Why?

[Sparx]

Why do Americans insist on saying addicting? i fucking hate it, can they not say addictive?

 

[old.Tohtori]

Well British have some "annoying" ones too, like the use of proper

Not sure if there's a difference with addictive and addicting though, could be.

And after some googlepowers, seems that the only difference is in the sentence you use it in. Other being verb, other adjective.

 

[megadave]

How do British people use "proper" wrong?

 

[Helme]

Toht, I'm sorry to have to break this to you but it's everyone else that uses proper wrong, not the British.

 

[Raven]

Proper told!

The other one I picked up while watching prison break last night was when Michael says his nose bleeds are down to him "acclimating" to the climate...what he clearly means to say is that he is "acclimatising".

 

[Cerb]

I've always been of the opinion that, seeing as it's their language, however the British use it is the correct way.

I tell Americans this frequently when vitamin vs veyetuhmin type arguments come up.

 

[megadave]

Aluminium

 

[Raven]

I've always been of the opinion that, seeing as it's their language, however the British use it is the correct way.

I tell Americans this frequently when vitamin vs veyetuhmin type arguments come up.

And "Herbs" vs "Urbs" and then there is oregano which they pronounce stupidly.

Don't get me started on their dislike of U's in their spelling.

 

[Genedril]

I thought herb was a French derivative (might be Latin) and the H was originally silent. Agree with the rest of this though; how hard is it to say aluminium???

How does one use 'proper' incorrectly?

 

[Raven]

In English the H is not silent.

If they want to bastardise out language they could at least say they speak American.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

When creating American English they actively decided to try and clear up some of the superfluous stuff from Standard British English and simplifying.

However, they didn't do it consistently and as a result it's farcical. Some of the other stuff is them just being downright thick.

The worst one from Americans is when they say they "could care less" about something trivial. No, you COULDN'T.

 

[BloodOmen]

How do British people use "proper" wrong?

because Toht is a proper gay boy as for the american thing yea its very annoying, we create english and they butcher the fucker.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Just that the proper comes into play in the most ridicilous places

"Ooh i was proper hammered last night", basically using it as a really substitute.

But it's nice to notice that English people take it with a pinch of salt while mocking other countries use of the language

 

[Genedril]

In English the H is not silent.

If they want to bastardise out language they could at least say they speak American.

I'm fairly sure it used to be in some cases; I believe that hotel and herb are two of those cases. It might not be now (in some dialects).

The worst one from Americans is when they say they "could care less" about something trivial. No, you COULDN'T.

Maybe they could care less if they really really tried hard? I've always thought that was quite a nice expression. I could care less, if cared enough to try caring less than I currently do.

 

[Bahumat]

I proper smacked that hoe!

 

[Larossa]

I proper smacked that hoe!

You have a thing against gardening tools?

 

[Huntingtons]

i actually think the americans did something right by simplifying some of the english words and i hate when english people come snobs with their language. the language which for some reason just cannot use the correct names for cities and countries. its not Gothenburg you slobs

 

[megadave]

slobs&snobs?

 

[Huntingtons]

slob - 1. Informal a slovenly, unattractive, and lazy person

snob -
2. One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect.

 

[old.Tohtori]

When talking of british, you forgot;

knob - 1. a rounded projection from a surface, such as a lump on a tree trunk.

 

[Helme]

To be fair Huntingtons, the Gothenburg example isn't really the British fault. We are the ones who really started the translation in hopes of getting more tourists I guess. Very few other towns that I know of are translated to English.

Though in Sweden we do translate Helsinki to Helsingfors, which rather than clear up where it is makes it more confusing because I think thats a Swedish town every time I hear it oO

 

[ECA]

Maybe they find the word addicting?

 

[Fafnir]

Though in Sweden we do translate Helsinki to Helsingfors, which rather than clear up where it is makes it more confusing because I think thats a Swedish town every time I hear it oO

Well thats a bad example, it was called Helsingfors prior to being called Helsinki. The town was founded in the mid 1500 by Gustav Vasa. And got the name from the parish where it was founded...

 

[Helme]

I get that but we change names all the time, and you would think that would be one - to clear up confusion if nothing else.

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

I hate to break it to you Brits, but American English is generally more alike your common root than the British variant. The British have changed their language considerably since the 1700s, while the American variant hasn't been subject to that much change. So it's actually you that make English to the current bastardized form like this example shows:

from Wikipedia - Oxford spelling
In the last few decades, the suffix -ise has become the more common spelling in the UK. Many incorrectly regard -ize as American English, though it has been in use in English since the 16th century.

 

[Lamp]

"Burglarised" gets me. We say "burgled". And there's an "i" in Aluminium.

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

"Burglarised" gets me. We say "burgled". And there's an "i" in Aluminium.

No, you say burglarised. Americans say burglarized. You in the 1700s also said burglarized....

I'm with you on the aluminium though, but even with that, aluminum was the root or actually, alumium when Sir Humphrey Davy named the element in 1807. He changed it to Aluminium in 1812.

 

[mooSe_]

The worst one from Americans is when they say they "could care less" about something trivial. No, you COULDN'T.

This pisses one me off more than anything.

Oh you could care less? How much less?

 

[Embattle]

J.R.R. Tolkien

American English is essentially English after having been wiped off with a dirty sponge.

 

[Lamp]

"rowt" instead of route (pr. "root")