American English Words I Hate

[natty dread]

Quick update: USA is now spelled SA

[saxitoxin]

U.S. Words ol' Saxi Hates the Most (but has grudgingly come to use)

- automobile to refer to robo-wheelroadmachine
- tea to refer to spindle spice soup
- soap to refer to bubblybar
- candy bar to refer to yumyumbrownbrick

Honestly, some of American English is so absolutely convoluted I could barely converse in it even though I'd graduated with top honors from 6-month course at the Central Language Institute in Leipzig.

[Symmetry]

I'm strange by North American standards. I want to check out the one in Europe.

I've done Florida, France twice, and Tokyo. The last two times I swore "never again". I am bad at keeping my promises. As a kid it can be fun, with a girlfriend it can be cutely romantic. If you're not a kid, and you're not with a girlfriend then I would just say maybe check out Europe minus the hour lining up for space mountain. Whilst despacing you'll regret not taking my advice.

I love me some France but prefer the rural south west part of it. I want to scope the park and can't think of a single good reason, must be morbid curiosity.

I have only ever been to Land. We took the kids this year. My wife had a book that explained the best way to avoid lines and we went on the third slowest week or something like that. We walked on to most things and being Canucks only ever needed a light jacket after dark. Our daughter loved space mountain but our 4 year old son said it hurt his neck. I reluctantly took her on it as the last ride and the line was only 15 minutes or something even though the sign said an hour or more.

Tokyo must have been fairly cool.

The Tokyo and Paris ones are pretty much the same as the Florida one, but smaller and with fewer rides. The Tokyo one is kind of interesting because all the shows are still in English with American actors, but after the actor or character speaks, it's then repeated in Japanese. I can't remember if that's the case with Paris too. It's pretty bizarre though- there was a cowboy show at the place we went for lunch. Two Americans stepped up to start the show, and when they'd finished their bit of dialogue, two Japanese people who'd been hanging around at the back of the stage stepped forward- dressed in the same cowboy outfits as their counterparts, and did exactly the same routine in Japanese.

Same with the costumed characters, except that they didn't have a double- the pre-recorded lines were done once in English, and then repeated in Japanese.

[2dimes]

That sounds Awestacular!

[Quirk]

Is "embiggens" a real word?

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

A noble spirit embiggins the smallest man. – Jebidiah Springfield.

[Symmetry]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

[shieldgenerator7]

Aluminum doesn't bother me at all.... hydrogen, oxygen, etc.

never heard of winningest or deplane tho.

"conversate" as used by Sarah Palin... it's actually "converse"

would you believe I used two separate spell checkers, one said to spell "grey" and the other required "gray"? And I hate it when it corrects words like "saviour", "behaviour", etc cause I like to add the "u" in there. (no, I don't do "colour").

I like the antonyms that sound a like: "raise" and "raze"

"alot" annoys me because it's actually two words and it's not acceptable otherwise.

it's interesting all this vocab that arises from new tech

[natty dread]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

Sodium and Potassium annoy me. Why can't they just call them Natrium and Kalium like we do...at least they'd be consistent with their symbols!

[shieldgenerator7]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

Sodium and Potassium annoy me. Why can't they just call them Natrium and Kalium like we do...at least they'd be consistent with their symbols!

speaking of the table of elements... it annoys me that the last ones on the list that are all artificial all begin with "un" and something else with a lot of Us.

[daddy1gringo]

Normalcy comes close to be annoying, but I've learned to live with it. Normality is the equivalent in English.

"Normalcy" is not really a proper word on either side of the ocean. As you mentioned, the proper word is "normality."

"Normalcy" was invented by Warren G. Harding (or his handlers) for the slogan for his 1920 presidential campaign: "Return to normalcy". I guess they thought it had a better "ring" than "normality". Either that or they were all just ignorami. Although some dictionaries or other authorities may have surrendered to the common usage of this sophomoric neologism, "normalcy" is just plain incorrect.

[Symmetry]

Normalcy comes close to be annoying, but I've learned to live with it. Normality is the equivalent in English.

"Normalcy" is not really a proper word on either side of the ocean. As you mentioned, the proper word is "normality."

"Normalcy" was invented by Warren G. Harding (or his handlers) for the slogan for his 1920 presidential campaign: "Return to normalcy". I guess they thought it had a better "ring" than "normality". Either that or they were all just ignorami. Although some dictionaries or other authorities may have surrendered to the common usage of this sophomoric neologism, "normalcy" is just plain incorrect.

