What is the "Americanism" that annoys you ?

topten · Post by **topten** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 12:26 pm

Mine is that when anything is mediocre to good its AWSESOME I want scream every time someone scores a goal or whatever its bloody AWSEOME. ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

kaiserphil · Post by **kaiserphil** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 1:08 pm

My Wife is American and never says "awesome".

I suggest that "Americanisms" are used more by people who think it is smart to use them.

Mind you, a worker in a US supermarket once told me that my accent was awesome

It is more the jargonistic stupidities that annoy me, for instance the use of the noun "leverage", pronounced the US way, as a verb.

Having worked for a company that was bought by an American company, I was subjected to lots of silly words like that.

Who else remembers the IBM "outside awareness panel" for "window".

gilly123 · Post by **gilly123** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 1:42 pm

Not sure if its classed as 'americanism' but 'Enjoy' always sounds like a command when we are served a meal, whole sentence would be better ie. enjoy your meal or even I hope you enjoy your meal.

Deniz1 · Post by **Deniz1** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 1:44 pm

heaping instead of heaped as in tablespoon

gripon · Post by **gripon** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 1:47 pm

Cool , Monkey Chants ( Whoo, Whoo, Whoo ) mother.r Fu..ker , drinking out of bottles , bad language in every movie .

mikelapta · Post by **mikelapta** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 2:47 pm

Put your 'fanny'over there !!!!!!!!Don't Yanks know anatomy ?

Mozgor · Post by **Mozgor** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 3:21 pm

Chewing gum

Joe Soap · Post by **Joe Soap** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 3:25 pm

Have a nice day!!!!!!!

niceone · Post by **niceone** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 3:41 pm

pronouncing aluminium as aluminum, there is another i in it grrr

mrsgee · Post by **mrsgee** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 4:00 pm

So many things, but here are a few......."Think outside the box", 'blue sky',.......window of opportunity.....all the so-called management speak that was coming through a few years ago......'heads up'.... Touch base....hate all the American Guru business speak rubbish.....and flippin Halloween, Trick or Treat.....hate it and can't believe that folk in the UK seem to have adopted this awful habit of allowing kids to knock on the door of potential nutters......hey ho rant over......Almost, but forgot one of the worst habits we have picked up from Americans......the habit of sueing for compensation.......which is why companies/businesses are ultra cautious now........

jofra · Post by **jofra** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 4:42 pm

niceone wrote:pronouncing aluminium as aluminum, there is another i in it grrr

...especially when they call their apartment blocks 'condominiums', and use plutonium and uranium - which brings me to another annoying point - consider the pronunciation of 'uranium' - just which smutty-minded, infantile, pathetic twit decreed the revised pronunciation of the planet Uranus? (After which uranium was named...)

Deniz1 · Post by **Deniz1** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 6:35 pm

Back in the day, which day? why not just say the past or before.

Becker · Post by **Becker** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 7:57 pm

jofra. Think it must have been some godamn "A-Hole."

Joe Soap · Post by **Joe Soap** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 8:03 pm

Whilst I have no issue with acronyms, after all the Americans do not wish to be verbose, particularly AT THIS POINT IN TIME. OOps being British I mean now.

jofra · Post by **jofra** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 9:21 pm

Becker wrote:jofra. Think it must have been some godamn "A-Hole."

Now if that isn't an americanism....

niceone · Post by **niceone** » Sat 20 Jun 2015 11:00 pm

goodnight y'all

gripon · Post by **gripon** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 5:52 am

Give it up
latest for applause

Owl Lady · Post by **Owl Lady** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 7:19 am

"Have a nice day ", is my favourite hate. My female boss at work 50 years ago, used to say "Don't tell me what kind of a day to have, if I want a sxxt one I'll have one"

tomsteel · Post by **tomsteel** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 8:19 am

"We have the right to bear arms." But you don't appear to have the sense to use them responsibly!

brian24001 · Post by **brian24001** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 9:26 am

An old colleague and I used to have a 3 x 4 grid with many of the common phrases and words in each of the boxes. The 2 grids had different words.

In meetings we would try to load the questions or comments to entice the replies we needed out of people with the words on our grid.

Thus the game 'Bullshit Bingo' was played in many an otherwise boring meeting.

OldDog · Post by **OldDog** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 9:34 am

Everything.

ITFCMike · Post by **ITFCMike** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 10:18 am

movie-it`s a bloody film,
soccer,it`s football we know we invented it,
just like the computer,internet and just about everything else they think they invented
world series (without the rest of the world)
dodgy handshakes

fatouche · Post by **fatouche** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 10:28 am

Contrary to popular belief, soccer is actually an English word! My primary shool teacher in London in the late 60s always referred to the sport as soccer.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 9352,d.bGg

Hippocampus · Post by **Hippocampus** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 2:48 pm

harassed with the emphasis on the rassed instead of the ha
Cookie - it's a biscuit!
Enjoy - as above post
Lots of ",like," and "you know" s, often several times in one sentence. Much used by non native English speaking tennis players, ruins Wimbledon for me! Also by native English speakers under the age of about 25. I was like...he was like...etc. Grrrrrr.

Terri299 · Post by **Terri299** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 2:54 pm

Reach out. Just contact me or get in touch!

Kanonier · Post by **Kanonier** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 3:03 pm

I would concur with John Humphries - starting a sentence with "So"..... That and Chris Evans but that's off topic!

jofra · Post by **jofra** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 8:46 pm

"I know where you're coming from..." - just where did that come from...?

turtle · Post by **turtle** » Sun 21 Jun 2015 10:41 pm

Omg... Ohh myy gaaard ... Said 6 times one after the other, for no apparent reason ?

jayceebee · Post by **jayceebee** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 5:25 am

The one that annoys me is..."getting/jumping off OF.." (usually pronounced offuv).

