I like "garbage" when insulting something, it just has a nice guttural sound.
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Yes, but British English has superior insults like cockwomble.
"cockwomble" just sounds like you're trying too hard, like a yank LARPing as a brit they read about on the internet
That’s when you pull out the British understatement and switch to ordinary nouns in a context that implies an insult (“you utter teakettle”)
Garbage and trash are excellent American words. Much better than "rubbish"
I'm hellbent on being a relic. Currently railing against the proliferation of "store". SHOP ffs. I look forward to everyone going storing.
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 🍆
English is my second language and I despise zee, it gets confused with cee. Zed is objectively superior
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.
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!
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.
Do you use hood for actual cars or is it strictly when you are talking about non-car things?
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.
Become Canadian. We have poutine.
Any nation who makes cheesy chips and gravy their national dish is a friend and ally in my book
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.
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.
It looks like eggs in an early stage of development, but aubergine is a way better word nonetheless
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:
- Grey
- Defence
- Offence
- Theatre
- Customisation
- Analyse
- Flavour
etc. etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I was gonna say, no self-respecting six-year-old wants to even consider zucchini.
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.
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.
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.
Biscuits for the win
I don't speak Bastardized English
It's "bastardised"
Oxford spelling is "bastardized", actually.
Well... could you just hold these reins while I climb down off my high horse?
Yeah, but the OED is basically the only British dictionary that thinks that way.