What Americanism does your head in?

Cool Mo D

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I always called a TV show a programme. Every year there would be a new series, not a new season.

One Americanism I hate is 'freedom of speech'. Usually when someone on the internet uses this phrase what they mean is "I can say whatever nasty things I like about whoever I like and get away with it" ignoring the fact that actual freedom of speech isn't absolute and excludes slander, libel and hate speech.

If you live in America, hate speech is absolutely protected by freedom of speech. And libel and slander are very hard to prove there too.

Gandhi

somesoldiers wrote: »

what is the American deal with dates 01/02/2014 is February 1st not the 2nd of January? smallest/bigger/biggest- in my head anyway.
Although probably the most (in)famous date 9/11 would sound a bit quare if everyone went round calling it 11/9 or maybe am just used to 9/11

Because that is how they talk. They don't say "the 26th of September"; they say "September 26th". When they write it down numerically they just write it in the same order that they say it.

Fascinating internet fact that I'm too lazy to google a link for: The US Military uses European-style day/month/year dates on all its official documents. This is one of the ways that the Roswell Alien Autopsy claims were exposed as a hoax. Fake military documents with month/day/year dates on them.

Other fascinating barely-relevant-to-the-thread fact: Americans spell honour as "honor" except on wedding invitations when they say "We request the HONOUR of your presence".

Miss Lizzie Jones

IvaBigWun wrote: »

What Americanism does your head in?

Their fondness for guns.

carlmango11

Calling people "dicks" instead of "dickheads".

OMG Josh is such a dick.

caolfx

bottlebrush wrote: »

Can I fix you a bite to eat. . .


Another one is 'get in the car' instead of get into the car etc

This is just ridiculous.

'Get in the car'? There's nothing specifically American about it!

tastyt

tastyt wrote: »

Fools giving peace signs in selfies. Jog the **** on

Ha ha, this is ironically a 'Cockneysim'

Hold the Cheez Whiz

carlmango11 wrote: »

Calling people "dicks" instead of "dickheads".

OMG Josh is such a dick.

I think that both are commonly used.

diomed

"That's what I'm talking about"

BoJack Horseman

diomed wrote: »

"That's what I'm talking about"

What would Irish people use that's better?

(Maybe "ya know, like" ..... which is worse)

Though its either used as an agreement in conversation or a standalone roared by largely black NFL players when they do something good.

JohnMearsheimer

Tacking right on to the end of questions.

It's cold outside, right?

You're coming out tonight, right?

Fiolina

Whateverrrrr...

Also " I was really pissed at him"...

pickarooney

bluewolf wrote: »

I also use series to mean a new series of doctor who is coming out etc, and americans say season
Don't understand the confusion there
It is A tv series also but there're two uses

If an American says there's a new series of CSI you know it's a new franchise in a new city. If a British person says thre's a new series it might be just season 42 of CSI:Des Moines.

pickarooney

pickarooney wrote: »

If an American says there's a new series of CSI you know it's a new franchise in a new city. If a British person says thre's a new series it might be just season 42 of CSI:Des Moines.

Yes, that's what I was saying

pickarooney

bluewolf wrote: »

Yes, that's what I was saying

So you do understand the possible confusion?

pickarooney

pickarooney wrote: »

So you do understand the possible confusion?

I don't understand how there's a whole thread of "a series obviously always means a tv series and could never be an alternative to 'season' "
Americans say one thing and UK says the other

pickarooney

Oh, right, yeah.

Quazzie

Egginacup wrote: »

Em....it's "capisce"

Not in 'Merica it's not!!!!

:cool:

Karl Stein

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Program? its Programme! :mad:

'Programme' just looks ridiculous. I much prefer spellings that read more like the word is said and in that regard I feel US English is superior to UK English.

liter > litre
center > centre
----ize > ----ise
anesthetic > anaesthetic

o1s1n

Karl Stein wrote: »

'Programme' just looks ridiculous. I much prefer spellings that read more like the word is said and in that regard I feel US English is superior to UK English.

liter > litre
center > centre
----ize > ----ise
anesthetic > anaesthetic

It just looks dumbed down - which is what it is.

Baron Kurtz

Don't get your panties in a bunch! I love that one.

Baron Kurtz

somesoldiers wrote: »

what is the American deal with dates 01/02/2014 is February 1st not the 2nd of January? smallest/bigger/biggest- in my head anyway.
Although probably the most (in)famous date 9/11 would sound a bit quare if everyone went round calling it 11/9 or maybe am just used to 9/11

The comedian Stewart Lee made a tiresome reference to this in one of his sketches, calling it the 9th of November, quite smugly and repetitively, like Europeans had a monopoly on the order of things like this. For an apparently clever comedian, this was somewhat an ignorant observation that contradicts his 'witty' approach to comedy.
He has a lot of worthy, funny and humorous insights in general but this was a little lame.