Thanks, now I have another word to be ridiculously pedantic about. I'm genuinely not sure if my previous sentence was sarcastic or not.

[Phatscotty]

Now this will be blatant trolling to some, whilst others will take it with a sense of irony.

But two words really stand out:

Deplaning
Winningest

Deplaning bothers me because it just means disembarking, but from a plane.

Winningest annoys me because it's really ugly, and I can't find an easy replacement. "Most successful" almost, but doesn't quite fit.

Normalcy comes close to be annoying, but I've learned to live with it. Normality is the equivalent in English.

Winningest - Biggest Winner, champion, #1, the gold, most victorious, undisputed, the Humunga Kowabunga from down Unda...

I thought normalcy was something Churchill coined during WW2?

[Symmetry]

I thought normalcy was something Churchill coined during WW2?

See post directly above yours, also wiki entry for "normalcy" citing references back to 1857.

[john9blue]

LOL!!!! I actually love this topic.

Your post actually enlightened me, as I had no idea those were actually words. I sure have never heard of them before. I suppose that means I need to read more.

And I've always thought it was normalacy. But I just looked in the dictionary to see that I was wrong; it really is normalcy. But I've heard plenty of Americans use the word normality.

Interesting, that non-native speakers, always seem to have a better vocabulary than mine

I do kind of consider myself a native speaker of English, what with being born and raised in England, but thanks...

probably meant a native speaker of american english.

[Symmetry]

LOL!!!! I actually love this topic.

Your post actually enlightened me, as I had no idea those were actually words. I sure have never heard of them before. I suppose that means I need to read more.

And I've always thought it was normalacy. But I just looked in the dictionary to see that I was wrong; it really is normalcy. But I've heard plenty of Americans use the word normality.

Interesting, that non-native speakers, always seem to have a better vocabulary than mine

I do kind of consider myself a native speaker of English, what with being born and raised in England, but thanks...

probably meant a native speaker of american english.

That makes more sense, yes. Sorry Violet!

[Army of GOD]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

It pissed me off that they didn't keep them all in Latin to begin with.

[Symmetry]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

It pissed me off that they didn't keep them all in Latin to begin with.

Just as a heads up, we haven't discovered all the elements.

[Army of GOD]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

It pissed me off that they didn't keep them all in Latin to begin with.

Just as a heads up, we haven't discovered all the elements.

Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Xenon...I think we have them all.

[Symmetry]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

It pissed me off that they didn't keep them all in Latin to begin with.

Just as a heads up, we haven't discovered all the elements.

Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Xenon...I think we have them all.

Xenion, dude- learn how to spel.

[InkL0sed]

Symmetry, some of the posts in this thread come close to successfully trolling me, but your sarcasm saves me. Thank you.

[The Bison King]

What really pisses me off is when I hear people say I want some Italian dressing but pronounce it Eye-Tal-ean with a hard I. God that pisses me off! you would say I'm going to Eye-taly

[Dukasaur]

Aluminum for aluminium kind of annoys me too. I mean, can we at least have some consistency on element names? Calcum, helum, magnesum, potassum...

Ok- I'll admit to platinum though. Also molybdenum, but really? Aluminum?

It pissed me off that they didn't keep them all in Latin to begin with.

You're welcome to say "plumbum" instead of "lead" if you wish.

[Timminz]

While the Americans may have bastardized a few English words, they've totally destroyed the French words they've taken for themselves. For example: foyer.

[daddy1gringo]

While the Americans may have bastardized a few English words, they've totally destroyed the French words they've taken for themselves. For example: foyer.

Occasionally I hear somebody say "faw-YAY" or even "FWA-YAY" (both syllables accented), but usually it's "FAW-yur". But then look at what the French did to "sweater": "le pulover", or to "bathroom": "le dubleucie".

[Timminz]

While the Americans may have bastardized a few English words, they've totally destroyed the French words they've taken for themselves. For example: foyer.

Occasionally I hear somebody say "faw-YAY" or even "FWA-YAY" (both syllables accented), but usually it's "FAW-yur". But then look at what the French did to "sweater": "le pulover", or to "bathroom": "le dubleucie".

It's "foe-yay".