British Expats - " Americanism's " Changing the British language.

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)

- USA (https://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-57/)

- - " Americanism's " Changing the British language. (https://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-57/americanisms-changing-british-language-725808/)

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

What about 'spunky' meaning 'brave', weird...

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montfan72 (Post 9509921)

What about 'spunky' meaning 'brave', weird...

Yes, I rather think if more people knew the British English definition of the word 'spunk', they might stop using that particular term :)

I like the gratuitous use of the word 'knob' in place and business names Stateside though . . .

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

One "Americanism" in the list that I have gotten used to it the use of the word "gotten" - it certainly helped me to get over my distaste for the word when I discovered that it was a "real" English word that had just fallen out of use in the UK over the last several hundred years

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

Ha! I keep telling people the most authentic Elizabethan English has been preserved, in all places, in the hills and hollers of Tennessee and Virginia.

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing (Post 9509858)

On reflection, I blame the business world for a lot of these stupid phrases -

Case in point, the restaurant business. Everything is now a "fresh innovative urban fusion concept" (also known as, after a brief buzz of attention you're going bust/rebranding again in 3 months).

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kar98 (Post 9509932)

Ha! I keep telling people the most authentic Elizabethan English has been preserved, in all places, in the hills and hollers of Tennessee and Virginia.

Do all the people there go around talking like Mr Claypole from Rentaghost?
(there's a test of your British popular culture knowledge for you)

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by md95065 (Post 9509931)

I never use the work gotten...hate the phrase 'off of' too.

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

How about 'Happy Holiday's? That one always sounds so wrong coming out of my mouth somehow.

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montfan72 (Post 9510030)

How about 'Happy Holiday's? That one always sounds so wrong coming out of my mouth somehow.

How do you pronounce the apostrophe?

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kar98 (Post 9510036)

How do you pronounce the apostrophe?

So sorry, the heat has addled my brain.

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmerLisa (Post 9509675)

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 don't like it much myself, but in fairness, it does imply a certain element of 'making an extra effort to reach', or 'overcoming some resistance'. You don't "reach out" to Joe and ask him what time it is. You may 'Reach out" to Joe and offer assistance despite his reluctance to accept, etc. 'Reach out' suggests, make an extra effort ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by helwardman (Post 9509876)

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.

At the height of the dot-com boom a decade or so ago, there was a fantastic website called the (something like) 'high tech buzzword generator', and there were variations for 'business plan generator', etc. It simply threw together three sets of phrases in a random fashion to generate a sentence, and it was so amazingly reflective of real slogans and buzzwords. 'synergize', 'optimize', 'clicks and mortar', effectualize, etc were some of the key words. It was precious!

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montfan72 (Post 9510030)

How about 'Happy Holiday's? That one always sounds so wrong coming out of my mouth somehow.

Some British band wrote a song about going on a holiday (in the summer) and it was used in America in a Christmas advert. I always have to think twice whenever anyone uses the word because the Americans use it for winter and the British for summer.

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by sir_eccles (Post 9509830)

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

I very much doubt an American worded a question to you like that! :lol:

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by meauxna (Post 9510300)

I very much doubt an American worded a question to you like that! :lol:

You're right, I apologize. The tweet was worded "how are you supposed to pronounce the letter z"

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

I can't understand why some of the people who commented about that article (on the BBC site, not BE) are so outraged. :rofl: