Yeah, to me “ripped off” means for example you paid $100 for something that was only worth $80. Then you were “Ripped orf!”
I don’t give a rat’s ass about Bush, but if I gave a rat’s bum, I’d be veddy British. Bum’s not commonly used in The States, Mate.
Although I can tell you a story that relates to this thread. I used to work for a Los Angeles electronics company that made a sequencer. It was programmed to display “Bummer, Dude – out of memory” when all RAM was used up. It fit right fine in L.A., but we once got an very angry letter from a Brit who, apparently, ran out of memory and saw that disgusting message. To him, a “bummer” is a homosexual. He threatened to sue.
Methinks he had more problems than just his RAM being too short.
If I see:
- verbs spelt “ize”;
- the phrase “off of”;
- discussion of “socialized medicine”;
then I’ll pretty much conclude that the person is American.
I just thought it would be interesting to note that while I was taught the proper term estadounidense in college, I have never, in the history of my life, had a native Spanish speaker ask me where I’m from using this term. It has always been ¿Eres americana? - Are you American?
I also find it interesting to note that Mexico’s official name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos– United Mexican States, so it would seem that ‘‘United States’’ would even be a more confusing term when trying to distinguish between U.S./Mexican nationality… but apparently it’s not.
So we have a situation where saying ‘‘I’m from the United States’’ could be potentially confusing, or ‘‘I’m American’’ could refer to, you know, anywhere on two entire continents, and yet there are certain phrases that are just associated with certain regions without any obvious explanation. (Well, at least not obvious to me.)
So, to clarify - if someone uses “rips off” to mean “insults”, they just might be South African 
Hell, for all I know, it might be just a Capetonian thing.
We have the “rip off” = “defrauds” connotation here too, BTW.
Or you’d be Canadian, since we use bum all the time to refer to our arses.
Here (Canada), insulting is definitely ‘rips on’. A rip off is a scam. ‘Rips into’, on the other hand, implies a tongue-lashing, a verbal smack-down, which one side totally dominates, yelling at the other who has no chance to get a word in edgewise. Ie: “My dad really ripped into me when I totalled his Porsche.”
And our homeless.
I’ve noticed that Germans (when speaking english) will often use “since” instead of “for” when referring to time, and mix up the present tenses.
e.g. “I am working here since 4 yrs”.
Rather than “I have been working here since 4 years ago” or “I have been working here for 4 yrs”.
I guess it’s a straight transliteration of “seit 4 Jahren”, and it’s not obvious necessarily why the use of “I am” is incorrect.
Well, you could use it in the sense of a nun’s headgear, a ground-breaking usage pioneered by Robert Browning in Pippa Passes:
Unfortunately, that’s just evidence that Mr Browning led a very sheltered life.
Whereas he’d ‘tear into’ you in Britain - what about elsewhere?
Or, in the first case, a very educated Englishman; an Inspector Morse episode hinged on someone failing to conform to his background by spelling the word “realize” as “realise” (doesn’t apply to every “ize/ise” dichotomy, by any means). Or, in the second case, a very uneducated Englishman; one or two magazine writers who know more about model aircraft than grammar have irritated me by saying that a model can be flown “off of” grass.
‘Off of’ crops up in some English regional dialects, and it’s a phrase I sometimes use. I find it rather insulting to be told that because I sometimes use vernacular grammar in informal speech, I am ‘very uneducated’. The same as I see no reason to ‘correct’ my pupils’ use of, for example, the transitive ‘learn’ in speech - why should I crap on my own culture and background?
No American will ever go to Uni to study Maths, drink at a pub, or open the boot of his posh car to find his torch.
I’m working hard to inject ‘that wasn’t cricket’ into daily American slang…as for right now I just have a few friends.
When I took Spanish in college (around the late 60’s), we were taught that the term for for USA residents was norteamericanos meaning North Americans. I don’t think I ever heard the term estadounidense. I don’t know if this has been an “official” change in the language since that time, or if our instructor was using some regional colloquialism that he picked up while he was studying in Mexico.
‘Estadounidense’ was what I was taught in my Spanish GCSE (which is oriented around Castilian Spanish). It does win a googlefight over ‘norteamericanos’ by three to one.
If someone’s trying to persuade you to send money using CAPITAL LETTERS, they’re probably from Nigeria.
Well, yes. It’s all about context.
“Our bums were freezing their bums off in that last cold snap, eh.”
Thanks jjimm, for the correction–that’s what I was thinking of, but a good example just wouldn’t come to me.
Forms of “to tear into” are common for tongue-lashings in the midwest US, too. I’d probably understand “rip into” to mean the same thing without batting an eye, but I can’t think of a time I’ve really ever heard it in conversation. “Tear into” is far more common.