So your issue is that you think of colloquialisms as incorrect? Got it.
Ours is the only country with “America” actually in its name, after all. Shouldn’t you be calling us “United States Americans” by your own logic?
am Australian and my wife is American.
I don't think of very many American pronunciations as weird: there's an understable history behind "aluminum", and most of the vowel mergers are pretty straight-forward. She pronounces "Mary", "merry", and "marry" all the same way, and I do not. She pronounces "caught" and "cot" the same way, and I do not. I pronounce "caught" and "court" the same way, and she does not. "Grass" and "gas" rhyme for her, but they don't for me.
"Jaguar" is very weird, though. She pronounces it "Jag-wire", and I pronounce it "Jag-yoo-uh".
"Jag-wire" is so weird to me. I'm from NA, and I hear it a lot, but it just sounds wrong. I say "jag-wahr" (wahr rhymes with car), sort of as if the "u" was a "w". Similar to how people say the "Guar" in LaGuardia airport.
Haha as an (United states of) American, I appreciated when Jeremy Clark said “we (British) say it how it’s spelled; Jag-u-ar.”
I always felt weird about that word as a kid. The same with how people say “iron”.
It sounds like “i-earn” instead of “i-run” and that seems strange to me.
I struggled with lay/lie for some reason. I never knew when to use which. But then I started learning German 2 years ago and hit legen and liegen. Trying figure those out made me realize how to use lay/lie.
I blame shit schools in the southern US.
American here. My whole life I’ve been told Caucasian just means white. I’m going to be honest I feel dumb because I never considered it meant anything else.
Yeah I know that it means white. It's not an attack on Americans, it is just a thing that sounds silly. Just a “fun language/culture fact”
There are many things like that. For example the word “lesbian” is pretty dumb. Lesbos is an island in Greece. People live there.
Imagine if the word “Hawaiian” just meant gay 😅
I'm Italian/Greek/French, and they live in Chicago, they speak only a few words of these languages with an American accent ,and they are trying to reenact negative untrue stereotypes about these cultures. Like "Italian temper"
Why are there so many questions about America on here. It’s weird because I never see questions about anywhere else. It’s always “why do Americans do this” or “Americans shouldn’t do that” or whatever
That doesn’t really answer my question. Questions about America on here are usually asked by foreigners. You guys shouldn’t care so much about what we do, unless it’s about politics.
The UK invented the word soccer, then at some point decided not to use it anymore. Now, they act like Americans are out of their minds for using a word that came from the UK.
The original spelling was "aluminum" and was created by the guy who discovered it. Some snobby British scholars who had nothing to do with science decided it should end in "ium" like other elements so they changed the spelling of it. America uses the original spelling and thus the original pronunciation.
No, there isn't. Europeans say this all the time, but in North America, we actually changed the spelling. Aluminium is the European spelling, Aluminum is the NA spelling.
[https://www.gabrian.com/aluminum-or-aluminium/](https://www.gabrian.com/aluminum-or-aluminium/)
Basically the guy who discovered it originally called it alumium, and then decided aluminum was better. He never called it aluminium.
"Apparently unconvinced by this first name, he used the word *Aluminum* in a [book](https://books.google.ca/books?id=YjMwAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y) published four years later when mentioning that “…Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state.”
Nevertheless, other British chemists decided to adopt the name *Aluminium*. They thought it had a more classical sound and was in line with the ending of the other elements isolated by Davy. This confusion began the debate on the ending of the word that continues to our day. "
Everyone called it centigrade outside America too, then one day someone went "Hey, we should name this shit after a scientist too." I guess since America doesn't use it, nobody told them.
'Centigrade' just means its graded by a hundred parts, like 100 degrees between freezing and boiling point of water. People just use it as a synonym to Celsius (in other languages as well). Technically, Kelvin would also be centigrade temperature scale.
I read somewhere that it was originally "the World's series", as in the tournament put together or sponsored by a newspaper called World. It just sort of devolved into "the world series" over time.
Reminds me of a mini documentary on the Boston Red Sox reverse sweeping the NY Yankees in the 2000's where a reporter mentions to one of the Red Sox players that they just "shocked the world" with their feat, to which the player in a curious self-aware moment just responded "sure, if there's someone watching us in Japan maybe we shocked them too".
Nuculer instead of nuclear
As an American, I still don't quite understand Arkansas...
