50 americanisms in the uk

  On 7/21/2011 at 11:40 PM, Fred McGriff said:

what i really want to know is if there is any sense of "british" nationalism? i.e., let's say you're english, and andy murray is scottish. do you really give a shit if he wins wimbledon because he is technically your countryman?

To a lot of people he's British for convenience. If we had an English player who wasn't hated as highly as Murray but was good enough to receive any attention he would be lauded as an English lad to root for, not British. Murray is Scottish, but he'll always be referred to as British because we're so shit at sports right now we need someone to root for as our own.

There is a sort of English nationalism though. And Scottish. I nfact Scottish nationalists are in power in Scotland right now.

  On 7/21/2011 at 6:07 PM, Obel said:

What a bag of fucking shit.

 

Murve, please don't say "UKers are so lame" as if these twats are representative of our collective mentality. Otherwise I'm going to start judging Americans by the fine upstanding citizens on Cops.

Ha, I meant to say, these UKers are so lame. I like too many of you to call you all lame.

Also, speaking of -isms, I love the UKism "I'm going to have a shit" instead of our "I'm going to take a shit". Where are we taking the shit to?

"i'm due a pony"...

Is "lay a cable" a British thing? I've not heard it elsewhere but I love that one.

  On 7/22/2011 at 12:39 AM, Obel said:

Murray is Scottish, but he'll always be referred to as British because we're so shit at sports right now we need someone to root for as our own.

this is true

seriously !! So that's why they refer to him as a british champion. Hahah, what a sad, useless at sports, place.

everyone sucks everywhere

  On 7/22/2011 at 12:39 AM, Obel said:

  On 7/21/2011 at 11:40 PM, Fred McGriff said:

what i really want to know is if there is any sense of "british" nationalism? i.e., let's say you're english, and andy murray is scottish. do you really give a shit if he wins wimbledon because he is technically your countryman?

 

To a lot of people he's British for convenience. If we had an English player who wasn't rated as highly as Murray but was good enough to receive any attention he would be lauded as an English lad to root for, not British. Murray is Scottish, but he'll always be referred to as British because we're so shit at sports right now we need someone to root for as our own.

 

There is a sort of English nationalism though. And Scottish. I nfact Scottish nationalists are in power in Scotland right now.

Whoops. Fixed that typo. I don't hate Murray at all.

  On 7/22/2011 at 1:17 AM, delet... said:

seriously !! So that's why they refer to him as a british champion. Hahah, what a sad, useless at sports, place.

lol.

still, we're better than you at cricket, and music, aren't we ;)

  On 7/22/2011 at 1:51 AM, sirch said:

  On 7/22/2011 at 1:17 AM, delet... said:

seriously !! So that's why they refer to him as a british champion. Hahah, what a sad, useless at sports, place.

 

lol.

 

still, we're better than you at cricket, and music, aren't we ;)

You have us on music yes, i think it's the rainy indoors thing. As for cricket, i blame the NSW cetric and racist selectors, not our lack of talent.

i actually really like the rain. i've been enjoying this summer it's been pissing down most days! i like it. :)

can't stand the heat and too much blinding sun. you guys can keep that!

but yeah we are useless at sports, and it is quite a "sad" place to live in all honesty.

which is probably why everyone goes out and binge drinks so much. to escape reality.

either that or they engross themselves in computer games, or something, like music... and/or fucking.

  On 7/22/2011 at 12:23 AM, sirch said:

  On 7/21/2011 at 11:40 PM, Fred McGriff said:

what i really want to know is if there is any sense of "british" nationalism? i.e., let's say you're english, and andy murray is scottish. do you really give a shit if he wins wimbledon because he is technically your countryman?

 

i'd say no there's not really. this is one of the weird things about the so-called United Kingdom. it's such a small island and everyone hates on the English! still. lol

the Scots more often than not will back the USA in the world cup and want the English to lose everything. they really hate us the most (in my experience). whereas (a lot of) the English will get behind somebody like Murray and be pleased if he wins whether he's Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish or whatever, simply because he's 'British'. and all the English hate each other aswell! lol. the North/South divide is quite real.

*jots it down*

  On 7/22/2011 at 12:39 AM, Obel said:

  On 7/21/2011 at 11:40 PM, Fred McGriff said:

what i really want to know is if there is any sense of "british" nationalism? i.e., let's say you're english, and andy murray is scottish. do you really give a shit if he wins wimbledon because he is technically your countryman?

 

To a lot of people he's British for convenience. If we had an English player who wasn't hated as highly as Murray but was good enough to receive any attention he would be lauded as an English lad to root for, not British. Murray is Scottish, but he'll always be referred to as British because we're so shit at sports right now we need someone to root for as our own.

 

There is a sort of English nationalism though. And Scottish. I nfact Scottish nationalists are in power in Scotland right now.

*jots it down*

thanks duders

  On 7/22/2011 at 2:05 AM, sirch said:

, and it is quite a "sad" place to live in all honesty.

which is probably why everyone goes out and binge drinks so much. to escape reality.

In the hottest parts of the country during the summer people are said to go 'troppo'. In a fit of which they up their alcohol intake to silly levels. I think that we humans like a moderate temperature best, so you can go out and do stuff without either freezing to death nor melting from heat exhaustion and mostly cause our brains function most efficiently then.

That being said, i think my preferred range is mostly at the cooler end of the scale. Which can make living in Queensland a tad uncomfortable.

I'm the same. I come from Scottish stock, with Scandinavian ancestry going back further. So I am the end product of thousands of years of conditioning in a cooler climate. You couldn't pay me enough to live up north.

