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9 June 2025

Stuff Americans say
English part 1

Stuff Americans say

Screenshot of a social media comment reading 'Its Chips. Literally America invented english and u Brits use it wrong' with three eye-roll emojis

Amazon review by Eva (1 star, Verified Purchase). Title: "Mispellings". Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2018. Text: "A little disappointed and I am only in Chapter 2. Words misspelled, like storey should be (story), odour (odor), realise (realize), recognised (recognized) & memorise (memorized). How unfortunate that these were overlooked. I get discouraged when I read a book that has so many misspelled words. I'm sure I will find more and that makes me not want to read this book." 2 people found this helpful. Helpful

Facebook comment on a photo from the Barbie movie showing Margot Robbie as Barbie in colourful visor and outfit with Ryan Gosling as Ken behind her. Comment (username redacted, 5h - laughing, shocked): "I don't like that on Press tour she's using her Aussie accent as if to let others know she's a good actress or something because her American English sounds fine. Is she here on a working visa? She lives and works in Hollywood - and that's where she gets her massive income from. Drop the accent." Haha

Reddit/forum comment thread. First comment (3h ago): "Is this a real BBC article? How did somebody else get bbc.com?" Reply (3h ago): "Of course it's a real article, why wouldn't it be?" Reply (3h ago, 21 downvotes): "There's literally a spelling error in the title. In fact, the article is riddled with them. 'Memorise' 'neighbourhood' 'flavour' did they not even run this through spell check? Is it too much to ask for a billion dollar news agency to hire an editor? Do they not check their articles at all before publishing them? No, obviously this is a poor attempt at a fake article. Maybe the website was hacked idk. All the articles are full of spelling errors. It's not the real BBC website." Reply (56m ago): "Spelling is different in the UK. It's actually the original version of English before the US came along and started changing up the spellings. Memorise, neighbourhood, and flavour are correct in British English, as per the Oxford Dictionary. It only takes five seconds to look it up to avoid coming off as a complete moron." Reply (31m ago): "Jfc it's 2025 and the UK is still using Shakespearean English? That's not a cultural difference, that's refusing to change for the sake of being quirky. Just use normal English."

Reddit post from r/ScottishPeopleTwitter. TiredMisanthrope (3y, Lazy Fifer flair, 3 Awards). Text: "A pound a fag? Jesus when I was at school we sold them for 50p a fag. Inflation man. Killer. Since someone decided to report my comment as 'homophobic hate speech'.. I guess I must clarify on a bloody Scottish subreddit that here, fag means cigarette you fucking weapon, it has nothing to do with gays in this context. Get a grip. Further edit: Thanks for the gold you numpty, next time get yourself a tin of irn bru and a greggs sausage roll instead of spending your hard earned pennies on me."

X/Twitter thread. Alice @backpainandwine (1d): "My husband has just found out I've had the same mobile number for 23 years and he thinks it's insane. I refuse to memorise another number." Reply from Marilyn Kallet @mkallet (Follow button, 00:40, 12/08/2024 From Earth): "Memorize. Spelling!" Reply from Alice @backpainandwine (6s): "Marilyn. I'm British, we spell it with an S"

Meme using "Woman Yelling at a Cat" format comparing definite articles across languages. Top row: FRENCH (French flag, woman yelling) "Singulier: le, la, l' Pluriel: les" | ITALIAN (Italian flag, man yelling) "Singolare: il, lo, la, l' Plurale: i, gli, le". Bottom row: GERMAN (German flag, confused woman) "Nominativ der, die, das, die / Akkusativ den, die, das, die / Dativ dem, der, dem, den / Genitiv des, der, des, der" | ENGLISH (UK flag, cat at table) "THE". Instagram comment below circled in red (username redacted, 2h): "You should put the US for English". View 14 previous replies

Reddit/forum comment thread. Sorted by Best. 3xc41ibur (7h): "National Gallery (UK) - Founded 1824. Just over 6 million visitors a year. National Gallery of Art (DC) - Founded 1937. 1.7 million visitors a year. I think I know which one should have clarification in its name, and is not the one that was over 100 years old by the time the other was founded." hadbetterdaysbefore (5h): "We also have a Galleria Nazionale in Rome, but for some reason we insist in naming it in Italian... English please!" Carlynz (4h): "Yeah the 'murican tourists night see 'NAZIonale' and freak out" ddraig-au (2h): "Or sign up"

TikTok screenshot. Video showing young man with blond hair in grey hoodie, shocked expression, hand reaching toward camera. Caption: "Americans correcting English spellings" with US and England flag emojis. First comment (username redacted, 1d): "And also fun fact the 'American' accent is actually the original ENGLISH accent" with England flag and laughing-crying emojis. Reply (username redacted, 1d): "no"

Twitter post. Limmy (verified) @DaftLimmy. Text: "There are Americans who think the Scottish accent is strange or funny. This is how Americans say the word mirror... Meer." 21:32, 22 Jan 21.

