Richard53

coolcait wrote: »

Sideboards are items of furniture.

Whereas, sidebreezers are the bits of male facial topiary formerly known as 'mutton chops'.

Or, as my Gran used to call them, 'b*ggers' grips'

Richard53

pollypenny wrote: »

There is one American habit I hate when in the USA - the way they use 'Jnr' or 'Snr' after names.

They even do this in obituaries when 'Joseph Smith, Jnr' has died at the age of 90!

I've noticed that American fathers are more likely then Brits to give their eldest son their own forename. The Jnr/Snr thing is just a way of distinguishing the generations. So:

John Smith
John Smith Jnr
John Smith III

And so on ...

If John Smith calls his son Dwayne, there's no problem.

Pollycat

New sign in our local Wetherspoons:

TEA & SPECIALTY COFFEE

"Specialty"? "Specialty"?

Where's the other 'i' gone, then?

According to Oxford Concise, 'specialty' is North American for 'speciality'.

There is a 'specialty' in English but that is a legal term:
'an intrument under seal'
and that is the only 'proper' use of the word 'specialty' in standard Britsh English.

Shame on you, Wetherspoons. :rotfl:

pollypenny

Nada666 wrote: »

No, but heal thyself! When did 'pushchairs' become 'buggies'?

Edit: oops, beaten to it by two-and-a-half days.

When Maclaren introduced that lovely little stripes one that folded like an umbrella!

To me a buggy is lighter than a pushchair.

pollypenny

Richard53 wrote: »

I've noticed that American fathers are more likely then Brits to give their eldest son their own forename. The Jnr/Snr thing is just a way of distinguishing the generations. So:

John Smith
John Smith Jnr
John Smith III

And so on ...

If John Smith calls his son Dwayne, there's no problem.

You miss my main point. The suffix, 'Jnr' is used when senior is long gone, as in obituaries. Who cares if you carry a family name. Was your family so precious?

adouglasmhor

zaksmum wrote: »

You know what I mean. It's as much a country as America is and black people in America are referred to now as African Americans

People say America they mean the USA, try calling a Canadian an American they won't go for it, Africa is a continent with 61 de facto independent states.

adouglasmhor

Person_one wrote: »

They're both continents, rather than countries, wasn't that the point?

Brazilians, Mexicans, Colombians, Canadians and Jamaicans are all Americans despite not being from the USA.

They are all from the Americas (which is 2 continents) maybe, not the same as America.