Well, we'd have to negotiate.

  On 7/21/2011 at 10:30 PM, sirch said:

  On 7/21/2011 at 10:04 PM, KY said:

does anybody think we should just have an "ask a UK citizen any questions you have about their country/ask a US citizen any questions you have about their country" kind of thread? have we done that before? it feels right.

that might be quite funny, but could soon turn into a cock war! no doubt.

maybe extend it to "ask a citizen of any country any questions you might have about their country"...? i dunno. could be interesting.

too late, that's what this thread turned into :sup:

  On 7/22/2011 at 1:26 AM, baph said:

everyone sucks everywhere

this might be a good thread though

what a silly list, most of those are things I've never heard, some of them sound very much like business talk, and some are just pointless winging.

train station/railway station is fkn stupid... The stupidity of this example irritates me far more than any of the examples themselves.

Don't like Americano though, as someone said, I feel like a douche if I have to say it. I've TRIED ordering a "large coffee please" and the girl always corrects/replies, "one grade Americano!!" all chirpy and shit. I'd get annoyed but she is kinda pretty, so I let it slide coz I'm weak like that :(

anyways, I think the point is modern day English doesn't belong to anybody, just say it however the fuck you like. I'm meants to speak it proper like but me words all get mixed up guv, don't mean that I ain't makin no sense of it tho cor blimey.

would also like to say that the opinions demonstrated in that article are not reflective of most UK citizens. we're just an incredibly grumpy group, and this lot felt like language was a good thing to be grumpy about. I also get the feeling that most of them have never left their two up two downs in herefordshire. The north of England is surprisingly enough, in England, and people use all kinda silly words up them parts.

one thing I noticed while I was over in the states, you guys seriously suck at swearing. you've managed fuck, but really you need to progress. Try using Twat and Cunt some more, Cunt is especially satisfying if you put a big emphasis on the T. YOU UTTER CIIAANNNTTT!!!

awesome!

Russians are really the masters at swearing though..

Oh btw, one thing I heard a lot when I worked in an office that drove me round the bend. "blue sky thinking" ewww..

  On 7/22/2011 at 5:28 AM, TechDiff said:

 

 

one thing I noticed while I was over in the states, you guys seriously suck at swearing. you've managed fuck, but really you need to progress. Try using Twat and Cunt some more, Cunt is especially satisfying if you put a big emphasis on the T. YOU UTTER CIIAANNNTTT!!!

 

He's right, you know.

yea but cunt is so frowned upon here. I could say fuck all day at my office but if I say cunt, I'll get some nasty looks. I do like saying twat though and I should say it more.

  On 7/22/2011 at 5:28 AM, TechDiff said:

 

Don't like Americano though, as someone said, I feel like a douche if I have to say it. I've TRIED ordering a "large coffee please" and the girl always corrects/replies, "one grade Americano!!" all chirpy and shit. I'd get annoyed but she is kinda pretty, so I let it slide coz I'm weak like that :(

Hah !! You're the man. (sic)

The emasculated man.

  On 7/22/2011 at 5:28 AM, TechDiff said:

 

 

one thing I noticed while I was over in the states, you guys seriously suck at swearing. you've managed fuck, but really you need to progress. Try using Twat and Cunt some more, Cunt is especially satisfying if you put a big emphasis on the T. YOU UTTER CIIAANNNTTT!!!

Perhaps this is more an indictment of the clamping down on swearing in popular entertainment in the US through the ages, than of the individual creativity of your average US plebnocaudex ..

;-p

  On 7/22/2011 at 5:28 AM, TechDiff said:

one thing I noticed while I was over in the states, you guys seriously suck at swearing. you've managed fuck, but really you need to progress. Try using Twat and Cunt some more, Cunt is especially satisfying if you put a big emphasis on the T. YOU UTTER CIIAANNNTTT!!!

 

 

Saying 'cunt' in certain company is likely to get one bloodied up here at worst, at the least it's heavily frowned upon even by some of the most foul-mouthed people I know. That said, I use 'twat' frequently as I just think it's a funny sounding word, and 'cunt' is one of my favourite words in our language, so I use it when I'm with my friends. But in public places I stick to 'twat' or 'dick.'

wow thats extremely cunty

the bosses son here says all that business speak... going forward, touching base, etc. and he says ASAP! as in EH-SAP... "yeah so i'm just touching base with you... so... going forward... i need it delivered ASAP." what a dick.

touching base sounds like docking foreplay.

  On 7/21/2011 at 6:15 PM, keltoi said:

 

anyway shouldn't bi-weekly mean twice a week rather than once every 2 weeks? bi-annually is twice a year.

 

explain please.

also, if i ever heard anyone say 'winningest' i think i'd have to...

There is british and english patriotism but there is a strong aspect of it which says patriotism is gay and pretends it isn't there.

A lot of these americanisms indeed are not american but most of them are in some way or other unpleasant to me, I could try to come up with reasons why but I'm sure they are irrational and I don't think you should really need a reason. I will still argue for 'maths' and 'couldn't care less' no matter how pointless it is.

For some reason, nearly every woman I know gets super offended if you say cunt. I never mean vaj when I say cunt too, I'm always referring to someone as a cunt. So I rarely use it.

Twat is not satisfying at all, it sounds goofy. Fuck is the way to go here, or you could say "Fucking-*Insert another swear here*". Fucking Fuck.

Edit: I don't think "I could care less" isn't so much an Americanism, but rather just illogical. I've always been told "Math" though, I see where you're coming from with Mathematics, but it just sounds wrong to me now.