# Americans Using The Term "A Bunch of..." Too often

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-using-the-term-a-bunch-of-too-often/779660>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 12, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-using-the-term-a-bunch-of-too-often/779660 "2017-02-12T18:47:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-using-the-term-a-bunch-of-too-often/779660/21 "2017-02-13T13:23:20Z")

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> [@Jefferson](#):
>
> It’s more like debasing the language.

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

- James Nicoll

everybody thinks the way things were when they first learned about it should be set in stone and never change.

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**Author:** ![Jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@Jefferson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jefferson)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-using-the-term-a-bunch-of-too-often/779660/22 "2017-02-13T14:23:19Z")

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> [@SanVito](#):
>
> English is the most mangled language you can find, used and abused by everyone from every corner of the globe since forever. There’s nothing pure or eloquent about it, so you can hardly debase it.
> 
> And that’s why it’s such a rich language, so brilliant for literary arts - we should celebrate it in all its forms.

What a bunch of crud!

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-using-the-term-a-bunch-of-too-often/779660/23 "2017-02-13T14:37:15Z")

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How do you feel about the Australian “heaps of”? At least that’s the phrase I noticed while down under being used a lot in a way we don’t in the US. (That, I think it’s well understood here, but not used with anywhere near the frequency. It’s something I particularly associate with Australia.)

Does the UK really not have any similar sort of colloquial phrasing for this concept of “a lot of”?

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-using-the-term-a-bunch-of-too-often/779660/24 "2017-02-13T14:50:21Z")

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Thread-appropriate earworm:

_There’s a bunch of birds in the sky,  
and some deers just went running by._

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