Americanisms that will never, ever cross over into the UK

Ooh, I thought of one-- "shitty." The adjective of shit. Don't you guys generally say "shit," like, "that's a shit record" or "my day was shit" vs. "that's a shitty record" or "my day was shitty?"

I thought of one: "good people" re: one person. Like, "Yeah, Joe, he's good people." Maybe no Americans say that either.

That's actually what came to mind when I was trying to think of how to define "sound" but I don't know why because although I've heard other people say use it like this, I've never said "He's good people" before.

this weekend discussion is blowing my mind

Me too. I think by brain is going to explode.

oh YEAH sundar I pretty much only user wanker in terms of people who fucking noodle around on guitars! i was going to make a note of that but forgot.

Will is otm with regard to shit v. shitty. See also: crap v. crappy.

I have to admit, I'm guilty of this one. I always say crap rather than crappy these days.

Ooh, I thought of one-- "shitty." The adjective of shit. Don't you guys generally say "shit," like, "that's a shit record" or "my day was shit" vs. "that's a shitty record" or "my day was shitty?"

More than "shit" than "shitty" but "shitty" not proscribed by any means. I much prefer "shite" myself tho.

In America "pissed" is often used to denote "angry" (as a shortened version of "pissed off"), whereas in the UK "pissed" is firmly entrenched as denoting "drunk" and is unlikely ever to be dislodged by the American variant.

Or, for the U.S. the past tense of "urination." And good GOD this caused serious consternation among me and my friends when Chumbawumba became an international sensation back in 98 or so.

What's the status of "write a test/exam" as opposed to "take a test/exam"? I tend to use the former but have been told it's an odd Canadianism.

Sit an exam?

whip a shitty?

I would never say write an exam but have heard sit an exam used here. Take would certainly be the prefferd choice.

I reckon "sit" wins in UK

Ok, he's a question - on University Challenge - they always say that so and so is "reading" _____ at University. What's that about? We would say studying here.

It sounds more intellectual and poncey

Nobody normal says it!

That's sort of what I figured.

> The season/series thing always bugged me, since how does it work for something like Star Trek, which has had multiple seasons of multiple series? like, "yeah, they only had Dr. Polaski for the 2nd series of the 2nd series"?

Start Trek: The Next Generation

(oddly, she was also in ST:TOS series 2 and 3, about 6 episodes apart playing different characters (but doctors both times))

Whoa, I wanna back it up for a sec, OTM means OTMoney? I always thought it was OTMark! OTMoney is SILLY and makes me never want to say OTM again :( oh well I always have 8080. Seriously I am going to start saying "eighty eighty" in real life. or UK style, hatey-hatey

OTM could go either way. Means the same thing.

write an exam

I would use this when I was actually creating an exam/test to give someone else.

whip a shitty?

Like doin' donuts?

xpost to Will - That's funny that you read that as eighty eighty. In my mind I read it as eight oh eight oh. Ok, nevermind. That's not funny at all.

It just occured to me that it's probably eighty eighty for a reason that I just never got. Oh well.

no, there was no reason. i just read it as "eight eighty" because it sounded good, and i often read 4-digit numbers with a 0 as the second digit as such when trying to remember them (ie. 7085 is seventy-eighty-five... it's weird and wrong but it must work because I have way above average skill for memorizing numbers)

eighty eighty, not eight eighty

What the fuck does "8080" mean? I've seen it used here on ILX a lot lately.

It means GO HOME YOU LAZY SOD

fake snrub

During my first year of high school, a security guard used the term "good people" (as in "she's good people") and after he left, four or five people stood around going "WTF" and speculating that it was some kind of newfangled black slang and then acting like I was weird for having heard it before.

(Although it IS slightly more a southern and/or black thing, right? The two are hard to separate sometimes.)

I had never even heard of 'soco' or 'druthers' until reading this thread. 'Douchebag' sounds so alien to me that I'm surprised to find another British person upthread saying they use it ('booger' and 'boogerman' too I can't see ever catching on).

'Intern' I didn't understand for ages. Quite a long way into the Monica Lewinsky scandal I still thought that she was someone very important in the American government.

'On the weekend' is definitely creeping in over here, as is 'guys'/'you guys' meaning a group of people possibly including women.

I'd be quite happy for us to import 'dude'. I like the word. In fact I'll happily take 'dude' if you promise to keep 'douchebag'.

California -- "on the weekend" is normal for an upcoming weekend.
"you doing something on the weekend?", although substituting "this weekend" is a bit more likely.
the only time I've ever heard "over the weekend" is past tense.
"what did you do over the weekend?"

also, I always theorized that the use of 'Herb' date back to that Burger King mascot or whatever from the 80's? I don't remember people using it at that time per se but it wasn't long after.

oh scott beat me to it nm

California -- "on the weekend" is normal for an upcoming weekend.
...
the only time I've ever heard "over the weekend" is past tense.

seriously? (in both cases) bizarre.

WTF is a "boogerman?"

PS of course the British will never use "booger," because SOMEONE's regional accent will make it sound a whole lot like "bugger"

are there any britishes who can say "boogie" correctly.

HOUSE, MD excluded

the only time I've ever heard "over the weekend" is past tense.

seriously? (in both cases) bizarre.

ok, thinking about it, people say 'over the weekend' but more seldom, and more likely in re: a 'special' weekend ("what are you doing over memorial day weekend"); subconsciously evokes the spatial difference between a normal weekend and a 3 day weekend i guess, the same way using it past tense evokes the fact that you lived through/over the whoooole weekend as opposed to the open-ended relationship you have with an upcoming weekend that you might not live through. I'll send you the literature.

That'd be boo as in book, not boo as in... shoo, right? Nah, it's oo all the way here. Boooooogie.

xp

(Not to mention the northerners who don't even pronounce book like that. Boooooook. Buke. Luke in the buke.)

I make fun of my husband for saying boooooogie. Also, they say bogeyman like B -long o as in "Bogart" - geyman.

"zelda zonk"

Hopefully, neoconservativism.

Does anyone outside the US use "freshman," "sophomore," etc?

(I don't know what "8080" means either. I mean, I gather it's somewhat equivalent to "OTM?")

ok the explanation of how they say 'book' in northern england basically made me realize that everything i know of their accents i learned from paul's grandad in 'a hard day's night'

well, and mark e smith

(I don't know what "8080" means either. I mean, I gather it's somewhat equivalent to "OTM?")

Yeah, it is. I just missed where it came from.

while we're on the subject, does anyone else think of lol as "lots of/o' laughs"? "laughing out loud" has never read nearly dorky enough for my taste.

Okay I admit I haven't read this whole thread (and don't really have time to right now) but have we got to the thing were Americans say "Now you're talkin'!" when they mean they really agree with what you saying, or they think you have a good idea? I don't think that will ever catch on in the UK will it?

I haven't read the whole thread but did anyone mention Americans saying "how's it going?" or "what's up?" and NOT actually expecting an answer?