For example, switching out the word ‘boot’ for ‘trunk’, or ditching the word ‘rubbish’ for ‘garbage’.
This is something I’ve noticed my 6 year old does pretty regularly. We went through a stage where ‘sweets’ became ‘candy’, ‘holiday’ became ‘vacation’ and ‘courgette’ became ‘zucchini’.
That last one didn’t happen but if you’re still reading you’ve got my respect, or as the Americans might say ‘…mad props’.
I make an effort to speak British English, and not let any American into my vocabulary. Not really sure what the point is, but I’m sure I had a reason at some point.
However, I do like saying “hood” instead of “bonnet”, mainly because it’s easier to say “under the hood” than “under the bonnet” when talking tech.
I like “garbage” when insulting something, it just has a nice guttural sound.
Yes, but British English has superior insults like cockwomble.
Honestly, bellend is a wonderful insult in my opinion. I used to watch a lot of sovietwomble and similar youtubers in the past so that and using cunt like a more colorful version of calling someone a dick were something i heard a lot and have a lot more behind them when said. That being said, I live in the US and would have to explain Bellend which would cause it to lose the impact. And cunt is far more negatively received here so you will likely be regarded as a mysoginist and/or get clocked here.
As an American in awe of your insults, I can’t get enough of the English pronunciation of twat. It cracks like a whip. Truly spectacular stuff.
Lol, I’m American as well. But I agree with you 100%. It really feels like most of our insults here are lacking compared to the rest of the world.
“cockwomble” just sounds like you’re trying too hard, like a yank LARPing as a brit they read about on the internet
Really? Is it regional maybe? Irl I’ve only ever heard it from English people who want to say something stronger than “bell end”.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it IRL. It’s a pretty minor thing really, use whatever insults you fancy, but if you want something very British you’ve got classics like muppet, nonce, pillock, bawbag.
I’m partial to ‘wankspanner’. Which is pretty un-American since even if they knew what to wank meant, they’d probably to with ‘wankwrench’ which just isn’t the same. Sorry, I’m moving into rambling territory now.
I’m American. I couldn’t come up with trunk so I called it a boot. Thanks to all those episodes of Top Gear I’m sure. Bonus is that my wife and I watch enough Dr. Who so that she knew what I was referring to.
I’ve picked up “bloody” - as in “bloody hell” or “you’re a bloody idiot.”
I’m old enough to mostly have a British vocabulary. And, although I did live in Yanklandia for a year I seem to have come out relatively unscathed.
My kids (who watch too much Youtube) use a lot of American words and pronunciations. It’s an ongoing struggle to get my daughter to say tom-ah-to.
I’ve gone the opposite way - I’ve been replacing my American pronunciations with the British ones, like leverage starts with lee, like in lever, and that (software) patent starts with pat not pait.
I think it’s in response to my younger friends and colleagues sounding, to my ears, increasing American - they say gotten, zee, and on accident (things that are often more consistent, but just not
cricketBritish). I’m old enough to remember the sound of dial up, so I probably wasn’t as exposed to US media growing up.I’m American but would really appreciate it if aubergine caught on here across the pond. I know it’s French (and from prior languages) but I commend the UK for sticking with it. In contrast, eggplant sounds so crude and unappetizing. If you’ve Americanized this one, please stop.
Also, we should all bring back a few Old English terms.
What I hate about “eggplant” is that none of the varieties that anybody actually eats look even remotely like an egg. It’s a massive purple banana-shape. They also don’t taste like eggs, smell like eggs, or get used like eggs.
It’d be like calling cucumbers “cheesefruit” or something. It’s just destined to baffle.
Call it what you like, it’s an F tier veggie
No way man, it’s a great vehicle for flavor. Soak the slices in a basil balsamic garlic marinade a for an hour then roast them in the oven, simple and delicious.
To each their own garbage
I said “gen zed” the other day and everybody frowned and said “Don’t you mean gen zee?”. NO I FUCKING DON’T. Still fighting the good fight in pronouncing schedule with a soft sh but I think I’m in a small minority these days. I’ve given up trying to call it an aubergine emoji, we may as well accept it’s an eggplant now 🍆
“Are you in a rental?” That turns up so much that I’m struggling with the proper way. Do you rent? Are you a tenant? Do you have a landlord?
Become Canadian. We have poutine.
Any nation who makes cheesy chips and gravy their national dish is a friend and ally in my book
I quite like shop in the sense of workshop, and I also rather like y’all.
I also often refer to whisky as scotch, though I feel like that is as much about making myself understood.
Aren’t scotch and whiskey two different things? In a rectangle/square sense
Scotch is whisky from Scotland (shockingly).
That’s not an Americanism really; people call it Scotch in British English too. It’s just that because 99% of the whisky in the UK is Scotch anyway you don’t really need to specify. Whereas because most whisky consumed in the US is bourbon, they tend to specify when they mean Scotch.
The same is presumably true in reverse, i.e. Brits using “bourbon” more than Americans because of the need to specify.
Personally I’m not bothered by the whisky/whiskey distinction. Whisky was traditionally Scottish and whiskey Irish, with the Americans going the Irish way and other countries (like Japan) going the Scottish way. But it’s a bit of a meme to nitpick at this point; they’re indisputably just two spellings of the same thing.
That’s more along the lines of what I was thinking. I could never tell the difference between the taste of any distinctions
Once you’ve got your eye in, scotch and bourbon are quite different. Many (although not all) scotch whiskies have peat in their flavour profile (a kind of smoky, salty, earthy flavour which is very distinctive), while bourbons never do. Bourbon is almost always quite a lot sweeter than scotch.
They’re also made quite differently. Bourbon is mostly corn, and often has lots of rye and wheat in the mix, whereas scotch is mostly made of barley. Bourbon is always aged in new oak barrels, whereas scotch is mostly aged in second-fill barrels (which might previously have been used for bourbon, wine, sherry, port, cider etc.).
Whisky and whiskey are two different things.
“Scotch” is American for whisky but not for whiskey.
I don’t speak Bastardized English
It’s “bastardised”
Oxford spelling is “bastardized”, actually.
Well… could you just hold these reins while I climb down off my high horse?
<3
