The Americanism I struggle with is "alternate" instead of "alternative". This is used by many educated Americans so presumably is correct for that side of the pond, but how do they say "alternate" as in alternating conditions?
Gotten
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Lons
Established Member
One of the reasons many sellers don't reply to that, including me. If a potential buyer can't be bothered to type a specific question they don't deserve a response.
Terrytpot
Established Member
The bit I despise is a favourite of Americans , mainly of a somewhat lower class individual or as the good lady wife describes them “they aren’t wearing anything from M&S” , is the use of axe where the correct word would be ask!
It’s also annoying that whenever it does happen it’s almost like they’re proud to have said it and then have to repeat it ad nauseam causing us to hit the stop button and look for something else to entertain ourselves with.
It’s also annoying that whenever it does happen it’s almost like they’re proud to have said it and then have to repeat it ad nauseam causing us to hit the stop button and look for something else to entertain ourselves with.
Cooper
Established Member
Aren’t we just showing our age?
But while we are at it may I add train station instead of railway station and the confusion between can and may.
But while we are at it may I add train station instead of railway station and the confusion between can and may.
Puggers
Established Member
A couple of my teeth-grinding /words phrases have already been mentioned but putting them into context when I was still working and required to attend countless meetings, I noticed that when a Director started to use a certain word/phrase this would soon catch on amongst the more impressionable who were looking to impress and so be repeated at every opportunity.
To amuse myself during one meeting in my retirement notice period when my attention span was waning, I decided to count the number of times one particular culprit used the word 'guys'. I can't now recall the exact number but he said it six times in one sentence to the extent that I asked him to summarise what point he was actually trying to make - to be fair, he did laugh.
I was also often asked to 'reach out' to so-and-so for something to which I would usually respond by saying 'do you want me to ring/ask him/her?'. I was asked to stop doing this at one of my appraisals........
The one that really mystified me though was when some colleagues who had known each other for years randomly started calling each other 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' instead of by their first name. It frankly sounded pompous and didn't add any gravitas to the topic and so I'd rebel and actively refuse to play the game other than by saying 'it's OK, you can still call me Dave' but that backfired on me and they called me 'Mr' more frequently.
To amuse myself during one meeting in my retirement notice period when my attention span was waning, I decided to count the number of times one particular culprit used the word 'guys'. I can't now recall the exact number but he said it six times in one sentence to the extent that I asked him to summarise what point he was actually trying to make - to be fair, he did laugh.
I was also often asked to 'reach out' to so-and-so for something to which I would usually respond by saying 'do you want me to ring/ask him/her?'. I was asked to stop doing this at one of my appraisals........
The one that really mystified me though was when some colleagues who had known each other for years randomly started calling each other 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' instead of by their first name. It frankly sounded pompous and didn't add any gravitas to the topic and so I'd rebel and actively refuse to play the game other than by saying 'it's OK, you can still call me Dave' but that backfired on me and they called me 'Mr' more frequently.
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
To be honest, I find it all vaguely xenophobic, as I get older and more tolerant. They're just words...
I expect I'll be accused of using Greekisms now...
I expect I'll be accused of using Greekisms now...
Yorkieguy
Established Member
I may be mistaken, but I thought you were inferring that if used by British people (and it seems to be increasingly in use with younger people, possibly due to the influence of streaming US programmes), it's an 'Americanism', the usage is incorrect and is to be deplored. Just because it fell out of usage in Britain, but continues to be used in America makes it no less valid as an English word. Personally, I don't like it, wouldn't use it and I find it clumsy. To that extent, I guess we're at one on that. But if it is coming back into usage after being archaic for 400 years, I wouldn't chide anyone for using it.
American English spelling often makes more sense than does British English. Color and labor rather than colour or labour. Also we have illogical spellings. We say travel, but traveller and travelled, sticking an extra ‘l’ in the word. Americans say traveler, which makes more sense.
Likewise, pencil and pencilling. If we tag ‘full’ onto the end of beauty it becomes beautiful – losing and ‘l’. We say ‘four’, and ‘fourteen’, but ‘forty’ (where did the ‘u’ go?).
In England we say ‘outside’ as in ‘outside my responsibility’ but in Scotland, they say ‘outwith’, which will show up in British English as a spelling error. As a child, in the hymn: ‘There is a green hill far away without a city wall’, I thought it meant the city didn't have a wall, but it meant there was a city wall, but the green hill was outside the wall. (As in ‘within/without’).
If I had to choose an American term which seems to be creeping into common usage in the UK in some restaurants and hotels, but which irks me it's 'Bathroom' as a euphemism for 'toilet, lavatory, Ladies/Gents, or WC'. We don't need a bath and if we did, there's be no bath in there - just a toilet and wash-basin. (Presumably American prefer not to use 'toilet' as it has connotations of bodily functions?). That said, in polite circles in the UK, 'loo' often seems to have become common parlance.
In a troubled world, if all we have to chunter about is trivia, aren't we lucky?
Yojevol
Clocking on
I've also noticed the rise of 'for sure'. I think it's due to the rise of foreigners using it when interviewed in English. For instance it's an easy translation from the German 'ganz sicher'. Djokovic often uses it.
Brian
Yorkieguy
Established Member
I'm with you on that.
'To' signifies approach - the opposite of what is intended. Things are either 'similar to' of 'different from', (not 'different than!).
But here's what the Cambridge English dictionary says about it:
Different from, different to or different than?
Grammar > Easily confused words > Different from, different to or different than?
from English Grammar Today:
The adjective different means ‘not the same’. When we compare two or more items, it is usually followed by from. We also use different to, especially in speaking:
In American English it is also common to say different than:
In British English, people often say different than before a clause, but many speakers consider this to be incorrect:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/gr...different-from-different-to-or-different-than
But it's not a new thing - it's been going on for centuries:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/different-from-or-different-than
selectortone
Still waking up not dead in the morning
Another of my pet hates. Imply vs infer. I imply; you do the inferring (from what I implied).
I have seen Judge Judy correcting people when they say 'gotten'. She points out the correct word is 'got', suggesting 'gotten' is also regarded as wrong over there, despite its popular usage.
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
That's it, then. I'm going use it exclusively from now.
artie
Sawdust manufacturer.
I find yes a satisfactory answer to "Is this still available?"
But recently on market place after receiving a "yes" I enquired about the dimensions of the object.
To which I received "I dunno" as a reply.
End of enquiry,
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72 or 73 years ago, our whole school, at Assembly, was lectured about this aberration, by the HM.
