Americanisms

  • Thread starter Jimlaad43
  • 916 comments
  • 53,935 views

Do you like Americanisms?

  • Yes, they are better than British spelling

    Votes: 53 15.9%

  • No, proper English should be used

    Votes: 118 35.4%

  • I don't care at all

    Votes: 95 28.5%

  • I prefer a mixture

    Votes: 67 20.1%
  • Total voters
    333
got vs. gotten

I didn't realize how American this usage is until I looked it up trying to find how best to explain the difference. Basically, if there's a "have got" phrase, it's "gotten" unless there's a possessive sense about it.

My brother played, but I haven't gotten to yet.
I've never gotten anything at that restaurant worth having.
He'd just gotten out of the car when the engine caught fire.

But not:

I've gotten so much food I can't eat it all. (Should be "got," or even just "have")

If have by itself makes sense, then gotten with the have doesn't. For the most part.
 
How f:censored: big are your sandwiches (greyhounds/hoagies/infected horses schlong) over there! :eek: Wow!
 
You do realise food is to give you energy and vitamins etc, not some kind of competition or challenge! :lol:
I'll give you an Americanism - food that comes in a bucket.
 
Food doesn't come in a bucket unless it's a clam bake or crawfish.
 
Fried chicken? I suppose there's nothing wrong with eating from a bucket... unless you're a human. Bowls and plates not big enough? **** it, shove it in a bucket. That's only one step away from a 'bin of chicken' or why not order the 'family dumpster' for just $9.99 - comes with a free trough of Coke and Tiramisu nosebag. :lol:
 
Oh, right. The bucket of chicken.

I was thinking of stuff like this:

005_primary.jpg


Speaking of clambakes, is that something your europeans do? Is that in your English vocabulary? Because it's the Yankee retaliation against all southern cooking, and, quite frankly, it wins.

edit: And, yes, on newspapers.
 
Omnis
A hoagie is a hoagie. It can't be anything else... That's the point!

If I said there was a hoagie being lowered into my avatar's mouth, there would be absolutely no mistaking what I meant.

This is the one exception to typical American loaded terminology.
Click to expand...
Fair point. And somehow hoagie hasn't even become slang for penis so it really is just a hoagie.

axletramp
How f:censored: big are your sandwiches (greyhounds/hoagies/infected horses schlong) over there! :eek: Wow!
Click to expand...

Omnis
Not bigger than my belly. :lol:
Click to expand...
I'm finishing a footlong Subway sub right now, actually. That's almost 2 pounds of good-enough-to-eat.

axletramp
Fried chicken? I suppose there's nothing wrong with eating from a bucket... unless you're a human. Bowls and plates not big enough? **** it, shove it in a bucket. That's only one step away from a 'bin of chicken' or why not order the 'family dumpster' for just $9.99 - comes with a free trough of Coke and Tiramisu nosebag. :lol:
Click to expand...
Wing joint up the road has a 50-piece boneless wing deal for $20. We also get our beer in 128 ounce pitchers.

Pizza joints always offer 2 liter sodas with pizza. Large-party food deals are de rigueur over here, and extremely profitable also.
 
Keef
Wing joint up the road has a 50-piece boneless wing deal for $20. We also get our beer in 128 ounce pitchers.
Click to expand...

$20? Wow what's that, about £13! That can't even cover the fuel costs of getting the chickens into town.

Hang on, have they been conducting strange experiments on chickens in Ohio. Does the horizon glow green at night? :odd: Huge freaky 6 foot chickens in flocks hidden in underground silos. I reckon the local police spread UFO stories just to cover up the 'chicken conspiracy'.

Obviously I'm fine with the beer. ;)
 
$20? That kinda sucks. Places here have regular $.35 wing specials and some places you can even get 'em for a quarter. Chicken is super cheap here in the states. We have so many chickens that most of them die from claustrophobia.
 
$20 for 50 boneless bro. Forty cents isn't bad. Regular wings are slightly cheaper than that on special.
 
Omnis
$20? That kinda sucks. Places here have regular $.35 wing specials and some places you can even get 'em for a quarter. Chicken is super cheap here in the states. We have so many chickens that most of them die from claustrophobia.
Click to expand...

Chicken wings? Cheap?! I've always thought that 35 cents is brutally expensive.
 
I'm a bit of a UK English purist. Americanisms don't annoy me, but I strive to not use them because they sound too... unnatural to me. But that's obviously because I'm used to the words I have used my whole life.

