# Britishisms I've adopted **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626 "2015-07-19T18:20:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/21 "2015-07-19T23:36:44Z")
Bloody Dodgy Bob’s your uncle (or, as I like to say, “Robert is your mother’s brother.”) At home we say ‘innit’ a lot. Native Americans also use that. Others I can’t recall at the moment. Some of this I’ve picked up from this board, some from from my daughter-in-law, who’s from Manchester. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/22 "2015-07-19T23:48:42Z")
Some friends and my ex-MIL are British immigrants. I can’t say that I picked up any of their speech mannerisms because I find them dorky when used by non-British people (I love it when they say really British things however). My ex-MIL is still really good to me and offers me a ‘spot of tea’ whenever I am over. I can’t help but smirk when I say ‘Well yes, I would love a spot of tea’. It is all I can do not to somehow throw a ‘jolly’ and ‘bloody’ in a longer version of the response. However, I have adopted Guy Fawkes Day as my own because I love burning shit and it makes for a good party. I still have little idea what the whole thing is about but it second only to Halloween as my second favorite holiday now. The IT Crowd (available on Netflix) is also one of my favorite TV series of all time. I don’t like really silly British humor like Mr. Bean and Monty Python but I think the troupe that does the IT Crowd is brilliant (see also the much darker The Snuff Pit done by some of the same people). ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/23 "2015-07-19T23:59:46Z")
I occasionally invade small previously uncontacted countries, set up an imperial ruling class, strip the place of natural resources, then pull out and feel very very guilty about the resulting chaos. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/24 "2015-07-20T00:14:15Z")
Well, don’t we all? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/25 "2015-07-20T00:22:11Z")
Bunch a Tea-aboos. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/26 "2015-07-20T00:30:01Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > Do any Americans pronounce the ‘h’ in ‘herbs’? I assume the silent h is from French influence on American English. Martha Stewart does. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/27 "2015-07-20T00:51:21Z")
I had a friend who was British when I was gowning up near Cincinnati. I picked up Al-Lou-Mi-Ni-Um from him. I still say it that way. I moved to England in 1988 for 4.5 years and picked up a few more such as ‘boot’ and ‘bonnet’ when talking about cars with other Brits. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/28 "2015-07-20T01:07:47Z")
I do enjoy saying adVERtisement, though I don’t do it around others. It’s just a fun word to say. I prefer the UK spelling of judgement, and I have started to use that one around others. (For a while, I used judgment because I liked that it broke all the rules.) ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/29 "2015-07-20T01:52:54Z")
I use the phrase “It’s not dead, it’s resting” any chance I get. The last time it was in reference to an immobile spider. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/30 "2015-07-20T01:56:40Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Pronouncing a building where cars are parked a GAR-age. It’s supposed to be a Cah Pahrk. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/31 "2015-07-20T02:10:25Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Just to be clear, you guys have purposely adopted Britishism even though you are Americans living in the US? Really??? > > I may have picked up a few back when I was spending a lot of time in the UK, but I’m having a hard time understanding how you pick up different pronunciations of things when you don’t live where those pronunciations are common. snobbery. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/32 "2015-07-20T02:21:00Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > It’s supposed to be a Cah Pahrk. Moe, Homer Simpson’s bartender, calls it a car hole because “garage” is for snobs. So I do, too. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/33 "2015-07-20T02:24:19Z")
I lived in France for nearly ten years, and most of the English-speaking people I interacted with during that time were, well, English. Anyway, I too have fallen in the habit of going to hospital in my dodgy motor whenever things have gone all pear-shaped. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/34 "2015-07-20T02:26:46Z")
_Wot’s all this, then?_ _Wakey wakey, tea and cakey!_ ---
**Author:** ![Clarisse\_McClellan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Clarisse\_McClellan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarisse_McClellan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/35 "2015-07-20T02:52:31Z")
My supervisor for the last 8 years is English so I’ve picked up many Britishisms which I sometimes use without thinking. Whilst instead of while Prezzy for present Bin for trash can Fuck off English forms of tenses and grammar. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/36 "2015-07-20T03:05:13Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Also “snogging,” which usually leads to “rogering.” Ooh, snogging! I love that word! ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/37 "2015-07-20T03:25:54Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > _Wot’s all this, then?_ > _Wakey wakey, tea and cakey!_ I say “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.” 😃 I watch a lot of _Doctor Who_ and the main character of my books is British, so I’ve picked up a few Britishisms just because I like the way they sound. Like: - Dodgy - Bloody hell (only occasionally, usually said broadly) - Calling the bathroom the “loo” - Bob’s your uncle - “Right, then” - budge over ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/38 "2015-07-20T04:07:27Z")
I don’t think I’ve let any British usages supplant my natural word choice, except maybe _satnav_ for _GPS_ and _mobile_ for _cell phone._ (I used the German _handy_ for a while.) Those exceptions are based on a certain precision: _GPS_ and _cellular_ describe the technological techniques, not a particular device. But I do a lot of tours for international groups, including many from India. So I consciously choose to say _motorway_ and _car park, flats_ and _football pitch, tram_ and _aluminium_. To me, it goes along with using metric and speaking each word clearly, as something I do to aid understanding with those whose English proficiency wasn’t learnt the same place mine was. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/39 "2015-07-20T04:12:55Z")
All I can think of, and I think the official definition is too pedantic: there are certain words that are “supposed” to end in “s” in British/etc., no “s” in North American English, such as **toward(s)**. I often use the “wrong” “s” form, although it is highly context-dependent. > [@Knorf](#): > > I’ve picked up a few from watching so much football. (Starting with that.) I also say things like “Arsenal are in the lead,” or “England are going to be stronger in the next WWC.” It just makes much more sense to me that a collective noun takes a plural verb form. “Oliver’s army is here to stay/Oliver’s army are on their way.” ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626/40 "2015-07-20T04:27:31Z")
This thread makes my head spin. Canadians spell a lot of words the British way, but not all of them. Also, I was born in the UK and came to Canada at 6 years old, so given the influence of our neighbour, the USA, and my background I’m a perfect bipolar candidate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britishisms-ive-adopted/725626.md?page=3)