Billy86

I'm sure it's been mention already, but "write me". If anyone said that do me I would just scribble the word "me" down on a piece of paper and give to them.

Also "all of sports" as a follow on to the "world series" comment earlier, eg. "team x/player y are the most successful/recogniseable/best in all of sports over the last 7 years". Meanwhile you're thinking Messi? Ronaldo? Barcelona? Spain? It's not like they are ignoring rugby or a less popular sport... football is the biggest in the whole world, no matter how bitter a lot of Americans are about that fact. It is getting bigger there recently, though.

ceadaoin.

Billy86 wrote: »

It's not like they are ignoring rugby or a less popular sport... football is the biggest in the whole world, no matter how bitter a lot of Americans are about that fact. It is getting bigger there recently, though.

Football? I think you'll find it's called soccer!

rab!dmonkey

'Rate of speed' in contexts where 'acceleration' makes no sense.
'It happened Thursday'. Removing the 'on' is often confusing.
Pronouncing 'niche' as 'nitch'.

There are arguments to be made for both big-endian and little-endian date formats (the better arguments are for the big-endian format though), but the US's 'middle-endian' format is decidedly inferior to both.

Karl Stein wrote: »

liter > litre

The SI Brochure specifies 'litre'. 'Liter' is incorrect.

Billy86

ceadaoin. wrote: »

Football? I think you'll find it's called soccer!

Well to be fair there's a fair argument about it being called soccer from NFL, GAA or even Aussie rules fans, matter of preference really.

Never got why Americans insist on calling football that though. Only two guys on the 53 man team are allowed to use their feet, one of whom on comes on for field goals (like penalty kicks in rugby) and the other for punts (like kicking for touch/lineouts off a set piece in rugby). And these guys are openly hated and seen as beneath the rest of the players on their FOOTBALL team because "all they do is kick the ball". It's really weird.

Billy86

rab!dmonkey wrote: »

''It happened Thursday'. Removing the 'on' is often confusing.

People from (usually the North of) England do this a lot as well, just in a different way... "I went down shop to pick up newspaper, and what do I see but Indian across road has closed down."

Karl Stein

o1s1n wrote: »

It just looks dumbed down - which is what it is.

US English looks more phonetically correct; if anything UK English looks dumb.

rab!dmonkey

Billy86 wrote: »

People from (usually the North of) England do this a lot as well, just in a different way... "I went down shop to pick up newspaper, and what do I see but Indian across road has closed down."

Yes, but there it's recognised as a colloquialism and doesn't find its way into formal discourse.

Jimoslimos

rab!dmonkey wrote: »

There are arguments to be made for both big-endian and little-endian date formats (the better arguments are for the big-endian format though), but the US's 'middle-endian' format is decidedly inferior to both.

For file naming anyway it is far easier to organise using YYYY_MM_DD.

ceadaoin.

Billy86 wrote: »

Well to be fair there's a fair argument about it being called soccer from NFL, GAA or even Aussie rules fans, matter of preference really.

Never got why Americans insist on calling football that though. Only two guys on the 53 man team are allowed to use their feet, one of whom on comes on for field goals (like penalty kicks in rugby) and the other for punts (like kicking for touch/lineouts off a set piece in rugby). And these guys are openly hated and seen as beneath the rest of the players on their FOOTBALL team because "all they do is kick the ball". It's really weird.

Well it evolved from rugby football as it was called then so that's why it is named american football. I don't think the kickers are looked down on? I've never heard anything like that. Many games are won by a field goal or extra point conversion so it's not like they do nothing.

Billy86

Karl Stein wrote: »

US English looks more phonetically correct; if anything UK English looks dumb.

Pretty interesting article on it, actually... http://www.cracked.com/article_20713_5-reasons-english-language-makes-no-freaking-sense_p1.html

In the 11th century, English had developed its own standardized set of spelling conventions that had an almost perfectly phonemic orthography -- meaning that each letter had a specific sound it made, regardless of what word it appeared in or what other letters were around it. People went around saying things, and the things they said looked like the things you'd see on signs and whatnot. Truly, it was a boring utopia.

Then, in 1066, the Norman conquest happened. William the Conqueror invaded with an army of French, Norman, and Breton soldiers, who quickly established Latin and French as the standard languages throughout the British Isles. French and Latin words were absorbed into English like fried Twinkies in a county fair goer's stomach -- that is to say, poorly, and with much regret. "Seize" and "siege," for example: In French, those words (and those vowel combinations) have very different pronunciations. But that distinction didn't survive the migration to the new language, even though the spelling did. Now we write them totally differently but say them the same, because we're just giant wrecks here and nobody is coming to help us.

