" Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

From the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

At least apostrophe misuse in Englishes remains universal.

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

This one I find annoying...

35. "Reach out to" when the correct word is "ask". For example: "I will reach out to Kevin and let you know if that timing is convenient". Reach out? Is Kevin stuck in quicksand? Is he teetering on the edge of a cliff? Can't we just ask him? Nerina, London

I hear my husband say this when he's working from home and it just sounds wrong....

I've never heard it before, but that doesn't mean anything. There are a lot of those sayings that I haven't heard..... Regional?

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

People should require a license before they are allowed to use apostrophes.

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

Urgh, I hate 'My bad' too.

Not on the list but the one that really bugs me is 'I won him at tennis' what? You took him home and put him on the sideboard like a trophy. You BEAT him you idiot.

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

:lol:

I've never heard that one before!!

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

I had several people ask me (sorry reach out to me) yesterday saying "so, how are you meant to pronounce zee?".

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

What about when people refer to a 'healthful' diet or lifestyle? Errr don't they mean healthy?

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

I still hate "a complete 360" meaning a reversal of direction/opinion. I guess that's stupid rather than American per se though. Also "hold down the fort," you don't hold it down, you hold it against being taken.

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

On reflection, I blame the business world for a lot of these stupid phrases - once people started banging on about stupid shit like 'synergy' and 'thinking outside the box', the beautiful English language didn't stand a chance.

For what it's worth, the one American term I can't get my head around is calling the bog a 'restroom'. I just spent the last week proving that term wrong :blink:

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

Me too. Got to love these though.........

"Blue-sky thinking"
"Joined-up thinking"
"Norms" or "Metrics" for something that can be measured.

In my last job in England (Large defence company) I knew a few people who were impossible to hold a normal conversation with because they spoke almost exclusively in business buzz-words. Made attending meetings a pain, unless we had a game of Buzz Word Bingo going :D

Round these parts, people "Pull the trigger" on things a lot, meaning to start a project. They also "run the traps" quite a bit, meaning to do some preparatory work.

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

Ha! ;)

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

Joined-up thinking? That's stretching it a bit isn't it?? Buzz Word Bingo sounds like a laugh though :lol:.

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

I used to love Buzz Word Bingo, it was best on conference calls and 2 of you in the office were playing, sometimes nobody else could get a word in for the 2 people spewing buzz words at each other:lol:

Re: " Americanism's " Changing the British language.
 

They also have something in their sights, go off half-cocked, and turn out to be just a flash-in-the-pan.