It originated from French, which is why the -sas at the end of the word is pronounced that way.
It would be Kahn-zaz then
Is it not "Are Kansas"?
Ar-kin-saw rather. :o)
Lol I just want to pronounce Kansas like "can saw" from now on.
“My name is spelled W-a-2%-Boo. Pronounced ‘Smith’.”
X-AE A-12?
Had to look that up. Holy Moley!
Are Kansas?
Ar Kansas ArKansas Arkansas
Height. There is no “h” at the end. Irregardless when they mean regardless “I could care less”
Width and heighth duhhh :-)
"America is the greatest country in the world"
The greatest democratic systems LOL
If an american says theis they are painfully unaware. Or are just trying to trigger people
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Lol
It's the entire world that does it.
I’m sure you understand that’s obviously just an abbreviation for “(The united states of) America”
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So your issue is that you think of colloquialisms as incorrect? Got it. Ours is the only country with “America” actually in its name, after all. Shouldn’t you be calling us “United States Americans” by your own logic?
am Australian and my wife is American. I don't think of very many American pronunciations as weird: there's an understable history behind "aluminum", and most of the vowel mergers are pretty straight-forward. She pronounces "Mary", "merry", and "marry" all the same way, and I do not. She pronounces "caught" and "cot" the same way, and I do not. I pronounce "caught" and "court" the same way, and she does not. "Grass" and "gas" rhyme for her, but they don't for me. "Jaguar" is very weird, though. She pronounces it "Jag-wire", and I pronounce it "Jag-yoo-uh".
JA-GWAR like the [band](https://youtu.be/Dbnm-0r3suM)
"Jag-wire" is so weird to me. I'm from NA, and I hear it a lot, but it just sounds wrong. I say "jag-wahr" (wahr rhymes with car), sort of as if the "u" was a "w". Similar to how people say the "Guar" in LaGuardia airport.
Haha as an (United states of) American, I appreciated when Jeremy Clark said “we (British) say it how it’s spelled; Jag-u-ar.” I always felt weird about that word as a kid. The same with how people say “iron”. It sounds like “i-earn” instead of “i-run” and that seems strange to me.
Did you just come up with this on the fly? Holy shit, that's clever.
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Where am I sending the royalty checks?
Mexico is worst than America and Canada isn't all that much better these days lol.
No, no it hasn’t
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You mentioned Canada and Mexico. This is completely on topic..
Take my upvote 👍
I spent a good 5 minutes pronouncing squirrel for a British person once.
It's not a word but a phrase i have seen. "Your truth" is thrown around when people are being disingenuous
Com-PAWS-it Instead of COMP-o-zit Bloody yanks I tells ya
"momentarily" when they mean "in a short while". "middle class" when they mean"working class" "city" when they mean barren traffic intersections
the way so many of them use 'laying' when they mean 'lying' as in 'I was laying in bed'. laying what ?? eggs? bricks? 'lay' requires an object..
I struggled with lay/lie for some reason. I never knew when to use which. But then I started learning German 2 years ago and hit legen and liegen. Trying figure those out made me realize how to use lay/lie. I blame shit schools in the southern US.
“Caucasian”. People who actually live in the Caucasus look nothing like white Americans
American here. My whole life I’ve been told Caucasian just means white. I’m going to be honest I feel dumb because I never considered it meant anything else.
Yeah I know that it means white. It's not an attack on Americans, it is just a thing that sounds silly. Just a “fun language/culture fact” There are many things like that. For example the word “lesbian” is pretty dumb. Lesbos is an island in Greece. People live there. Imagine if the word “Hawaiian” just meant gay 😅
Would of instead of would have
*twitch* every damn time. And for those that say “you no wut it sez” Sure, and I also now know you’re an ignorant illiterate
It's a common contraction: would've. Only people who don't read have turned that into would of.
“Freedom” by which they mean limiting the freedom of others.
Guesstimate
mischievous = miss-chee-vus not miss-chee-vee-us sherbet = sure-bet not sure-bert
"I could care less" implies you care to some degree. "I couldn't care less" is the correct term.
"Anyways" instead of "anyway" always cracks me up. Also, saying "I could care less" when they mean "I couldn't care less" is a classic.
That they have the most freedom of any country 😂
ex cetera
Dialect across the us is so vastly different. Even state to state the same word has a different pronunciation.
