Irritating American names for things

NSAman

764dak wrote: »

Where did you get "Starbucks = Coffee"?

Localised here..where I live

Snickers Man

Aw Haw - yes
Mm Mm - no

ohnonotgmail

Beanstalk wrote: »

Alooooominummmmm

Aluminum is what the discoverer called it.

Gwynplaine

Axed for Asked
I axed my Mom

dxhound2005

Someone living in a high rise apartment in Dublin will have an elevator. If they are in a flat, it will be a lift.

NSAman

"awesome"...... just let me smack someone who says this!! Please!!

The J Stands for Jay

NSAman wrote: »

"awesome"...... just let me smack someone who says this!! Please!!

adjective. causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear: an awesome sight. exhibiting or marked by awe; showing reverence, admiration, or fear.

Capt'n Midnight

McGaggs wrote: »

adjective. causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear: an awesome sight. exhibiting or marked by awe; showing reverence, admiration, or fear.

In US English it can mean : meets many of the mandatory requirements

mikhail

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

In US English it can mean : meets many of the mandatory requirements

God forbid hyperbole and save us from all harm. Anyone who uses "awesome" frivolously is literally worse than Hitler.

Alun

One trend that is starting to really irritate me is missing out the "to" after "allowed", as in the following two headlines on the RTE news website ...

Partners to be allowed attend maternity appointments

Man allowed avoid quarantine to visit dying father

Igotadose

mikhail wrote: »

God forbid hyperbole and save us from all harm. Anyone who uses "awesome" frivolously is literally worse than Hitler.

Literally. :pac::pac::pac:

Viscount Aggro

Canola oil.
The word "Rape" is not allowed in the food industry.

mikhail

Igotadose wrote: »

Literally. :pac::pac::pac:

I was using literally literally, for hyperbolic effect, rather than figuratively like the stupid linguistic trend. I can't stand words that are their own antonym. English is confusing enough.

Mullaghteelin

Measuring distance in hours spent driving.
Distance in miles is a constant, whereas duration spent driving will obviously vary due to traffic, road conditions etc.

Plus, it reeks of a car dependent culture.

Hamsterchops

Definatelty rather sit on my arse than sit on my fanny, not that I have a fanny, but if I had one I wouldn't want to sit on it just in case it broke.

Anyway, arse has a much better, more rounded sound than either fanny or ass don't you think. You can certainly get your tongue around the arse word easier than either of the other two!

Fanny is much more suited to a lady's front bottom, don't know how or why the Americans got hold of it and moved it's location :cool:

whisky_galore

Write me.

dxhound2005

whisky_galore wrote: »

Write me.

Phone me, text me, message me.

Rothko

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Phone me, text me, message me.

Phone me, page me, fax me 'til I'm silly.

Badly Drunk Boy

"Where are you at?". Why the need to throw in the redundant 'at' at the end? I heard two different people on RTÉ say it this week.

Samsgirl

Xerox- photocopy

As in can you Xerox these pages for me.

Gaoth Laidir

Not irritating, but a few differences to us:

- Not inserting "and" after "hundred" in a number, e.g. "one hundred fifteen".
- Using "most" instead of "almost", e.g. "Most all Americans use most".
- "Math" instead of "maths"

What I do find irritating is their non-standard phraseology when it comes to aviation (pilots and Air-Traffic Control). They choose to be different from the rest of the world, which can lead to problems for both foreign pilots at US airports but also for themselves, e.g.

- ATC using slang terms when issuing instructions, e.g. "make a right" instead of the "turn right" that is standard and is what would be known by non-native speakers. They have little patience for anyone not understanding them, which can be almost impossible with the speed that they speak at e.g. JFK.
- Pilots saying "I'm declaring an emergency" instead of the standard "Mayday..." call. That wastes valuable time as the ATC invariably asks them to confirm they are in fact declaring an emergency, but also does not alert other pilots to the situation.
- Incorrectly naming runways, e.g. "Runway nine" instead of "Runway zero-niner".

