How do brits feel about American English?
Posted by poptart2nd@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 58 comments
Given how French people feel about Quebecois, and Portugese people feel about Brazilian, how do Brits feel about American English? is it real english or something else? what would make it a different language in your eyes?
7ootles@reddit
American what-now?
Americans don't speak English. They speak their own language which happens to have a high degree of mutual inteligibility. The lexicon is different, the grammar is different, the orthography is different - it is a different language. Stop calling it English. It diverged centuries ago. Saying American is English is like saying Portugese is Latin.
In a room full of Americans I will simply not brook any correction about my English. I am English, the language we are speaking is English, you are American, therefore I am correct.
Imajzineer@reddit
It's called 'Simplified English' for a reason ... and, sometimes ... in my darker moments ... I disparagingly remark that it's only a rounding-error technicality that it constitutes a creole rather than a pidgin - those are the days on which I've been confronted with the most egregious examples of a complete failure to grasp grammar, vocabulary or idiom, however.
Drawinginfinity182@reddit
I’ve no strong feelings on it, right up until I have to select my language on a new app and it displays the Stars and Stripes next to “English”
AngryGardenGnomes@reddit
I shudder with detest whenever American English is the only option or has been automatically selected
No_Snow_8746@reddit
I have uninstalled apps that don't have a UK English option. If they can make it work in other languages, they can make it work in the correct form of English.
AngryGardenGnomes@reddit
Hear hear!
Brutal_De1uxe@reddit
OMG my on going fight with Office to make actual English the default instead of English (U.S.) causes me stress
gardenfella@reddit
Even if you manage to get it to spellcheck the correct form of English, it keeps on trying to make you conform to US grammar rules.
AngryGardenGnomes@reddit
I shudder with detest whenever American English is the only option oor has been automatically selected
Masalasabebien@reddit
The great thing about the English language is that it doesn't have a Royal Language Academy, so it's a fluid, innovative language. We can understand each other, which is the most important thing.
bookworm_of_color@reddit
For all their talk of liberty you’ll notice Americans aren’t especially keen on living and letting live. Comprehension isn’t the only goal. They like correcting people into their way of thinking/speaking.
Masalasabebien@reddit
Cant say I've noticed that particularly. I've spent almost 12 months in the USA over the past 5 years and don't recall being corrected.
bookworm_of_color@reddit
Happy to hear it!
No-Neighborhood2213@reddit
I have to use written American English every day as I work for an American company. It is almost, but not quite a different language. My biggest argument about grammar with American colleagues (which I lost) was around the oxford comma. It really surprised my US colleagues as they thought the oxford comma was a British English thing and that a, b, and c was how we all write rather than the a, b and c I always thought made more sense.
ThatNiceDrShipman@reddit
It's all rite I guess.
OldLondon@reddit
It’s fine, silly but fine. Keep it in America though. I’ve heard kids unironically use trash, sidewalk and trunk recently. We’ll have not of that here thank you.
Uhura-hoop@reddit
Well it’s a sort of dumbed down version of proper English, so I find it quite cringesome to be honest. It’s like a child’s version instead of the real thing. For a grown adult to not respect the difference between turtles and tortoises (look at the feet, people! 🙄) is a bit, dare I say, stupid. Similarly prawns being lumped in with shrimp etc. It’s like they’ve lost nuance in the language. And when you can’t express complexity in language you gradually lose the ability to think in complex terms. (See the contraction of language in Orwell’s 1984. Newspeak has that specific aim)
Woolpig@reddit
The tortoise thing gets me too. And the use of "rock" to describe a stone of any size. It just sounds daft.
hunsnet457@reddit
Almost all words, I don’t care.
Cheque vs Check though I will go to war for.
Good_Lettuce_2690@reddit
Saying "I could care less" is a pet peeve of mine, which means the complete opposite of how the correct phrase is used.
Djinjja-Ninja@reddit
I think that Brits in general don't care. Brits on the internet get their knickers in a twist over "Americanisms creeping into our language".
The funny thing is that a lot of these perceived Americanisms are just older English, they're older English which was exported to the colonies, fell out of use here in Britain, and have been re-imported.
A great one you see argues is people saying "Mom" or "High School" and getting jumped on for using Americanisms, when these are pretty common in some places such as the Midlands.
British English, American English, Australian English etc, they're all just dialects.
Ok_Aioli3897@reddit
It's okay until Americans think that they have the only form of English especially on things like the internet.
Even worse if it's a subreddit dedicated to British people and they still insist on speaking American English
Careless_Passage8487@reddit
Brits probably think American English is like a quirky cousin who says "y'all" and "soda" a lot. They're cool with it until we butcher the pronunciation of "Edinburgh" or something. It's like we speak the same language, but with a funky twist that makes them chuckle. Just imagine a British person sipping tea, listening to us say "water" with a hard R, and trying not to laugh. It's all good vibes across the pond, mate!
terryjuicelawson@reddit
I get the feeling they aren't as equivalent, they have diverged a lot more than British and US English (and others - Irish, Australian, NZ etc) have. It is perfectly understandable, the amount of US media we get helps. It is just another dialect really. Some people get a stick up their arse about "Americanisms" but I don't see all that many in real life. Cue anecdotes or complaints about things like "could care less" or "math" in the comments I imagine.
peppermint_aero@reddit
All English is real. Dialectical variation is normal and good.
Within dialects there will also be other variations according to socio-economic status, level of education, field of work, gender, ethnicity, etc. A 16 year old black girl in South London and an 80 year old white man in Doncaster will be able to understand each other but there will be significant differences in their vocabulary, accent etc.
As a speaker of British English I don't like it when Americans "correct" the way I speak, but I have no negative opinions on the way they speak.
