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

Georgiegirl256

One I'll never use is calling crisps chips....crisps are crisps, and chips are chips, well to me anyhow!

lostinrates

Soubrette wrote: »

I don't find americanisms irritating as such (I am married to a North American after all) but I do find it a bit sad that our own cultural identity is being slowly eroded.
(

This point I can truly get behind. It's not a subtle difference to me.

Dunroamin

I don't like Americanisms but almost as insidious is that awful Australian intonation where there's a lift at the end of a sentence turning everything into a question.

pollypenny

When in the USA I still use British English. The dog is bilingual, knowing pavement and sidewalk.

The baby recognises pushchair and stroller.

One thing I'd like to see here is greater availability of 'rest rooms' in shops. They can be called anything, but lets have them.

Georgiegirl256

Dunroamin wrote: »

I don't like Americanisms but almost as insidious is that awful Australian intonation where there's a lift at the end of a sentence turning everything into a question.

Now that is something that annoys me! At the end of every bleeding sentence as well....

lostinrates

pollypenny wrote: »

When in the USA I still use British English. The dog is bilingual, knowing pavement and sidewalk.

The baby recognises pushchair and stroller.

One thing I'd like to see here is greater availability of 'rest rooms' in shops. They can be called anything, but lets have them.

Rofl. That's the single Americanism that is likely to make me slightly tetchy in uk. It's a loo or a lavatory in my book. Not a bathroom, a restroom or a toilet (not an Americanism, but the same kind of shudder for my parent's generation/'class' and I guess now I'm adult I'm turning into my mother....)

fireyfirenze

Dunroamin wrote: »

I don't like Americanisms but almost as insidious is that awful Australian intonation where there's a lift at the end of a sentence turning everything into a question.

Jessie j when she is on the voice is the worst person I've ever heard for that! every sentence sounds like a question! annoying!

Americanisms do annoy me, mostly when anybody English calls their mobile phone a cell phone or when people say 'I can't come, I'm sick' even though they haven't been sick at all they're just ill.

Georgiegirl256

Ah yes, Jessie J, she really is bad for it!

Soubrette

lostinrates wrote: »

Rofl. That's the single Americanism that is likely to make me slightly tetchy in uk. It's a loo or a lavatory in my book. Not a bathroom, a restroom or a toilet (not an Americanism, but the same kind of shudder for my parent's generation/'class' and I guess now I'm adult I'm turning into my mother....)

My OH calls them bathrooms - anywhere, downstairs toilets, restaurants, they're all bathrooms, much to the consternation of my youngest when we went out for a meal together for the first time. 'He does know there is no bath in there' she asked anxiously, when he took a 'bathroom break'.

On the other hand I think I make my mother-in-law want to vomit whenever I say toilet (I don't like loo - sounds too much like poo!!) - 'I always imagine you actually in the toilet' she says, slightly green in colour

lostinrates

Soubrette wrote: »

My OH calls them bathrooms - anywhere, downstairs toilets, restaurants, they're all bathrooms, much to the consternation of my youngest when we went out for a meal together for the first time. 'He does know there is no bath in there' she asked anxiously, when he took a 'bathroom break'.

On the other hand I think I make my mother-in-law want to vomit whenever I say toilet (I don't like loo - sounds too much like poo!!) - 'I always imagine you actually in the toilet' she says, slightly green in colour

Both bathroom and toilet are niceties. I call a spade a spade. However, well take it to extremes at times. My dh is not a huge fan of his (American) stepmil and often goes to the progressively more common lavatory as the evening goes on. And announces it each time. I'm rarely a fan of winding people up or playing games and I have suggested he not go so far as to call it the brick !!!! house at least.