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Have you replaced any British words with their American versions? (self.askuk)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Oneeightnine to c/askuk

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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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[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

switching out the word ‘boot’ for ‘trunk’

What's the context of trunk there? Tree trunk? Car trunk?

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What's a tree boot?

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Makes as little sense to me as a car boot, but tree boot existing wouldn't surprise me given how little sense english makes anyway

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[–] VanHalbgott@lemmus.org 3 points 7 months ago

I noticed in Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Gromit cares for a vegetable in his garden that they either call a ‘marrow’ in British English or ‘melon’ in the localized American export of the film.

“How’s that marrow/melon of yours coming on?” -Wallace

[–] Flax_vert 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Please correct your child. Next thing you know he'll be defending the second ammendment and voting for trump

[–] Oneeightnine 2 points 7 months ago

Don't worry. If she's anything like her Father she'll be more interested in Eugene Debs than Donald Trump.

[–] yeah 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Are you in a rental?" That turns up so much that I'm struggling with the proper way. Do you rent? Are you a tenant? Do you have a landlord?

[–] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

"Do you rent?" is usually the way people say it in the US.

[–] S3mI@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I’m American. I couldn’t come up with trunk so I called it a boot. Thanks to all those episodes of Top Gear I’m sure. Bonus is that my wife and I watch enough Dr. Who so that she knew what I was referring to.

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[–] VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

I use loads of americanisms and their spelling for words like color, the way I see it most the world is using English so least we can do is meet them 0 001% of the way on cresting a global odious language

[–] clara 1 points 7 months ago

okay, using the words listed at the start of this wikipedia article, here's where i place myself:

analyze/center/defense/labour/organize/program

or, British 1, American 5, Canadian 4, Australian 2

it's a nice litmus test to see where you're at. i knew i used to skew NA in writing style, but i didn't think by that much

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 1 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I’m in Australia now and it’s zucchini and eggplant here, though in general words are much more like British English. No idea what’s going on with the pronunciation of “cache” here though - I work in tech and it’s mental how they say that. Like, Brits and Yanks are in full agreement about that word.

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