Feelings that certain variations are lower or worse-than, especially in the two examples you gave, are likely rooted in colonial feelings, or class-based or race-based prejudice. Words like "proper" and "correct" are incredibly loaded and non-neutral. There are standard/prestige dialects, of course, and it's probably worth foreign learners focusing on that, but apart from that it's not a competition.
knight-under-stars@reddit
I can drive 20 miles in any direction from my home and there will be a different word for a bread roll. There is no singular "real English", it's just the kind of thing internet blowhards get pissy about.
SquiffSquiff@reddit
The differences are pretty minor. A few words, a few spellings and an accent. There's just as much variation, both within the UK, and between other English speaking countries. Try reading some Irvine Welsh or Anthony Burgess
this-guy-@reddit
English is a very fluid and ever changing language with all kinds of dialects . We nicked bits of loads of other languages and stitched them into a patchwork which makes little logical sense. The English used today in the uk is very different to the English of 100 or 200 years ago. The English spoken in Bristol is very different to that spoken in Newcastle. So go for it.
But for one small matter. Savings is a mass noun, so "Saving" is the singular, while savings is plural. "What a savings" makes no sense. Likewise "I made a great savings on my new TV" is crazy grammar . Other than that we are fine with it.
SquiffSquiff@reddit
"By Grabthar's hammer!!'
McBaldy98@reddit
Half our language is French, some is German and even a bit is Norse left over from the vikings.
Travel 30 miles in any direction from where you are now and you’ll be treated to a different form of British English.
I don’t like being grammatically corrected by an American English speaker, but that’s about it.
Uhura-hoop@reddit
(Nice Everything Everything pic)
TWOITC@reddit
I think we are a lot more relaxed about than your two examples. Some people have an issue with Americanisms being used in the UK.
Generally we are more interested to learn the differences between English and American English, Australian English etc..
cgknight1@reddit
Except many that people complain about are nothing but the sort.
sjintje@reddit
It looks a bit odd, but it's fine. I catch myself using some of their words these days, like pants or sidewalk. Not really fussed. It seems to upset Brit posters on reddit, but I don't know about real life because no one even mentions it.
bookworm_of_color@reddit
Yet they rarely catch themselves using anyone else’s words. An odd asymmetry which makes one wonder whether it is in fact something to be fussed about
EUskeptik@reddit
I’m a Brit and I approve of US English.
US English has been allowed to evolve whereas UK English is mostly stuck in a bygone age. There is a lot of resistance to changing spellings to something more logical, unlike in US English where change is welcomed.
Given the dominance of the US in the English language media, it is not surprising that .Brits are exposed to US English almost on a daily basis. The US is constantly in the news thanks to US celebrities being global celebrities and of course they elected a President who came to prominence via a US reality TV show. That show was later licensed to make a popular TV show on British TV.
I wish UK English would adopt the changes made to US English but a lot of British people disagree. They regard the US as corrupting the language and want it left unchanged.
-@@-
bus_wankerr@reddit
It's just simplified English, it's not worth anyones time to get annoyed about it, but the distinction between British and simplified is important
Annual_Field893@reddit
Never really noticed the difference between American and British English tbh, I grew up with access to the internet so I've been exposed to American culture arguably the same or more than my own culture. I used to say candy back in primary...
SprinklesLeading9580@reddit
Not so sure about the language, but in general we love Americans don't we, but they're all kind of wankers too. So I don't know...
weatherwaxs_broom@reddit
I don't mind it, but autocorrect altering my spelling from UK to US drives me potty.
apeliott@reddit
I teach English in Japan and it can be a bit annoying sometimes.
I remember one woman complaining to my boss that I was saying "car" wrong when teaching her daughter.
A couple of days ago I was talking to a student who spent years in Indonesia learning British English. She took an English exam in Japan and the teacher marked her down for writing "colour".
Hot_Space_1982@reddit
This is what really irritates me - being corrected on the correct pronunciation and correct spelling.
apeliott@reddit
I'm pretty sure I know which teacher did it as well.
The student can certainly communicate better in English than he can.
No_Snow_8746@reddit
Did she point out that in fact he is wrong, unless the school wanted to teach US English specifically?
apeliott@reddit
I don't think she did.
Each teacher basically does their own thing. They make their own exams. Some are fine, some are terrible.
Some of them ask us to check their exams but many of them don't. When we do check, we often find mistakes.
I also tutor a kid who goes to a school in my town. Some of the exams and handouts he shows me are even worse. Riddled with typos, nonsensical texts, weird and unnatural dialogues, missing questions, missing sections and so on.
No_Snow_8746@reddit
It should be called simply American.
Hate4Birmingham@reddit
Simple English is the phrase not American English
ImpressiveGift9921@reddit
No strong opinion on it. It's just as valid as British english. I even prefer a few changes like bangs over fringe. Some are worse like twot instead of twat.
veryblocky@reddit
It does annoy me, especially when I’m “corrected”
But it clearly isn’t a different language.
One-Revolution-8289@reddit
We don't have difficulty understanding US accents so we just don't care. We do reserve the right to mock however, especially about units of measurement
Amazing-Heron-105@reddit
American's seem to struggle to understand the most basic UK accents
plain_open_enigma@reddit
It's fine, as long as Americans don't correct me on what English is.
You guys have bastardised it, whatever, but it's not English, it's American English.
sp1z99@reddit
touché
dbxp@reddit
I don't care really, the point of language is to communicate. I find it very rude when people get pissy about it as it's like they want other people to be their ornament in a way, something to make the world more aesthetic to them ignoring that they are their own person.
Stinkinhippy@reddit
It's English.. just dumbed down so the Americans can spell/speak it.
OnlymyOP@reddit
😂🤣
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