YouTube comment thread with blocky Minecraft-style George Washington character at top. Replies section. First comment (username redacted): "Darn ryaight!" Second (username redacted): "Even the UK doesn't speak english..well, they don't spell it anyway" Third (username redacted): "Thankfully, we speak American instead: We don't add vowels or drop consonants. We also don't randomly say 'Pip pip', 'Cheerio', or 'eh wot wot'." Fourth (partially visible, username redacted): "It feels good to not be saying 'Chewsday'" (truncated). Add a reply box at bottom

Photo of a book page titled "AUTHOR'S NOTE ON LANGUAGE" (bold, underlined). Text: "Please note, as the author and the main character of this book are both from Ireland, it is written in the version of English that is standard there. So recognise is spelled recognise and not recognize etc. The author recognises some North American readers may find this upsetting and while he is of course scared of them, he is considerably more scared of his Mammy, who taught him how to spell. Nevertheless, as an apology, here are a bunch of Zs for you to mentally stick in as and when you choose. Zzzzzz Look, they look like a mummy duck and little ducks. Adorable!"

X/Twitter post (6:00 a.m. 03/07/2024 From Earth). Text: "It irrationally annoys me that someone (on this British train) crossed plug sockets to Americanise it". Photo shows British train interior with two blue information signs: "Free WiFi is available onboard this train" and "Plug sockets for laptops and mobile devices only. Located below front of seat cushion." Someone has handwritten "ELECTRICAL OUTLETS" over "Plug sockets" in black marker

Reddit comment thread (Share, Award). BusyExplanation7329 (10h, -28 votes): "its windshield not windscreen" harpejjist (10h): "Nope. That is in the UK. And there it is called a windscreen" BusyExplanation7329 (10h, -32 votes): "doesnt matter where you are lmao its a windshield.....it shields the wind.....a screen would be useless to the wind. jesus people are dense" harpejjist (10h): "It matters where you are because in the UK they speak a different language and in that language it is called the windscreen. It is amazing how ignorant you act." Manifoldart (10h): "Why are you doubling down to fight a losing battle?" BusyExplanation7329 (8h): "battle? im right, there is no battle lmao"

Reddit post from r/shid_and_camed by u/WafflesMa... (52m, Unregistered Sex Off... flair). Title: "let's justr say, my juitce is loose". Tagged "Shidded". Embedded meme with text "4 year old me at 2am telling my mum that I'm having diarrhoea" over dark video still. Comment from giga___hertz (27m, toe sucker flair, 0 votes): "Mom*" Reply from WafflesMaker201 OP (2m, Unregistered Sex Offender flair): "New Zealand English uses 'mum' Edit: actually come to think of it UK & Australian english uses it too"

TikTok/YouTube comment (username redacted, 5h). Text: "maybe unpopular opinion but real english is the american english and British english should be considered the same as a dialect"

TikTok screenshot. Same young man with blond hair in grey hoodie, shocked expression. Caption: "Americans correcting English spellings" with US and England flag emojis. First comment (username redacted, 1d): "England doesn't speak English they speak British. America speaks English" Reply (username redacted, 1d): "British is a nationality.."

Reddit comment thread. indigoneutrino (2d, Native Speaker flair): "Missing key information of where you'd like to use this." royalhawk345 (2d, Native Speaker flair, -28 votes): "Yeah. Most native English speakers use American English, but niche dialects like British English are common in certain places." indigoneutrino (2d, Native Speaker flair): "This is an absolutely wild way to refer to the place the language originated from."

Reddit comment thread. Distinct-Entity_2231 (32m ago, 0 votes downvoted): "*math. No S at the end." Reply, Award, Share buttons. Reply from Real-Bookkeeper9455 (1m ago): links to "r/USdefaultism"

X/Twitter thread. First tweet from internet hall of fame (verified) @Inter... (2d): "In 2006, Sony Covered an entire apartment complex in Scotland with 70,000 litres of paint for a commercial" with video thumbnail showing tower block covered in orange/yellow paint (0:24 duration). Reply from Cartlund H Monson (verified) @cartlund... (2d): "All that effort then they misspell the one word in the whole ad." with screenshot from the commercial showing the word "Colour" in pink text

Official English spelling conventions by country

World map showing official English spelling conventions by country, such as defence/defense or labour/labor according to official sources like government's official websites.

Tags:US English·US is Earth·English language·SAS·USA