Americanisation (the) of our language

French toast is ubiquitous on the American breakfast menu, but strangely never seen it on a menu in France! Croque Monsieur yes but not French Toast.

luluaugust

Living with a railway anorak I have to dive for cover is anyone says train station instead of railway station.

And train instead of engine

I just just find the way questions are asked a bit annoying as in 'you do?' rather than 'do you?'. Seems to be creeping into novels lately.
Not sure if this is American but it is a bit irritating.

Going back to the toilet/lavatory/loo/restroom etc. part of this discussion, all of them are euphemisms! Interesting information on here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet#Etymology

Me? I've always said 'loo', and from whatever etymological source it came, it is also seems to be a euphemism!

Also interesting to me is: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Euphemism_treadmill which shows how euphemisms become 'correct' usage.

It's not the American I object to most, it's the complete loss of regional dialects. Like this Geordie refrain.
And Geordie's lost his liggy
Oh Geordie's lost his liggy
Oh Geordie's lost his liggy
Along the Scotswood Road { hey hahaha }

He got himself a broom shank
Stuffed it down the netty
But he couldn't find his liggy
Along the Scotswood Road
So he got himself a poss stick
And he tried it to his broom shank
And he rammed it down the netty
Along the Scotswood Road

I hate “can I get” instead of “(please) can I have”. In English the words don’t even mean the same!

Oh my pet hate! makes me laugh when it became all trendy for kids to talk like American gangsters from the ghetto to sound like rap stars when in fact they are posh boys from Surrey!

My bad....

Re Math - it really annoys me when the media talk about maths when they should use arithmetic.

Have enjoyed the conversation this morning. Hate peepee and gotten, too, but with relatives living in the US, keep 'Mum'!

What we might call Americanising is sometimes not that at all! Take the word ‘Fall’ for Autumn. In fact, the word Fall is an old English word which emigrants took with them to America and kept. WE were the ones to change Fall to Autumn ….

I’ll see if I can find the reference for this but remember chuckling when I first read it.

My turn!

Just to be petty, I truly hate "pressie" and "telly"

Why shorten them in such a juvenile and childish way?

cookiemonster66

Oh my pet hate! makes me laugh when it became all trendy for kids to talk like American gangsters from the ghetto to sound like rap stars when in fact they are posh boys from Surrey!

Yes remember when my son was going through that phase in his skateboarding teens often replied to a request from dad "yeah man" exasperated husband would say stop saying that, you aren't American and don't live in the ghetto, his response, "sorry man!"

I have mentioned this before, but you obviously didn't see the thread.

In the Glasgow area "needing the bathroom" was considered more polite than other expressions and got you out of the dilemma of "toilet" versus "lavatory".

Neither at home nor at school were we allowed to use the word "lavatory" only children in the most deprived areas of the city used that word, English families that moved to Scotland were shocked by "toilet" and spoke of the lavatory and wore knickers - a word that constituted the nadir of vulgarity as far as my father was concerned.

So bathroom is not an exclusively American usage in this context.

Now that we all watch American films and TV series via Netflix and the like, we can hardly expect Americanisms not to creep into British English, can we?

Likes and dislikes in language are so personal that we just have to agree to differ.

The youngsters in my family tease me for saying 'I'm going to the pictures'. Apparently it should be the 'movies'. I've pointed out they're both short for Moving Pictures.

Apparently drinking chocolate is wrong as well and it should be hot chocolate.

I weekly Skype with my friend in Iowa and we both love to discuss American and English words and phrases. What we have discovered time after time is that it is us English who have changed the language. The Americans use old English, probably developed from those early settlers.

Lucca

Oh excellent another classic “grumpy old women” thread ??personally I dislike the word toilet but there you go…

How do you plan to rebel ??!

... what I dislike even more than 'toilet' is when those involved in social care who have to help people to it, refer to the process as "toileting".

It's not an American turn of phrase, but it makes my toes curl.

In the Glasgow area "needing the bathroom" was considered more polite than other expressions and got you out of the dilemma of "toilet" versus "lavatory".

There are Scottish words for the smallest room that make toilet seem positively refined.

I hate it on tv when Americans say they are 'pi**ed' because to us Brits it means we are inebriated, or drunk- and to us being 'pi**ed OFF is what they mean!

The place to do excretions often gets a euphemistic name. I used to know really old ladies in the 1930s who called it "the closet". My mother called it "the W.C." or "the bathroom".
At boarding school it was "to be excused" , Among hospital colleagues it was "the turret"(architectural reasons)

Another that I had forgotten about, and for which I am sure no American citizen can be blamed, is saying ‘the crem’ instead of “the crematorium’. Whoever thought tha was a good idea?!!

And yes, the 'passed' thing annoys me as well- ' passed AWAY' means dying!

I hate the term pants instead of knickers.

Zippers instead of zips.

Ass instead of arse.

When in the US I was sitting on a bench and a passing man in a cowboy suit tipped his hat and said "Howdy Ma'am!" I thought that was so cute.

Grandetante, I remember "need the bathroom" in Glasgow, and also in the Scottish Borders.

And even on GN you get the Americanised spellings trying to creep in where what you may type has red underlines if spelt the English way!
I hate the use of "gotten" but it is apparently old English !

Its like they are so lazy they
cannot extend the whole phrase!?