The problems continued: Norman scribes convinced English speakers to change "cwen" to "queen" and "cwic" to "quick," because, English being the language of the lower class, French speakers were the only ones who could afford any books. Naturally, those original spellings look stupid to you now, but that's only because you're not used to them -- if you're thinking in terms of logic and accessibility, why would you just start throwing "k"s and "q"s around like that? Someone's gonna get hurt. The "k" has those big sharp pointy arms, and that "q" may look soft and round, but it's clearly trying to hide some sort of little club behind its back. Don't you trust the bastard.

liz lemoncello

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Lieutenant pronounced LOO-ten-ant instead of the proper LEF-ten-ant.

Americanisms bother me most when they are used outside of the States, particularly when used by Canadians. This one, above, really pissed me off one day. The name of the new Lieutenant Governor of Ontario had just been announced and the television station where the man had worked for years was going all out in covering the honour. They asked everyone they came across to comment on it, including one guy who said that David Onley (the guy's name) would make a spectacular "Lewtenant Governor". This guy is a former Cabinet Minister in the Ontario government who would have been sworn in by the LG of his day. :mad:

Pumpkinseeds

'Ma' is a scummy tacky word, usually reserved for use by people whose homes have wheels.:)

dimcoin

Daveysil15 wrote:

In America a roundabout is a rotational multiple-access vehicular intersection.

hahaha. I am an American and no one here uses that....but I will start the trend.

Reindeer

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Lieutenant pronounced LOO-ten-ant instead of the proper LEF-ten-ant.

OK, that's gone far enough.

Gezuz, you spuds. Lieutenant is French. The Americans pronounce it correctly(well, at the very least, closer to the French pronunciation), the rest of the English speaking world doesn't. It's likely purposefully so to differentiate it from French. Which happens to be the main reason much of the American versions of English words you take issue with are different - to differentiate it from English. If any of you slugs bothered to spend 5 minutes on a wiki page instead of whinging on like children in a shop queue, you would know how and why the various versions of American words came to be by simply educating yourselves about the American Dictionary VS English versions.

This brings us to shops. Back east, many smaller stores are called shops. Out west, virtually no small stores are called shops. Having said this, a shop in the States is more like they are in the UK and Ireland - many of which having been designed and ran by those folks a few hundred years back. A shop - a small building(by American standards), usually local to you. You see, when they formed the US, unlike in Ireland or England, goods had to travel vast distances before they reached a destination. Before, during, and after these travels, those goods would need to be stored. Hence, the word "store" took a more prominent place in the American lexicon.

Series, seasons - shut up about it. It's one of the more ridiculous arguments I have ever seen on boards.

Arguing about who or whom speaks English well? Give me a break. Have you Irish actually listened to yourselves speak English? Try it sometime. Go on youtube and watch RTE then switch to BBC. Yeah, that difference you are hearing is the Irish absolutely slaughtering the language of English. When the Irish tell me I have an accent - I have to stop myself laughing first before I respond. I mean, I work with Brits all the time - you should hear what they have to say about you.

But, this begs the question - WHY would the Irish, of all people, be proud of speaking English properly? Of all the languages from all the people in this wide world would they be so in love with marching to the tune of their language. At one time you proudly spoke Irish, and some good folk still do. Now you are proud of having taken your language in the back end from the English. Yeah - you go on and be proud of that.

BlatentCheek

I don't know if it was already said but Season is used for a run of an American TV Show which would have around 12 episodes, often more, whereas Series would better denote a British TV Show which would have a run of around 6 episodes, rarely more and sometimes less.
eg Season 1 of The Office has Steve Carrell in it while Series 1 of The Office has Ricky Gervais in it.

YFlyer

eviltimeban wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Jim Carrey

foxtrot101

The way they put an extra syllable in "Ireland" ... I - r - land.

skeleton_boy

Big fan of the nfl but I've always hated how they refer to the superbowl winners as "world champions"

Gbear

q2ice wrote: »

Also tire is a verb which means growing fatigue.
Tyre is what is typically put on the wheels of automobiles.

And also an ancient city in Lebanon.

Reindeer wrote: »

OK, that's gone far enough.

Gezuz, you spuds. Lieutenant is French. The Americans pronounce it correctly(well, at the very least, closer to the French pronunciation), the rest of the English speaking world doesn't. It's likely purposefully so to differentiate it from French. Which happens to be the main reason much of the American versions of English words you take issue with are different - to differentiate it from English. If any of you slugs bothered to spend 5 minutes on a wiki page instead of whinging on like children in a shop queue, you would know how and why the various versions of American words came to be by simply educating yourselves about the American Dictionary VS English versions.

I think it's a little more complicated.

As far as I know, although lieutenant is of course taken from French (literal translation is place-holder), at the time the British adopted the use of it, the French pronounced lieu as lef. So the pronunciation was handed down to the present day and we adopted in Ireland as well.