Mind you, having been in USA now for only 96 hrs...after being away for over 10 years, I'd forgotten what a truly great place it is...warts n all!

ElectricianPete · Post by **ElectricianPete** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 6:42 am

Saying "Hey" instead of "Hi"

Keithcaley · Post by **Keithcaley** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 6:53 am

Most of these

I must admit to having a soft spot for Bush Jnr. who had a penchant for using words that didn't exist in ANY language

topten · Post by **topten** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 8:36 am

jayceebee wrote:The one that annoys me is..."getting/jumping off OF.." (usually pronounced offuv).

Mind you, having been in USA now for only 96 hrs...after being away for over 10 years, I'd forgotten what a truly great place it is...warts n all!

Totally agree and lovely people on their own soil, unlike France a beautiful country spoiled by the French.

fatouche · Post by **fatouche** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 8:49 am

I love France, and I love the French.

kaiserphil · Post by **kaiserphil** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 9:21 am

jayceebee wrote:The one that annoys me is..."getting/jumping off OF.." (usually pronounced offuv).

Mind you, having been in USA now for only 96 hrs...after being away for over 10 years, I'd forgotten what a truly great place it is...warts n all!

So it is, I love it and can hardly wait to move there next year.

Hector · Post by **Hector** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 9:59 am

'Good job!!!' for everything someone does.

Hedge-fund · Post by **Hedge-fund** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 10:11 am

I'm off there next week so will report back any new ones.

My pet hate is "Can I get".............it makes no sense at all!

Keithcaley · Post by **Keithcaley** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 11:20 am

Just an aside...

I remember seeing a TV News item - it was The Beatles first visit to America, and as they walked down the steps from the 'plane (yes, it was that long ago!) a reporter thrust a microphone towards them and asked "What is your greatest ambition?".

"To visit America" quipped John Lennon, instantly.

Hector · Post by **Hector** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 11:23 am

Saying 'I'm good' as a response to questions like 'Would you like a coffee' which leaves me perplexed when they could actually say 'yes or no'

squashmad · Post by **squashmad** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 1:27 pm

All American spelling gets up my nose.

Why on earth do countries (and the TRNC is no different) insist on spelling the american way ..... it isn't english at all!

I came across an american once who insisted that they (the americans) invented the english language .... god forbid.

kaiserphil · Post by **kaiserphil** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 1:51 pm

Yes, although my gmail settings say "English(UK)", gmail still picks up words spelt the UK way.

Annoying.

Hedge-fund · Post by **Hedge-fund** » Mon 22 Jun 2015 2:45 pm

squashmad wrote:All American spelling gets up my nose.

Why on earth do countries (and the TRNC is no different) insist on spelling the american way ..... it isn't english at all!

I came across an american once who insisted that they (the americans) invented the english language .... god forbid.

At Wembley they play a few american football games each year.

One of the players was being interviewed by TV and was asked how he was enjoying London & the UK. He said he was amazed when he got off the plane and people could speak English.

MoonageDaydream · Post by **MoonageDaydream** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 12:36 am

My pet hates are:
1) Incessant use of the work 'like' as an adjective
2) People saying 'can I get' eg 'can I get a beer?' (Of course you can you're in a bar! The question is do you want one?)

Hedge-fund · Post by **Hedge-fund** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 9:08 am

MoonageDaydream wrote:My pet hates are:
1) Incessant use of the work 'like' as an adjective
2) People saying 'can I get' eg 'can I get a beer?' (Of course you can you're in a bar! The question is do you want one?)

Can I get you to look at post 36

kaiserphil · Post by **kaiserphil** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 9:36 am

"Can I get" is actually the equivalent of "Can I have".

"Can I get fries with that?".

I dont see anything odd about "Can I get you a beer" etc.

jofra · Post by **jofra** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 10:21 am

To be more precise, I would suggest that "can I get..." means "Is it possible for me to obtain...", while "MAY I have.." means "may I be given (or receive/be provided with)..."
..English (or American) ain't spoke now like wot it orta be........

Hedge-fund · Post by **Hedge-fund** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 12:07 pm

kaiserphil wrote:"Can I get" is actually the equivalent of "Can I have".

"Can I get fries with that?".

I dont see anything odd about "Can I get you a beer" etc.

Can means is it possible ie "Can I go to the moon?" The answer is yes because it's been proved a man can go to the moon. If you actually want to go to the moon it's "May I go to the moon?" in which can the answer is no - unless you have 20 billion quid.

So if someone asks you "Can I get a beer?" just say "Yes" and then stare at them.

kaiserphil · Post by **kaiserphil** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 12:09 pm

I am not sure what you mean.

I was talking about the way the expression is used in the USA.

john250 · Post by **john250** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 12:37 pm

"guys".....presume this comes from america and especially annoys me when i am with my wife....though it doesnt bother her!!!

Chrispyb · Post by **Chrispyb** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 2:01 pm

I was young and naïve on my first trip to the US, we where out in a bar with live music when a nice girl asked if I wanted a shag of course I said yes and we proceeded to have a dance!!

sophie · Post by **sophie** » Tue 23 Jun 2015 3:26 pm

Believe me its not just the Americans. Anyone who watches BBC World Business News will be aware of a new one being bandied about.
"Kicking the can down the road" They are using this in connection with the Greek crisis going on and on. This morning it was "Eventually the kicking will have to stop as the can will reach a brick wall" Awesome ( I don't think!!)

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