Britishisms

Crisps or Chips?

Once upon a time Americans would refer to the season between September-November as “Fall”. Depressing, right? Winter, Spring, Summer…FALL. Who really needs to feel more miserable after Summers over? Not us Brits-that’s why it’s called Autumn. Obviously.

Thanks to the rise of Britishisms in America, however, you no longer must feel depressed either, with “Autumn” being one of the top 30 most used Britishisms in America. Isn’t it nice to know you’re finally using correct language? “Marvellous”, I would say. Or, well, you would say-since you’re finally paying attention to British English.

That’s not just the only language breakthrough our friends in the USA are having-even though our language is OBVIOUSLY correct, Americans are finally

beginning to comprehend that not all Brits happen to be posh-and we thank them for their empathy if that’s what encouraged them to finally start speaking correctly! Informal words that are notorious in Britain such as “cheers”, “chav” and “cheeky” are rapidly on the rise in the States.

It’s even been said that Obama used the word gobsmacked. Crikey, can you get more British? They love our language so much they’re even using our slangish expressions. It’s only a matter of time before they conquer some of our biggest British pet peeves such as knowing what’s a crisp/chip and what’s a trunk/boot. We believe in you. We’re all “mates” here aren’t we? Yes, that’s another word they’ve caught on to, too! Impressive.

They also seem to be using words such as “numpty”- whilst we praise you for adapting our words into your language, you should really work out whether you’re waiting “on” or waiting “for” something and realise the proper name for a sidewalk is a pavement. I don’t want to call you hypocritical, but…baby steps…

We’re still waiting on American men to start calling their “pants” trousers, because seriously? Pants? What on Earth do you call your underwear? It’s the little things, guys, come on. On the other hand, though, women have begun calling their “panties” “knickers”- despite it not being one of our biggest pet peeves, it’s a big step to improving what was once a mess of a language. I would say it’s awesome progress, but I’ll settle for “brilliant”; bit more British, don’t you think?

It’s really just amazing really, seeing how two different places speak the same English Language but both have their own twist on how to speak it. Diversity should be celebrated; however, some things are just grammatically incorrect. Don’t say you “could care less” when you’re trying to imply that you don’t care. If you don’t care, then you “couldn’t care less”. Because you are at the bottom of the caring scale, you can’t go any lower. Understood?

To conclude, the Britishisms that the Americans have finally adapted are really for the best. If we are going to loan your words such as “games” instead of “matches”, “cupcakes” instead of “fairy cakes” and “truck” instead of “lorry” then it’s only fair we encourage that you do the same back. We are only learning to polish up our communication with eachother, widening our vocab and learning what is and w3hat isn’t grammatically correct.

Cheers to that!

Rosie-May Bagshaw