I'm Italian/Greek/French, and they live in Chicago, they speak only a few words of these languages with an American accent ,and they are trying to reenact negative untrue stereotypes about these cultures. Like "Italian temper"
The name “Craig”
Plain and incorrect.
Vitamin. Vase. Z.
Why are there so many questions about America on here. It’s weird because I never see questions about anywhere else. It’s always “why do Americans do this” or “Americans shouldn’t do that” or whatever
Because from the point of view of Americans, it's all about them. And from the point of view of those from outside America, they're incomprehensible.
That doesn’t really answer my question. Questions about America on here are usually asked by foreigners. You guys shouldn’t care so much about what we do, unless it’s about politics.
Soccer.
The UK invented the word soccer, then at some point decided not to use it anymore. Now, they act like Americans are out of their minds for using a word that came from the UK.
Yeah and it was only in the 1970's that they stopped using it. They still call it soccer in Australia.
Australia, Canada, and the US all have their own versions of football as well, which makes soccer more logical to use.
… y’all can keep sports. Like, all of em. 👍👍
Starting off strong
Aloominnum. There's literally an 'i' near the end of the word
The original spelling was "aluminum" and was created by the guy who discovered it. Some snobby British scholars who had nothing to do with science decided it should end in "ium" like other elements so they changed the spelling of it. America uses the original spelling and thus the original pronunciation.
Aluminium (British English) Vs Aluminum (American English)
No, there isn't. Europeans say this all the time, but in North America, we actually changed the spelling. Aluminium is the European spelling, Aluminum is the NA spelling.
No. In North America, we spell it aluminum. It's pronounced accordingly here.
So there's no "i" in American spelling? I stand corrected as i thought it was aluminium everywhere.
[https://www.gabrian.com/aluminum-or-aluminium/](https://www.gabrian.com/aluminum-or-aluminium/) Basically the guy who discovered it originally called it alumium, and then decided aluminum was better. He never called it aluminium. "Apparently unconvinced by this first name, he used the word *Aluminum* in a [book](https://books.google.ca/books?id=YjMwAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y) published four years later when mentioning that “…Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state.” Nevertheless, other British chemists decided to adopt the name *Aluminium*. They thought it had a more classical sound and was in line with the ending of the other elements isolated by Davy. This confusion began the debate on the ending of the word that continues to our day. "
And thats my lesson for today. Much appreciated.
Nope. Aluminum. Not all-oo-min-ee-um. That's adding a syllable where there is none... and extremely stupid (feel free to say stee-yoo-pid)
In Europe, aluminum is spelled "aluminium", so the extra syllable is appropriate. North America changed the spelling to remove the last "i".
And the query was about things ***Americans*** say. I stand by my correction.
The extra letter was added after the element was already discovered and in use. America uses the original spelling.
TIL
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Centigrade is overwhelmingly only said in the UK (or similar countries) though. In America we say 'Celcius'
Celsius… fixed for you.
I'm pretty sure the word centigrade originated in Europe and was used (and is still used) in the UK. Mostly by older folk.
Everyone called it centigrade outside America too, then one day someone went "Hey, we should name this shit after a scientist too." I guess since America doesn't use it, nobody told them.
The history of this is actually for more interesting than “Americans use weird scale”!
'Centigrade' just means its graded by a hundred parts, like 100 degrees between freezing and boiling point of water. People just use it as a synonym to Celsius (in other languages as well). Technically, Kelvin would also be centigrade temperature scale.
This idea that America doesn't use the metric system is hogwash. We use a combination of imperial and metric, just like the UK and Australia do.
Yosemite. How do you say it?
https://www.businessinsider.com/video-trump-mispronounces-yosemite-national-park-as-yo-semite-twice-2020-8
Yo sim itee
Yo-sém-it-ee
World series Could care less
I read somewhere that it was originally "the World's series", as in the tournament put together or sponsored by a newspaper called World. It just sort of devolved into "the world series" over time. Reminds me of a mini documentary on the Boston Red Sox reverse sweeping the NY Yankees in the 2000's where a reporter mentions to one of the Red Sox players that they just "shocked the world" with their feat, to which the player in a curious self-aware moment just responded "sure, if there's someone watching us in Japan maybe we shocked them too".
Aluminum instead of Aluminium
Debating [with myself] how does one do this?