What's your most irritating 'Americanism'?

[Answerprancer]

What's yours?
Particularly ones that have become embraced by UK.

Mine:

"snuck" as in "He just snuck in" (sneaked).

"dove" - not the bird', but 'dove' (rhyming with 'cove') as in "He stood next to the pool and DOVE in.

"mad" meaning angry - in American English, and "mean" meaning unfriendly - in American English.
(As opposed to 'insane' and 'stingy' in ENGLISH English) both seem to have become accepted as proper definitions by today's youth ...yee-arrgh!

..and now a phrase: "That is SO not good" ...aagh!

Have you heard them say "solder"? there's a good one - hilarious. Just go to Youtube and look it up.
They say "SODDER" - I kid you not (pardon the Americanism) even though they still spell it "solder".

As for the pronunciations of "foreign" car marques, now just don't get me started dudes!

"Hyundai" becomes "HUNDY"
"Jaguar" is "Jag-wire"

Aw, whatever man, I'm outta here.

[fredpuli47]

Oh, and 'gays' in Norfolk dialect are coloured pictures, a usage as potentially confusing to Americans as 'broads' for an area of marsh and mere (the Norfolk Broads)

[Quizmonster]

Given your use of the word "irritating" in the title, Answeprancer, and grunts such as "yee-arrgh" and "aagh" in your text, I actually assumed you WERE irritated. Rejecting the notion that "proper" applied to their usages and that their pronunciation was "hilarious" didn't help me to grasp your "light-heartedness" either. You may be unaware that looking at text on the Internet - rather than at a speaker's face in front of you - does not give much away about a person's hidden attitude. Your Blair reference also escapes me, I'm afraid.

(Perhaps now YOU could actually respond to some of the points I made earlier. Please treat this as a serious rather than a light-hearted question directly from me to you.)

[shaneystar2]

Yes ..you have me bang to rights fredpuli47..I'm a Norfolk gal !
Alan Smethurst eat your heart out :)
Actually I have very little trace of a Norfolk accent any more but some of my family are quite "broad ".
Now come on ..what's a Dodman :))
The Bishys are called so after Bishop Bonner .Bishop Bonners bees .

[Answerprancer]

Quizzmonster, hi.
I thought I had revealed my "hidden" attitude by saying that it was not meant to be taken too seriously. For the purposes of 'netiquette', assume that everything I said was done so with a smile and a few laughs (as it was).
No I will not respond to your points in the light of what I just said. This thread remains light hearted afaic. I was not seeking serious debate with it.

[fredpuli47]

shaneystar.........How are you all together,gal ? I've known strangers walking alone wonder who else had come up,thinking 'all together' meant 'you people together' not 'all in all'
Alan Smethurst ? All together now : " I knew a gal, a very nice gal ...." Ah,the immortal songs of the Singing Postman !
Dodman ? That's what a hungry harnsey might eat .It's a snail for a hungry heron
Anyway,Norfolk isn't annoying, like some Americanisms are. OK ?.

[Alice]

The arrogance of Macdonalds in asserting that a 'bob' was an old term for a pound and when their mistake was pointed out to them they replied with; quote:

"Although a 'bob' was formerly used as a slang term for the shilling until the introduction of decimalisation in 1971, research has shown it is now more commonly used as slang for a pound or money in general."

What research? Where? What a load of rubbish! Just admit your mistake, Macdonalds.

[Quizmonster]

But bob IS used as slang for money in general sometimes. We hear it in sentences such as,"That must have cost a bob or two!" And we're not talking florins here!

[lardhelmet]

People who say "should of "instead of "should have" - "You should of received it by now" - what?

[Alice]

Granted, Quizmonster but the context in which it was used was in an advertisement beginning: "The pound, also known as a bob", a statement which is not true.

[fredpuli47]

Indeed, QM and "He's worth a few bob" and " He's worth a few quid" mean the same .Only an American could deduce from that that a quid was the same as a bob and, therefore , a pound.! (Americans, reputedly,. 'don't get irony' and are certainly not used to our deliberate understatement, which they take literally ) McDonalds don't admit to that mistaken deduction.Pity. It's better than the explanation they did give.Nobody says 'lend us a bob' meaning that they want to borrow a pound ! McD are right about the use in the plural use but wrong about the use in the singular

[Quizmonster]

'Should of' is used in error for 'should've', the abbreviated version of 'should have', rather than 'should have' itself. The mistake arises because the two - should of/should've - sound almost identical in everyday speech.
Of course, it is a grotesque mistake, but I know of no evidence that it is an Americanism. Is there any?

[nightmare]

QM,
The first time I encountered "would of" , "could of" and "should of" was when I moved from West Yorkshire to North Yorkshire in 1974.

[Quizmonster]

Yes, I'm fairly convinced it's home-bred, Nightmare.

[kawakiri]

A load of blocks.

[YesandNo]

Modern form in English is a re-Latinization from early 15c. The loss of Latin -l- in that position on the way to Old French is regular, as poudre from pulverem, cou from collum, chaud from calidus. The -l- typically is sounded in British English but not in American, according to OED, but Fowler wrote that solder without the "l" was "The only pronunciation I have ever heard, except from the half-educated to whom spelling is a final court of appeal ..." and was baffled by the OED's statement that it was American. Related: Soldered; soldering. The noun is first attested late 14c.