Counting in American

I couldn't believe it when I read in a book by a US author "Look what the cat drug in". Drug? Not dragged?
According to my cousin in LA, yes, this is normal usage and even after living there for around 18 years, it still won't trip off her tongue any more than 'dove' instead of dived.

I love that 'fanny fatigue'!
I do tend to get 'car bum' on long journeys, not to mention 'aeroplane legs' on any journey involving a lot of sitting. Sometimes both.

Is it reflective of their pace of life that American candidates 'run' for election, whereas traditionally ours have always 'stood' for election, although the Americanism is beginning to creep into our political vocabulary?

Surely cheers means thank you
I was brought up near Manchester so perhaps you are right.

Pollyperkins: No "perhaps" about it.
And "Cheers", apart from being an excellent American sit-com, can also mean "Down the Hatch",
which, as I type, only involves a cup of coffee!
Even though "the sun is over the yardarm" down here in Southern Waters!

OoRoo

In fact, it seems to have reached the Black Country!
www.moorlandpottery.co.uk/moorland-pottery-ranges/black-country-ware/tara-a-bit.html

No, I'm not more northern Pamela!

I was brought up near Manchester so perhaps you are right.
Surely cheers means thank you.

In Bristol it is usual to just say "cheers" - especially to bus drivers when you say "cheers drive" when getting off the bus!

MyDH is from Stoke and he says he’s never said Ta-ra a bit.
Jalima maybe you were more northern. They do say it where my family come from, just north of Manchester.

Im familiar with Tara! Also Hiya for hello.Never heard ooroo though ( and we have been to Oz. ) the youngsters say 'Laters' for see you later, written L8ters I believe!

As a Mancunian I can confidently say that it is not "daft". We used it all the time at home.
Ah!
Not that far from The Potteries then

Where I came from people used to say (and probably still do)
Ta Ra a bit - which is just as daft.

Oh come on Jalima! Where on earth do you come from or, more to the point, where have you been all your life!
First " OoRoo" and now "Ta-Ra!"
As a Mancunian I can confidently say that it is not "daft". We used it all the time at home.
Now, if you want "real daft" try talking to a Geordie;
You'd be throwing yourself off something or other and you wouldn't want anyone to "catch you later!
OoRoo

Where I came from people used to say (and probably still do)
Ta Ra a bit - which is just as daft.

I've heard 'catch you later' as well
which would be useful if I decided to jump down from somewhere.

Never heard of Ooroo.Must ask my Aussie daughter.
We stopped for lunch in Winnemucca , on our way from Yellowstone to Vancouver. It takes ages to order if there are a few of you and you don’t understand the options. So many of them. My husbands eyes glazed over, he’s much better with questions like- do you want coffee or tea? Not much brain power involved. I jokingly told the waitress that ‘he’s just learning the language’, she assured him kindly that he was doing very well?.
We managed not to giggle till later but now he uses it as an excuse when he hasn’t bothered to listen properly.

I wonder if ooroo (which I never heard in Australia, years ago) is a version of au revoir.

'See ya 'round, but'

Jalima; Your Aussie family connections must use that at times, surely!?
And OoRoo is much more grammatical than "See Ya round"
As much as I hate saying this "consult Dr. Google". Like "what I did" for UK thongs!

OoRoo

I've never heard that one Rufus - Ooroo

'See ya 'round, but'

And what on earth does Ooroo mean?

"An Australian term meaning "see you later" It's not to be confused with goodbye as that is too final. i.e. the friendship will continue."

Pollyperkins; Isn't that a nice sentiment? I like using it to show I'm a "fair dinkum" Aussie.

Bet you're not doing much "wellie wanging" today though!
Better for sloshing around in the rain and mud than "thongs", ( the sort that go on your feet.)

OoRoo

And what on earth does Ooroo mean?

We have wellie wanging. Different climate (normally!)

In America or the UK, throwing a thong would be a very different ball game, but here in Melbourne, the great Aussie Thong Throwing Competition is the sport of kings. The world record for throwing is 42.8m and is held by a Queenslander. Do you think you have what it takes to throw that far?

You can't deny that Australians love their sports!

OoRoo

How true when Oscar Wilde said “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.

A thong basically just means a thin strip of something, so you can see how it could refer to either flip-flops or scanty undergarments.
and neither look very comfortable!

A thong basically just means a thin strip of something, so you can see how it could refer to either flip-flops or scanty undergarments.

I admit to being unreasonably irritated if Americanisms are used in English. Smart is being used increasingly to mean clever. I keep seeing Mom for Mum. Bathroom, which has been used to mean lavatory in America for a long time, is being used more and more here. Silly euphemism - though of course lavatory is a euphemism too, but lost in the mists of time. In What Katy Did At School, published in America in, I think, the 1870s, lavatory is used to describe the washroom in a boarding school. This puzzled me when I was a child.

Other irrational irritations for me are the use of math instead of maths (fortunately not used in the U.K. yet), and the fact that Americans call the language they speak English. It’s American English, as opposed to proper British English. After all, we came first ?