The French language evolved (they now pronounce it as leeyuh and not leeyoo) and presumably they either exported it to the States with that pronunciation or else the Americans decided that they'd pronounce it using more modern English phonetics.

Colonel is another one.

As far as I know it's pronounced as it's spelled in the UK whereas the US army adopted the Spanish version of the word (coronel) and now pronounce it as kernal.

Electric Sheep

I am not quite sure whether this thread is about Irish people using USA expressions that do your head in, or some sort of bizarre belief that Americans should speak Hiberno-English.

Neither USA-English nor Hiberno-English are superior. They are just different.

GAAman

Probably been mentioned but when someone says 'I could give a shít'

It doesn't make any sense you sap you're basically saying you care when you mean you don't

Say 'I COULDN'T give a shít'!!!! Or you sound as intelligent as a donkey making sweet love to an electric fence!

Billy86

ceadaoin. wrote: »

Well it evolved from rugby football as it was called then so that's why it is named american football. I don't think the kickers are looked down on? I've never heard anything like that. Many games are won by a field goal or extra point conversion so it's not like they do nothing.

A good, consistent kicker can be really important and hard to come by, but the vast majority are very much looked down on. Only one kicker and one punter are in the hall of fame (the next least represented position has about 15 in), and the punter only got in this year. And whenever they give their opinion in anything, they are typically told by other players and the media to shut up and keep their opinions to themselves, because they are "just a kicker/punter".

dimcoin

Electric Sheep wrote:

I am not quite sure whether this thread is about Irish people using USA expressions that do your head in, or some sort of bizarre belief that Americans should speak Hiberno-English.

I think that they are just having a bit of fun.

aidoh

"ALUMINUM FOIL"

It's Tinfoil you gimps, or at least pronounce Aluminium properly!

Electric Sheep

dimcoin wrote: »

I think that they are just having a bit of fun.

So am I.:pac:

Fallschirmjager

(From car programmes) I want that paint to really POP...

First time I heard it I thought wow, that's a good way to explain it. Now every Skanger is using it. Hate it now.

Nika Bolokov

'Verbalize' and 'Reach out'

They mean speak about or speak too, why not just say that !

Stop making up words and misusing verbs !!!!!:mad:

Frank Lee Midere

Reindeer wrote: »

OK, that's gone far enough.

Gezuz, you spuds. Lieutenant is French. The Americans pronounce it correctly(well, at the very least, closer to the French pronunciation), the rest of the English speaking world doesn't. It's likely purposefully so to differentiate it from French. Which happens to be the main reason much of the American versions of English words you take issue with are different - to differentiate it from English. If any of you slugs bothered to spend 5 minutes on a wiki page instead of whinging on like children in a shop queue, you would know how and why the various versions of American words came to be by simply educating yourselves about the American Dictionary VS English versions.

This brings us to shops. Back east, many smaller stores are called shops. Out west, virtually no small stores are called shops. Having said this, a shop in the States is more like they are in the UK and Ireland - many of which having been designed and ran by those folks a few hundred years back. A shop - a small building(by American standards), usually local to you. You see, when they formed the US, unlike in Ireland or England, goods had to travel vast distances before they reached a destination. Before, during, and after these travels, those goods would need to be stored. Hence, the word "store" took a more prominent place in the American lexicon.

Series, seasons - shut up about it. It's one of the more ridiculous arguments I have ever seen on boards.

Arguing about who or whom speaks English well? Give me a break. Have you Irish actually listened to yourselves speak English? Try it sometime. Go on youtube and watch RTE then switch to BBC. Yeah, that difference you are hearing is the Irish absolutely slaughtering the language of English. When the Irish tell me I have an accent - I have to stop myself laughing first before I respond. I mean, I work with Brits all the time - you should hear what they have to say about you.

But, this begs the question - WHY would the Irish, of all people, be proud of speaking English properly? Of all the languages from all the people in this wide world would they be so in love with marching to the tune of their language. At one time you proudly spoke Irish, and some good folk still do. Now you are proud of having taken your language in the back end from the English. Yeah - you go on and be proud of that.

Hmm. Good points. Well made.

However the English now love us because of Graham Norton and the other bald fat guy. The unfunny one.

We are plenty able to criticise our accent - search it here - what people are complaining about here is americanisations here not there. It's only a problem when it sounds false or confusing ( dates being a good example).

But season is bollocks.

Frank Lee Midere

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I am not quite sure whether this thread is about Irish people using USA expressions that do your head in, or some sort of bizarre belief that Americans should speak Hiberno-English.

Neither USA-English nor Hiberno-English are superior. They are just different.

It should be the former. But we've moved on. Now it's just anti-Americanism.