American-isms

by White Dove 46 Replies latest jw friends

  • changeling
    changeling

    To all this I say: "Vive la difference"! I think we should embrace diversity and try to learn from it not use it to say :"my way is better than your way, my country is better than your country, my language is better than your language, my god is better than your god..."

    And as for language in particular, it is a living, evolving thing. None of us speak like our ancestors even if they lived in our own country.

    changeling :)

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Typesetter: an American term that describes one who sets type.

    Compositor: English term for the above.

  • Layla33
    Layla33

    To all this I say: "Vive la difference"! I think we should embrace diversity and try to learn from it not use it to say :"my way is better than your way, my country is better than your country, my language is better than your language, my god is better than your god..."

    And as for language in particular, it is a living, evolving thing. None of us speak like our ancestors even if they lived in our own country.

    Bravo, changeling, I couldn't have said it better myself.

  • bigmouth
    bigmouth

    Just a few that have been missed I think:

    "Thanks so much" - "Thanks very much"
    Hood (car) - Bonnet
    Bathroom - toilet

    The emphasis of the letter 'i', e.g. mult'eye'-milionaire as opposed to mult'ee'-millionaire. Yet we say 'miss'aisle' for missile !
    We pronounce 'route' as 'root'

    And I've noticed that as we have so much US television here that my kids think that 'Z' is zee and not zed.

  • RR
    RR

    Why is it when we go to the bathroom, we say "I have to take a piss"? You don't take it, you leave it!

  • barry
    barry

    When Paul Hogan used the word shrimp it was for the American market advertising tourism in Australia. By far the majority in Australia would use prawn just as our English friends do. The words we use here in Australia seem also close to South African.

  • hotchocolate
    hotchocolate

    :-))) haha

    not even through all the posts and I'm laughing my arse off.. I should I say fanny? *blush* yeah fanny in Australia definitely doesn't mean your rear end. Hence the sniggers down under during the opening sequence of "The Nanny". :-)

  • hotchocolate
    hotchocolate

    Princess, I was with you up until the "robot" bit... LMAO WHAT THE?

    So traffic lights are robots hey? So do they lean down and wash your windows while you wait? :-P hehe

  • Layla33
    Layla33

    My friends from England and Australia constantly say things like "bloody" and "cheeky" and they are such different words here.

    Bloody means something that has blood in it.

    Cheeky when used, which is very infrequent, means fat cheeks.

  • Anti-Christ
    Anti-Christ

    You should all come here in Quebec and hear how we French-Canadians speak English, eh! We don't all sound like Jean-Chrétien but it's still fun to hear.

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