7 American Words That Are Catching on in Britain
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Published 2023-12-07
Recently, I asked my British followers which American English word, if any, they use the most. As a result, here are 7 American words that might be catching on in Britain.
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All Comments (21)
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I'm from the deep South in the US and I simply can't picture British people saying y'all. Just can't wrap my head around that one!
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I'm a British person living in Arkansas, and I enjoy telling people I only need to learn to say Fixin' and Y'all to blend right in! The faces people make hearing those words mangled by a British accent is hilarious.
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the addictiveness of "y'all" once you start using it is no joke. i'm from the american south, and "y'all" used to be one of those words i found super embarrassing, and i avoided using it throughout childhood and especially while in college in the north. but since becoming an adult, i realized there's no need to be embarrassed. just embrace the hilarity and the flexibility of the language.
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As a northerner I've used the term pants to refer to trousers my whole life and so do my parents... trousers to me are formal pants.
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While at USAF training in Texas, I enjoyed learning how the singular and plural forms of y’all could be disambiguated: “y’all” vs “all y’all”
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A related and relevant anecdote, courtesy of the professor who taught an architecture course I took: When Saint Paul's Cathedral was completed in 1710, Sir Christopher Wren had the honor to personally give George I a tour of the new edifice. At the end of the tour, the King reputedly turned to Wren and commented, "It is truly awful and artificial." Wren couldn't be more delighted, because here "awful" meant "awe inspiring" and "artificial" meant "done by a true artisan." How things change!
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40 year old from Yorkshire. Y'all/Yaal "Y'all ready t'go?" would be a perfectly normal day-to-day phrase o'er 'ere, whether addressing one person or a group. "YOU all ready?" and "YOU ALL ready?" But, then again, so would: 'Ere, a' you's lot ready t'go?
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Y'all is interesting linguistically because as a dialectal term it is becoming not just more common overseas but also among Americans. Though impossible to predict, many linguists believe it'll overtake the use of plural "you" within a couple of generations. Definitely one of the most fascinating words to me because it actually serves grammatical purpose along side being a relatively new occurrence which means it's still considered "slang" despite being part of formal speech for millions of people.
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I heard a British streamer say his American friend was "so pissed" in the middle of a game and I remembered that means "very drunk" in British before getting super confused (they were not drinking) and realizing that he meant the American "angry." It's funny/cool/interesting how online gaming and the internet in general influences linguistic change!
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As an American, I've always felt that the word film connoted a certain gravitas over movie, and it feels odd to call the latest super hero movie, a film. It is kind of like the difference between a book and literature.
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I'm from Texas, and funnily enough, every time I hear the word fantastic, I can't help but hear the voice Christopher Eccleston's rendition of The Doctor.
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As a German who was taught British English in school and then spent a year in Atlanta, GA working for a law firm, I have the privilege of utilizing a "best of all worlds" approach. Ultimate freedom.
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As an American, I've always found it amusing the different British/American usages of the word "homely." When visiting someone's house that looks very cozy and comfortable, an American would call it "homey." (no L) A Brit would say it looks "homely," and thereby insulting an American host, because in American English "homely" usually means UGLY!
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As an American working as an expat in an Anglophallic environment, I got a big chuckle with the frequency with which my British counterparts used the term, "Get the hell out of Dodge." It usually was uttered by the person with the most "proper" formal BBC English accent, which made it all the more amusing. The expression was populariz/sed by the 1950s American TV (I mean "telly") show "Gunsmoke". How in tarnation did that expression find its way across the pond?!?
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Nice photo of Pittsburgh! Yinz is indeed the go-to slang and folks who speak with a distinct Pittsburgh accent (‘flahr’ for ’flower’, ‘dahntahn’ for ‘downtown’ and tack ‘an at’ for ‘and that’ to the end of every sentence) are called ‘Yinzers’.
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I heard "oy" used instead of "hey" by a companion on Dr who. Since then when I have to yell at my dog for misbehaving or any dog I use "oy" and "hey" to get a humans attention.
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The pants/trousers issue is how my mom and I confused a little Australian girl once. We complemented her floral patterned jeans with “I love your pants” and we didn’t understand why she looked horrified. Her mom cleared it up for all of us.
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Americans do say "waste" as a synonym for trash... but only in official titles for municipal departments or contractors, like "waste management". I've also heard the term "environmental services" to refer to the garbage collectors or sanitation department.
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I read most of Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens before realizing that dustmen didn’t just collect dust, and a dustheap was actually a trash pile
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US southerner here, I've actually started using bin instead of trash can for the longest time and don't know when I started. It's just easier to say I curbed the bin instead of taking the trash can out to the curb.