A bit of a weird gripe, I know.

Capt'n Midnight

Samsgirl wrote: »

Xerox- photocopy

As in can you Xerox these pages for me.

I've no problem with making brand names generic.

Hoover and photoshop are verbs

Kewreeuss

Is there a thread where you can complain about bad grammar and incorrect usage that isn’t necessarily Taken from the USA?
I think there is one but I can’t find it.

mikhail

Kewreeuss wrote: »

Is there a thread where you can complain about bad grammar and incorrect usage that isn’t necessarily Taken from the USA?
I think there is one but I can’t find it.

What's the point? The madlads will immediately take it off topic with a string of hilarious and original replies riddled with intentional misspellings.

riclad

People who only know two adjectives,
It's cool awesome,
Maybe the worst are people who use bro every 2nd sentence
Bro bro bro it gets annoying
my fave youtuber if she likes something it's tight,
That game is tight, this sing is tight
It's annoying
Irish people who only use USA slang , guys, cool,
Please wff off,
Unless you work for Google or Facebook why are pretending to be American
We Irish have our own slang and its better than fake American slang

JupiterKid

Mom - seems to be the standard term for mother amongst anyone here born after 1996 or so

It’s “mam” or “mum” - no ifs or buts...

Hangdogroad

riclad wrote: »

People who only know two adjectives,
It's cool awesome,
Maybe the worst are people who use bro every 2nd sentence
Bro bro bro it gets annoying
my fave youtuber if she likes something it's tight,
That game is tight, this sing is tight
It's annoying
Irish people who only use USA slang , guys, cool,
Please wff off,
Unless you work for Google or Facebook why are pretending to be American
We Irish have our own slang and its better than fake American slang

If theres anything worse than bro its brah/bruh. Seriously, who suddenly decides this is a thing?

Wibbs

JupiterKid wrote: »

Mom - seems to be the standard term for mother amongst anyone here born after 1996 or so

It’s “mam” or “mum” - no ifs or buts...

Apparently "mom" was in use in pockets of Cork and the like forever and I've no reason to doubt it, but no way in hell was it in use on the East coast and Dublin. That's very much a learned from US TV/Media thing which got pulled into the suburban accent in much the same way the English "mum" had been and replaced it. The aping of an American accent has also replaced the aping of a received British English accent, though both are strangulated. In much the same way that "store" has replaced "shop". Yes we had shops like Dunnes Stores, but nobody went to the stooore in Ireland pre the late nineties, if not the noughties. "Mom" might come from west Cork Irish, but store didn't. On the motors forum hereabouts I've seen the occasional introduction of US car terms like "fender" instead of "wing", "firewall" instead of "bulkhead'.

Language and accents change and that's cool, I only get somewhat vexed when some claim they always spoke like this and don't own the obvious influence.

jmayo

Mullaghteelin wrote: »

Measuring distance in hours spent driving.
Distance in miles is a constant, whereas duration spent driving will obviously vary due to traffic, road conditions etc.

Plus, it reeks of a car dependent culture.

Ehh that is not just an American thing.
It is also Canada and Australia I have found.

And it is because distances can be so vast between places and it actually is quite accurate if you obey speed limits.

People in Ireland often don't grasp the concept of how vast some countries are.

Telling someone a hundred miles is meaningless in the great vast expanses.

Adelaide to Alice Springs is 950 miles and you are only a hundred miles over half way to Darwin which is over a days driving.

Vancouver to Calgary is nearly 600 miles on Trans Canada.
Calgary to Ottawa is around 2100 miles on Trans Canada.
And you are still talking about another 900 miles to get out to Halifax in Nova Scotia.
It takes days to drive across the place.

Oh and traffic is not usually an issue like here on our cr** roads outside of our motorways.
Passing is not really an issue on the likes of the Alaskan highway or Stuart highway.
Wildlife moreso.

New Home

Actually, it's very common in Ireland, too, just not in the great urban areas.