US English: Why do Brits hate it so? [video] | Hacker News Reader

US English: Why do Brits hate it so? [video]

bbc.com

7 pointsandsoitis11 comments

So what are you supposed to say instead of "can I get"? "Can I have"? Or something else? I had no idea this was considered "American".

I suspect that most of the "hate" comes from a small group of sour-faced vinegar tits who just love to put their pet peeves front and centre every chance they get to "correct" people, so they can masturbate about how smart they are and how dumb the unwashed masses are. Meanwhile, most people could care less.

Not my field, but I think If you want permission, you ask “May I?”, if you want confirmation, you ask “Can I?”

https://writingexplained.org/can-vs-may-difference

“Could”, maybe?

As an American, I find the British truly tiring when it comes to this topic. To be clear it’s not all Brits. If you notice it’s always a small group of whiners complaining.

As long as they insist on spelling everything the French way, I can’t take anything they say about the language seriously.

I do find it riotously funny when British people do an American accent.

I'm sort of baffled I didn't run into this sort of snobbery when I was working with Brits. One friend said they thought I was turning native - "you speak perfect English!" - and I said, no, I'm just enunciating carefully and correctly with a bland mid-Atlantic accent. A lot of their interaction was probably with Americans from regions with stronger speech patterns.

It's also notable I worked with mostly people living in SW England, Cornwall and such, and I noticed that their regional accent sounded damn close to American English, to the extent that I sometimes didn't notice it.

As a brit living in the US I also get tired being "corrected" on pronunciation or spelling too.

And I always find the "Internet Stereotype" british (or Bri'ish :) accent amusing - it's like an inconsistent mix of 3 different accents spoken by not that many people. It's like going Oh, you're American? "Hey! I'm walkin' ere! Fuggedaboutit! Get a cup of cawfee!".

Sure, there may be people that speak like that, but most don't.

I think that English is hard, and there are more exceptions than rules, so when learning it, correct answers are drilled into the student. For some people this translates into intolerance of “alternative” variations.

[Friday mode on]

> US English:

Oii... It‘s the rong soid of the interwebe ye was postin' down, innit?

[Friday mode off]

'I could care less' must be the most infuriating Americanism. It makes no sense used in the context it's typically used.

Every time I hear “on accident” I become sad I didn’t die suddenly moments before.

Another phrase I truly despise is "all but". First, it seems to mean exactly the opposite to what it actually means. Second, why even?

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