Americanisms That Really Annoy British People

[Deleted]

Which is worse. "U" generally only makes a "yew" sound when describing the letter alone or when it's the first letter of a word (eg, use).

Ooze in the proper pronounciation of the letter "U", not yew. The english pronounciation of vowels is all wrong.

[Mistame]

Ooze in the proper pronounciation of the letter "U", not yew. The english pronounciation of vowels is all wrong.

"oo" is the proper long form pronunciation. Plenty of words use the short form, including "pronunciation". My point was that "u" generally only makes a "you" ("yew") sound when at the start of a sentence. Eg, "unite", "union", "unique", etc. It's a bit silly to claim that English pronunciation of vowels is wrong, considering they're English vowels.

[willtron]

I could care less still works, though. I don't know why people get so angry about it.

well, if you could care less, then why don't you?

[Deleted]

Anyways

10char

[Deleted]

"oo" is the proper long form pronunciation. Plenty of words use the short form, including "pronunciation". My point was that "u" generally only makes a "you" ("yew") sound when at the start of a sentence. Eg, "unite", "union", "unique", etc. It's a bit silly to claim that English pronunciation of vowels is wrong, considering they're English vowels.

There are no English vowels, they are Latin vowels. *doublefacepalm*

[Mistame]

There are no English vowels, they are Latin vowels. *doublefacepalm*

The English language having vowels disagrees with you. But I imagine you're trying to make some pedantic/abstract non-point and/or trolling, so please, enlighten us.

[Deleted]

The English language having vowels disagrees with you. But I imagine you're trying to make some pedantic/abstract non-point and/or trolling, so please, enlighten us.

I refuse to argue with trolls. And there is no "us", you're all alone in this.

[Mistame]

I refuse to argue with trolls. And there is no "us", you're all alone in this.

So you didn't like being called out on your nonsense?

If you truly want to be pedantic, the term vowel generally refers to particular sounds made by the vocal chords, therein making it a generic term. And since every language uses them to some degree, this really isn't relevant to the current discussion. My point was more to the written form, in which vowel is used to describe the characters that represent these sounds and these characters vary between languages. Thus, trying to claim that a particular language uses a vowel "wrong" is just stupid.

[Independent voter]

Image of all Americans annoyed by Britishisms even though "Britishisms" isn't even a word.

[Twoddle]

"My bad" is an odd one or is it only an internet thing?

[ghotihook]

"My bad" is an odd one or is it only an internet thing?

That's definitely real.
The only thing I can think of Brits saying that makes me cringe is when they say Aluminum.

[willtron]

That's definitely real.
The only thing I can think of Brits saying that makes me cringe is when they say Aluminum.

you mean when we say it properly?

[Mormolyce]

Which is worse. "U" generally only makes a "yew" sound when describing the letter alone or when it's the first letter of a word (eg, use).

It makes the "yoo" sound much more frequently in British English. Particularly in the "posh" accents.

Even in the other accents, the "u" would be shorter than in American, ie we'd say "al-uh-min-ee-um", not "al-oo-min-um".

Those long "oo" sounds for "u" have a distinct lower class connotation in British English I think. Like when New York is pronounced "noo yawk" instead of "nyew york".

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"My bad" is an odd one or is it only an internet thing?

It's Buffyspeak. Though it probably predated the show itself, it became popular some time in the 90s I think.

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It's definitely more than a little, 'cause it really annoys me too

But you left open the possibility that you care an infinitesimally small but still non-zero amount! :P

[schwarzkopf]

The only Americanisms that annoy me are the irrational choices.

e.g.
1. Middle/bottom/top on date formats (3/15/2018)
2. Archaic measurement system (ft etc)
3. Removing 'u' from words for no good reason (colour)
4. Changing meanings of words prescriptively for political reasons (e.g. socialism)
5. Irrational morality in entertainment (murder is ok, but titties are not).

vs things I disagree with but don't annoy me e.g.
1. Gun culture
2. Political system

[Mistame]

1. Middle/bottom/top on date formats (3/15/2018)

This is mostly to be consistent with the formal/written form, eg March 15, 2018. We say, "March 15, 2018", not "15 March, 2018", which is illogical. As far as pure data goes, logically and chronologically it would be year-month-date, eg, 2018-03-15.

2. Archaic measurement system (ft etc)

Can't disagree with that.

3. Removing 'u' from words for no good reason (colour)

The "u" is unnecessary. "-our" is pronounced like either "or" or "our". The "-or" in "color", "armor", etc, are pronounced "er". "Cuh-ler", "arm-er", etc. The "u" was dropped to make it more in line with the pronunciation.

5. Irrational morality in entertainment (murder is ok, but titties are not).

Yeah, as an American, this irks the hell out of me. Why people are so fucking uptight about nudity is beyond logic.

[oplawlz]

I could care less still works, though. I don't know why people get so angry about it.

That statement doesn't have any meaning besides suggesting you do in fact care, which is the opposite of it's intended use.

[PickleballAce]

Yes, we're all aware how sensitive and easily-offended the British are.

[schwarzkopf]

This is mostly to be consistent with the formal/written form

That a false narrative, which also annoys me... if you did the same thing with time, then quarter to 10 would be 15:10

The "u" is unnecessary.

Another false narrative, lots of stuff in the language is unnecessary - the removal of the U was just a private decision by a dude called Webster (the same dude that put the wrong meanings for other words in the dictionary).

[Speaknoevil]

I could care less is always said sarcastically, or "I could care less(but it would be hard.)" intonation.

So you're whinging for the sake of it.

[Mistame]

That a false narrative, which also annoys me... if you did the same thing with time, then quarter to 10 would be 15:10

This doesn't even make sense. A quarter to 10 would be 9:45, or, to your weird point, 45:9. As far as placement goes, dates and times have multiple formats, as anyone with any programming experience would understand. In the US, the long (formal) format is [Weekday,] <Month> <Day>, <Year>. This is because of how it's read. We generally don't say, "Fifteenth of March", we say, "March Fifteenth". To your time example, you're trying to use some convoluted format of time that doesn't make any sense when even the full long date/time format that includes both the date and time uses the standard numerical time format.

Another false narrative, lots of stuff in the language is unnecessary - the removal of the U was just a private decision by a dude called Webster (the same dude that put the wrong meanings for other words in the dictionary).

And it was a perfectly rational decision because the "u" gives it a different sound. "-our" does not make an "-uhr" sound. You can not like the spellings, formats, etc, but that doesn't make them "irrational". Also, I don't think you understand what a false narrative is.