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'.
I like "garbage" when insulting something, it just has a nice guttural sound.
Garbage and trash are excellent American words. Much better than "rubbish"
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 🍆
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'm hellbent on being a relic. Currently railing against the proliferation of "store". SHOP ffs. I look forward to everyone going storing.
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’ve always spelt it with two Ls and just found after your comment that American English doesn’t 🤢
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 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.
Does your wee one watch a lot of American-voiced videos on YouTube or similar?
She used to. We've put a stop to YouTube though because she turns into a little demon after watching it.
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
"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?