But I (help) teach English as a foreign language in a German school and it winds me up when the british speakers on the CDs and in the textbooks use what I perceive as Americanisms.

e.g. Cafeteria. I always, always, always call this a canteen. But going by the textbooks I teach from, it is used in the UK as well. But anybody who speaks UK English can tell you, it's highly splintered and there are word inconsistancies throughout the country; I'm a user of butty, dinner as the midday meal and tea as the evening meal for example.

None of these are 'wrong' per say, pavement/sidewalk, petrol/gas* and nappy/diaper all mean the same thing, it's just dependant on what dialect of English you are brought up with/taught that will dictate your vocabulary.

*Gasoline is Petrolium Distillate. This is how I sort this argument with American students at university. Both are contractions, both are correct.

However, same words with different meanings I do find funny, like the word fanny. But does the term 'p!ssed off' exist in US English at all? To me, p!ssed means drunk, and p!ssed off means unhappy/angry.

And of course, there is the classic phrase: I could murder a fag.
 
LancerEvo7
Yep. We seem to be forgetting the 'off' part more and more, though.
Click to expand...

But 'p!ssed' only means angry, right? It doesn't mean 'drunk' like it does in the UK?

Oh wait, one americanism does incur my wrath.

could care less (US) as opposed to could not care less (UK).
 
MazdaPrice
But 'p!ssed' only means angry, right? It doesn't mean 'drunk' like it does in the UK?

Oh wait, one americanism does incur my wrath.

could care less (US) as opposed to could not care less (UK).
Click to expand...

That's not an Americanism that's an idiotism.
 
You could think of could not care less as literal and could care less as sarcastic, if that helps you. But mostly your are correct, it's simple stupidity.

I like made-up words, too, like irregardless. I don't know if that's uniquely American, though.
 
I speak English, I've been told by an English teacher that Irish people speak English closer to the way it was intended, than any other country including the UK, but we still pronounce somethings wrong. My favourite thing to hate about Americanisms is when they say Italian and Iraq with the i sounding like the letter I, instead of the i in it. I hate the word Fillet too, when people pronounce it fillay, I don't know if that's americanism or not. Also kind of annoying is the letter A pronounced like the letter O, as in Ducoti instead of Ducati.
 
Last edited:
If someone's saying "eye-talian", they're just making a point to be uncultured, but I can't say I've heard anyone in person pronounce it that way naturally.

People say "eye-rack" on a regular basis, but maybe 50/50...face it, the word isn't English to begin with, so we're getting off traq here...

Minor vowel mispronunciations on your last two examples are not exclusive to Americans.
 
Well p1ss drunk is the only time it refers to being intoxicated here. p!ssed or p!ssed off just means angry. Could care less annoys me, maybe the reason it's more common in America is the amount of ignorant people here. Not to sound sexist, but my friend and I went around asking random friends of ours if they know who Kim Jong-Ill is. Not a single girl knew other than my girlfriend, and about 85-90% of the guys knew. I don't get how so many people don't know who that is, but it could explain the whole "could care less" thing coming into existence. Also, I'm not sure if this is only in America, but "guesstimate" is a word that annoys the crap out of me. (It p!sses me off :lol: ) Say guess, say estimate, but don't combine them.
 
rb26x
Well p1ss drunk is the only time it refers to being intoxicated here. p!ssed or p!ssed off just means angry. Could care less annoys me, maybe the reason it's more common in America is the amount of ignorant people here. Not to sound sexist, but my friend and I went around asking random friends of ours if they know who Kim Jong-Ill is. Not a single girl knew other than my girlfriend, and about 85-90% of the guys knew. I don't get how so many people don't know who that is, but it could explain the whole "could care less" thing coming into existence. Also, I'm not sure if this is only in America, but "guesstimate" is a word that annoys the crap out of me. (It p!sses me off :lol: ) Say guess, say estimate, but don't combine them.
Click to expand...

Chillax too.

Rage.
 

Similar threads

Strittan
  • Locked
Where’s the love for motorcycles?
Replies
2
Views
153
Strittan
Strittan
onedjyoulike
Do you know what's dumber than VGT cars?
Replies
4
Views
911
MatskiMonk
MatskiMonk
Nader_ws6
American Muscle Cars at 24 Heures du Mans, World Touring Car 700
Replies
22
Views
7K
bigmull
bigmull
Mick Tee
Show Off your liveries in detail - Show & Shine
Replies
8
Views
1K
Imbissbrunto
I
Y
Just an idea: mastering a track
Replies
21
Views
1K
Nebuc72
Nebuc72

Latest Posts

Back