this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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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'.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I like "garbage" when insulting something, it just has a nice guttural sound.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Yes, but British English has superior insults like cockwomble.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (5 children)

"cockwomble" just sounds like you're trying too hard, like a yank LARPing as a brit they read about on the internet

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

That’s when you pull out the British understatement and switch to ordinary nouns in a context that implies an insult (“you utter teakettle”)

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Garbage and trash are excellent American words. Much better than "rubbish"

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I'm hellbent on being a relic. Currently railing against the proliferation of "store". SHOP ffs. I look forward to everyone going storing.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (6 children)

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 🍆

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

English is my second language and I despise zee, it gets confused with cee. Zed is objectively superior

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You know, I don't think I've ever heard an American say "Gen Z" before, and it literally never occured to me that they were pronouncing it "Gen Zee". Obvious now you mention it, but I've just been assuming that every time I see it written down it's "Gen Zed" by default.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

My friends were the opposite, they accepted that Z is pronounced Zed, but they said that gen zee was different, because "it's like ZZ Top". I argued back that it's not like ZZ Top, it's just a letter assigned to a generation. They were so used to hearing it said by Americans on TikTok, they refused to even accept that a normal person would say gen zed. "It's just gen zee though! Nobody says gen zed!". I'm angry again thinking about it!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[–] funkless_eck 7 points 4 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Do you use hood for actual cars or is it strictly when you are talking about non-car things?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just for non-car stuff. I *would * use hood for everything, but the people I would talk to about cars would get pissy for using the wrong car words.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

It looks like eggs in an early stage of development, but aubergine is a way better word nonetheless

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Become Canadian. We have poutine.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Any nation who makes cheesy chips and gravy their national dish is a friend and ally in my book

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I use often use "movies" and "TV shows" instead of "films" and "telly series" and I am mildily disappointed with myself.

I feel I should use the Old English Fall instead of the French Autumn but it seems a step too far. Perhaps I could use Harvest.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

I seem to use movie when describing the blockbuster/B-movie end of the scale, and film when talking about a quality bit of cinema. But I also am more likely to call a US flick a movie and a Brit one a film.

I like the sound of the word autumn, and particularly autumnal. I can see those reds and browns and feel the crisp air. Fall does give more opportunity for puns and easier rhymes, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (3 children)

American here, I tend to spell words the British way because they make more sense, and I've done it since I was a teenager, for some reason it pisses off my older brother lol.

Examples:

  1. Grey
  2. Defence
  3. Offence
  4. Theatre
  5. Customisation
  6. Analyse
  7. Flavour

etc. etc.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Cancelled has 2 Ls and I will die on this hill

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I’ve always spelt it with two Ls and just found after your comment that American English doesn’t 🤢

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I was gonna say, no self-respecting six-year-old wants to even consider zucchini.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

That's pure bullshit, my three boys all like them. 8, 5 & 2

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

I'm not even sure if I'm honest. NW England, my shits a mix of English, Cumbrian, Yorkshire, Scottish, Madeupish .. No doubt some American words in there that have snuck in like a bad smell.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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 ~~cricket~~ British). I'm old enough to remember the sound of dial up, so I probably wasn't as exposed to US media growing up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (8 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Biscuits for the win

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

How do you pronounce courgette?

Is it a hard g like get or a soft g like giraffe?

This is one British word I had no idea existed.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

It's the /ʒ/ sound like the s in measure, vision, or the J in the French Jack. So the word is /koːʒɛ́t/ It's from the French word courge.

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