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Author Topic: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?  (Read 8339 times)

Offline harv

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Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« on: April 03, 2013, 10:13:10 AM »
I find it really annoying watching American telly where they completely fuck up the English language. Here's a list of my pet peeves:

1) Something not in the cards rather than not on the cards.

2) I could care less rather than I couldn't care less

3) The complete bastardisation of the song Ring A Ring O' Roses...Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down instead of Atishoo, Atishoo, We All Fall Down.

What about you..? There's loads I've not listed. :o
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Offline jman

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2013, 11:30:11 AM »
I think you summed my thoughts up in your first 8 words there harv.

British tv was the best in the world at one point... the influx of shitty american tv into our culture and the mindless fascination of celebrities mixed with a bit of political correctness gone mad over the past 2 decades has killed our tv... hence why you are having to put up with this mindless american trash which just addles your brain with its incomprehensible usage of the english language and dumbing down of society. 

Offline Dragontao

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2013, 07:57:12 PM »
I think you summed my thoughts up in your first 8 words there harv.

British tv was the best in the world at one point... the influx of shitty american tv into our culture and the mindless fascination of celebrities mixed with a bit of political correctness gone mad over the past 2 decades has killed our tv... hence why you are having to put up with this mindless american trash which just addles your brain with its incomprehensible usage of the english language and dumbing down of society.

Oh the irony.  :P

You can't blame TV for the dumbing down of society, it's what the politicians want. The failure to properly correct common errors in English is almost criminal. Such as the failure to use capitals correctly, incorrect use of apostrophes, or their complete omission. The incorrect use of contractions such as you're, they're and the misuse of your instead of you're for example. Not to mention my pet peeve, the incorrect use of "could of", "should of" and "would of". Example uses being the likes of "I could of done that", "I should of done that" or "I would of done that", instead of the proper contraction, could've, would've or should've.

The American language and American TV can't be blamed for that.

These days anyone who can't spell blames it on dyslexia.

Also, the English language is itself a bastardised conglomeration of many other languages, with so many words in common usage having their origin in other languages and culture, many of which have changed over time to words which we now think of as our own.
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Offline jman

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2013, 08:25:28 AM »
Its not really ironic.. Im typing a forum post here, not writing a professional letter, plus the fact, my witterings aren't being broadcast to millions of people each day.. I dont need to be a grammer nazi over what I type here ;)

Of course the american language and tv have seeped into our culture.. I actually know someone that spells out O-M-G all the time, to indicate she is amazed or suprised by something - this has all come because she watches shit loads of american trashy reality shows - where else would it of come from??  Not only that but words like "Reem" & "Vajazzle" which came from shit british reality shows - those shows only exist because the americans have had success with their shit shows....

You are a by-product of the environment you choose to expose yourself too, if you choose to watch shit-loads of american reality tv - then theres probably not a lot up there in the first place.. unfortunately our television has gone to shit in the last decade or two, so theres no real way to escape the american influence now.. and yes our language is changing to be more like theirs... I was disgusted the other day to learn that the new correct spelling of "Sulphur" is now "Sulfur"  :-\

Offline Late

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2013, 09:55:04 AM »
Fo' shizzle.





That's me agreeing with the above posts, btw - not me answering the thread's question.
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Offline Dragontao

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2013, 09:24:46 PM »
Its not really ironic.. Im typing a forum post here, not writing a professional letter, plus the fact, my witterings aren't being broadcast to millions of people each day.. I dont need to be a grammer nazi over what I type here ;)

It's that lazy attitude that has lead to the dumbing down of the English language, in just the same way text speak has. All of it to do with laziness, although in the beginning text speak was because of the limits on characters in SMS messages and the cost of texts. No excuses for it now.

When people see that kind of thing in forums, in text messages or elsewhere, they are being exposed to an environment where laziness makes poor grammar and spelling acceptable.

Not only that but words like "Reem" & "Vajazzle" which came from shit british reality shows - those shows only exist because the americans have had success with their shit shows....

Seriously, you're blaming the fact we have reality shows on American TV, and then blaming that for the fact people create words like vajazzle. Do me a favour. People have been making up words for years. Authors have done it, TV presenters, DJs and many others. If someone or something is popular, words or phrases catch on and eventually end up in the dictionary. You can't blame American TV for that. It happens regardless of TV shows.

You are a by-product of the environment you choose to expose yourself too, if you choose to watch shit-loads of american reality tv - then theres probably not a lot up there in the first place.. unfortunately our television has gone to shit in the last decade or two, so theres no real way to escape the american influence now.. and yes our language is changing to be more like theirs... I was disgusted the other day to learn that the new correct spelling of "Sulphur" is now "Sulfur"  :-\

It's not just a case of being a product of the environment you are exposed to. You don't always choose the environment, such as a school system which fails to correct errors. Also, human beings have brains, they know something is wrong, yet they still make the same mistakes time and time again, even choosing to use text talk. They aren't products of a system if they choose to embrace a system knowing it's wrong. I know about text talk, but still choose to type out messages fully when I send texts. I'm exposed to the same influences as many others but don't choose to use them (other than the odd abbreviation for an emoticon, such as lol or lmfao when it's desirable to convey an emotion). I never use things like "R U going to" etc.

