Americanism

Steve Smith said:
There's another Americanism. Saying "I guess" to confirm something which you know definitely.

e.g. "What's your favourite colour?"... "Blue I guess".


Steve.
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Done a lot over here too though, with "I suppose".
 
Cg_Girl said:
It's taken this thread here on TP to gather i can't be british then lol.... although it does sound familiar
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Don't worry, I've yet to come across anyone in 52yrs who pronounce it with a F.
 
Peter B said:
If the Americans refer to petrol as "gas" and indigestion/wind as "gas", what do they actually call gas for cooking & heating? :thinking:
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That's gas, short for gasoline.
 
Steve Smith said:
There's another Americanism. Saying "I guess" to confirm something which you know definitely.

e.g. "What's your favourite colour?"... "Blue I guess".


Steve.
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I would say that's more to do with not really having given any thought to the subject in the past and coming up with a quick answer based on any ideas which may have instantly come into their head, such as always bought blue cars, always worn blue shirts etc.
 
nilagin said:
That's gas, short for gasoline.
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Yep, I knew that from my days in the oil refining industry, but I'm pondering what they think if some one says there's been a gas leak .......................
 
nilagin said:
I would say that's more to do with not really having given any thought to the subject in the past and coming up with a quick answer based on any ideas which may have instantly come into their head, such as always bought blue cars, always worn blue shirts etc.
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Perhaps with the example I gave (which I heard on an American film) but it is generally used in place of yes.


Steve.
 
For me it's the way that "Z"s are making their way into the English language, oh and it's "licence" not license when used as a noun.
 
saying ASAP as a single word when they mean/should say "As soon as possible"
 
ChasG said:
saying ASAP as a single word when they mean/should say "As soon as possible"
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I don't mind A.S.A.P., But AYSAP, I do agree is one that makes me cringe. :-)
 
ChasG said:
saying ASAP as a single word when they mean/should say "As soon as possible"
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If you want something ASAP the single word takes less time to say than in full or just saying A.S.A.P so time is saved and it's done ASAP. ;)
 
Hmmm just watched a video where they show a purser making entry to the cockpit of an aircraft when the LED lights up - pronounced it 'led'.

Worst of all it was in a plummy English accent. Apologies for slight veer off topic
 
Airplane, Race car.

Another common Americanism is the use of the word real - as in "that's real nice". We would use really... but we would be wrong too because the correct word is very.


Steve.
 
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nilagin said:
If you want something ASAP the single word takes less time to say than in full or just saying A.S.A.P so time is saved and it's done ASAP. ;)
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Yeah, but the person saying it will still sound like a knob. ;)
 
OldCarlos said:
Aluminium. :rolleyes:
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Or Aluminum, both spellings/pronunciations are perfectly acceptable. Even some British scientists used Aluminum back in the 1800's, it was just decided aluminium sounded better and became adopted by the British.
 
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nilagin said:
Or Aluminum, both spellings/pronunciations are perfectly acceptable. Even some British scientists used Aluminum back in the 1800's, it was just decided aluminium sounded better and became adopted by the British.
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Actually, the reason Aluminum was used was because Humphry Davy got the spelling wrong in a report he was writing. If any Americans suggest that aluminium is not correct, tell them to look at the spelling of Uranium, Strontium or even Americium and Californium!


Steve.
 
Another one is "You do the math" - where's the 's' gone?!

In good old blighty my pet hate is when someone has purchased an item and writes - "I brought this..." instead of "I bought this..." - why the extra 'r'?
 
Another thing which has crept in from America is court judges on TV with gavels. They have never been used in UK courts so unless the judge is going to conduct an auction, they shouldn't be seen.

(wife currently watching the quite awful Judge Rinder on TV... with a gavel!).


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
Another thing which has crept in from America is court judges on TV with gavels. They have never been used in UK courts so unless the judge is going to conduct an auction, they shouldn't be seen.

(wife currently watching the quite awful Judge Rinder on TV... with a gavel!).


Steve.
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Gavel's the least of the worries.
Fella's never even been a judge :lol:
 
Both the US & Canadian pronunciation of Vehicle............it comes out as VEE HE IKLE.

Oh, and centrifugal; my friends pronounce it cen trif ical. How do you get a C from a G??

I still confuse the hell out of my Canadian friends and work colleagues as I won't conform to how the pronounce or call things. I'm too old to change my language!
 
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I've worked with quite a lot of Americans and the way they speak English doesn't bother me at all. There's a lot of regional and local variation in the UK too.

One thing I've learned is to ask if I 'may speak with someone' if I call a US company. An American friend pointed out, gently, that 'speak to' is considered a bit discourteous, because it implies something other than an intention to have a conversation.
 
Steve Smith said:
Actually, the reason Aluminum was used was because Humphry Davy got the spelling wrong in a report he was writing. If any Americans suggest that aluminium is not correct, tell them to look at the spelling of Uranium, Strontium or even Americium and Californium!


Steve.
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He originally called alumium, then changed it to aluminum. It was someone else who preferred it as aluminium and that word was adopted instead over here.
If your reasoning that aluminum should be incorrect because of the spelling of uranium etc., what about Platinum, molybdenum and tantalum?
 
Buck said:
Another one is "You do the math" - where's the 's' gone?!

In good old blighty my pet hate is when someone has purchased an item and writes - "I brought this..." instead of "I bought this..." - why the extra 'r'?
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Oxford English Dictionary lists math not maths as the abbreviation of mathematics
 
nilagin said:
He originally called alumium, then changed it to aluminum. It was someone else who preferred it as aluminium and that word was adopted instead over here.
If your reasoning that aluminum should be incorrect because of the spelling of uranium etc., what about Platinum, molybdenum and tantalum?
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Yip. Both spellings were used in the UK during the C19th, but 'aluminium' was a lot more common and everyone eventually settled for it. The US also used both versions, with no strong preference for one or the other, but 'aluminum' started to dominate from about 1900.
 
What I think we need to all do is 'touch base' about this later.
 
nilagin said:
He originally called alumium, then changed it to aluminum. It was someone else who preferred it as aluminium and that word was adopted instead over here.
If your reasoning that aluminum should be incorrect because of the spelling of uranium etc., what about Platinum, molybdenum and tantalum?
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Aluminium is in first column of the post transition metals, which includes Gallium, Indium and Thallium

I have no idea why Platinum, Molybdenum and Tantalum don't have an 'i'.
 
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...and Vincent must be turning in his grave over the pronuciation of his surname (Van Gogh)

Anthony.
 
MartynK said:
There's a lot of regional and local variation in the UK too.
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I think it's reckoned there's a noticeable change in dialect every 6 miles. (probably not the same these days thhough, especially in the cities)

Dee-mon-strate :rolleyes: (that was Fred Dibnah though & not the yanks :D )
 
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