Also interesting that you should choose Sulfur as an example. It's not a good example. We have not adopted the Americanism for aluminium. You know why? Because the British didn't choose to accept it. It was a decision made in 1990 by the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) the international body that controls chemical naming systems. It was adopted by the Royal Society of Chemistry for international standardisation. It's taken some time to become the standard spelling.

Also, sulphur, or sulfur, got its name from the Latin word for brimstone "sulpur". We used to call it brimstone many years ago and it was called brimstone in the bible. So we'd bloody well changed it in the first place and our spelling of it isn't any closer to the original than the American way.

Sulfur became a recognized chemical element in 1789 when Antoine Lavoisier (hmm, a good British name) included it in his list of the elements. He "discovered" it (though its existence and use was know to ancient civilisations) in 1777 and named it Sulphur.

There are also some other explanations for why it may have had its name changed to Sulphur and Sulfur, having been derived from the Arabic word for yellow, sufra. The ancient Latin name name possibly came from the word Sulvere in Sanskrit or shulbari’ meaning enemy (ari) of copper (shulba) (because of the reaction of copper to sulfur).

So you see how words evolve over time? It's not down to an American influence on the world. We change things too and so do the international community.

Capiche? (damned Italians, I blame those mafia immigrants into America).  :P
« Last Edit: April 04, 2013, 09:27:33 PM by Dragontao »
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Offline ancelotti

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2013, 01:05:18 AM »
Americanisms don't really get on my nerves. The Americans just have their idiosyncrasies in speech like the regional dialects here. Some of the phrases they've bastardised seem to be illogical, but then the English language isn't all that logical to begin with. :P I find foreigners learning English usually cite trouble with idioms, certain grammar, and phrases we have that just seem to have no logical basis.

What gets my goat is laziness as Drags referred to. People misunderstanding contractions and possessive pronouns, confusing 'bought/brought', 'two/to/too', and more recently 'lose/loose'. Special mention for people trying to sound clever by describing a situation as 'ironic' when it's simply coincidence.

Offline Late

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2013, 10:33:02 AM »
...phrases we have that just seem to have no logical basis.

What gets my goat...

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Offline jman

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2013, 10:57:57 AM »
 ;D ;D

Just one thing drags, when you said :

The ancient Latin name name possibly came from the word Sulvere...

What did you actually mean by "ancient Latin name name" ?? 

What exactly is a "name name"

You know, I read your post last night... and when I got into work this morning, a discussion broke out about ancient chemical symbols and what-not.  I couldn't believe my luck and actually said "I knew the ancient latin name name for Sulphur"... just imagine the laughter that broke out at my terrible grasp of basic english, cant believe you would expose us all to your lazy usage of the english language like that  ::)


Ok maybe that didnt happen, but you get my jist.. if you choose to use an internet forum for education purposes, especially in the realms of grammer and spelling - then more fool you.  An internet forum with less than 100 active members is far less of a threat to dumbing down society than a television programme or movie which is broadcast to millions of viewers.

Offline ancelotti

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2013, 11:37:57 AM »


Was gonna put a tongue emoticon in brackets (or should that be parentheses!) but wondered if anyone would pick it up.  :P

Offline Dragontao

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2013, 10:18:36 PM »
Ok maybe that didnt happen, but you get my jist.. if you choose to use an internet forum for education purposes, especially in the realms of grammer and spelling - then more fool you.  An internet forum with less than 100 active members is far less of a threat to dumbing down society than a television programme or movie which is broadcast to millions of viewers.

Damn you, I thought I'd gone back and edited out my typos and errors in cobbling together my response.

Anyway, I'm not just referring to this forum. It's rife.

It's actually quite funny because I'm not really that much of a grammar Nazi, and I make a fair few typos because basically my typing is crap (but it's still better than my appalling handwriting, seriously I could be a doctor). I just like to argue.  ;D

I've actually been taking the piss out of a girl I work with on her Facebook page for the last week because she really is a grammar Nazi.
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Offline harv

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2013, 12:02:18 AM »
Another one that gets on my tits - the pronounciation of the word buoy. Boo-ee instead of boy. >:(
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Offline Momo

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2013, 07:08:13 AM »
Must admit I do like do like the American interpretation of the word 'fanny', always makes me chuckle.

Offline Dragontao

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2013, 11:43:58 PM »
ffs Momo, your Avatar is bloody hypnotic.
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Offline Momo

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Re: Americanisms That Get On Your Tits..?
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2013, 07:08:41 AM »
ffs Momo, your Avatar is bloody hypnotic.

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