Younger Britons are the most likely to use Americanisms
Britain has sometimes had a fraught relationship with American English. Although English linguistics tells us there is no such thing as incorrect English, only standard and non-standard, there are more than a few Brits who are willing to carve out an exception for Americanisms, even if it is the most commonly spoken form of English as a first language.
Indeed, 44% of Britons say that they have a negative opinion of American English, four times the 11% who are positive towards the transatlantic dialect. A further 42% consider themselves neutral on the topic.
But despite dislike for the American variant being reasonably common, a new YouGov study finds that many Americanisms are fully embedded within Britons’ use of English, particularly amongst the younger generation.
Which Americanisms do Britons use: vocabulary
Perhaps the most obvious difference between British and American English is that we sometimes have different words for the same thing – everybody knows, for instance, that where Brits say ‘sweets’, Americans say ‘candy’. In some areas, this has led to us being separated by a common language, but the influence of US media in Britain has led to growing familiarity with American vocabulary, with some words even taking hold.
For instance, when it comes to ‘landslides’, 92% of Britons say they would typically use the term, compared to only 4% who report using the historically British ‘landslip’. Likewise, a clear majority (59%) feel ‘horny’, compared to one in six Brits (16%) sticking with being ‘randy’.
Most Britons (57%) would describe a small iced cake as a ‘cupcake’, compared to 36% who would use the traditional British ‘fairy cake’. More divisive still is the ‘Second World War’, with 49% using the British term and 45% favouring the American ‘World War Two’.
Elsewhere, one in five Britons (20%) would typically say ‘movie’ instead of ‘film’, while one in six (18%) go for ‘ass’ over ‘arse’ and another 17% opt for ‘truck’ rather than ‘lorry’. One in seven (15%) also typically ‘knock on wood’ rather than ‘touch wood’, while playing ‘draughts’ rather than ‘checkers’.
Other Americanisms with a toehold in Britain include using ‘counter-clockwise’ and ‘math’, which are favoured by 7% of Brits, while 5% of Britons tend towards ‘diaper’, ‘takeout’ and ‘trash’. Even when it comes to the classic ‘trousers’ vs ‘pants’ divide, 6% of Britons claim to say the latter. In all cases, however, nine in ten Britons or more (90-96%) use the traditional ‘British’ term.
Where Britons do use Americanisms, this is typically most common among younger Britons. Three-quarters of 18-24 year olds (75-77%), for instance, would typically say ‘pharmacy’ or ‘World War Two’, while the 62% saying ‘Santa Claus’ is roughly three-times the 21% of over 65s saying so. Small majorities of 18-24 year olds (53%) now also say ‘racecar’ instead of ‘racing car’ and ‘drunk driving’ over ‘drink driving’.
While not quite the majority term just yet, four in ten 18-24 year olds Brits (40%) watch a ‘movie’, compared to 8% of over 65s, while one in five (19%) use a ‘flashlight’ or turn ‘counter-clockwise’, compared to only 2% of over 65s. One in seven 18-24 year olds (14-15%) would say they stand in a ‘line’ to go on ‘vacation’, compared to virtually no over 65s (1-2%).
Which Americanisms do Britons use: definitions
Sometimes, however, it’s not a case of Britons switching out British English terms for American English ones, but instead adopting the traditionally American definitions.
This is most obvious with ‘muffins’, with eight in ten Britons (79%) now saying that they would typically take the term to refer to a small, usually sweet, cake, compared to just one in six (17%) who would usually use it to mean a flat savoury roll.
But four in ten Britons (40%) would also now say that a bathroom is a room that contains a toilet, but not necessarily a bath, with a similar number (38%) taking a public school to be a state school funded by taxes. Three in ten (31%) see khaki as a light yellowish brown, as it is in America, compared to 63% who see it the dark dull green colour it has traditionally been in Britain.
Few Britons (4-6%), however, have adopted the American definitions of ‘first floor’ or ‘fancy dress’, although this does increase to one in six (16%) among 18-24 year olds.
Which Americanisms do Britons use: spellings
There are also cases where Britons and Americans use the same word, but spell them differently. For instance, 29% of Brits would fly in an American ‘airplane’ rather than a British ‘aeroplane’, 20% would wave a ‘checkered flag’, and 16% would get nice and ‘cozy’ of an evening.
Additionally, one in seven Brits (14%) spell doughnut as ‘donut’ and defence as ‘defense’, while 12% would spell it ‘center’ and 10% drop the ‘o’ from moustache.
Some American spellings are even the norm among Britons, with around six in ten (58-61%) spelling fulfil with two ‘l’s and artefact with an ‘i’ rather than an ‘e’. Brits also seem to agree with Americans on dropping the a from words historically spelled with an æ, with 65% spelling it ‘encyclopedia’ instead of ‘encyclopaedia’.
Just one in seven Britons (15%) retain the traditional British custom of spelling percent as ‘per cent’, with 83% of the public instead writing it as one word.
Not all accept some of these spellings as inherently American, with the Oxford University Press - publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary - prescribing that -ise words, like organise, are spelt with an -ize. Britons, however, disagree, with just one in seven (14%) favouring the ‘Oxford spelling’, compared to 85% favouring the British spelling.
Once again, it is a case of the American form being more commonly used by younger Britons. The 48% of 18-24 year olds using ‘airplane’ is three times the 16% of over 65s doing so, while the 47% writing ‘checkered flag’ corresponds to just 10% of those aged 65 and over. Those aged 18-24 are also much more likely than over 65s to use ‘cozy’ (40% vs 7%), ‘donut’ (30% vs 6%) and ‘mustache’ (25% vs 3%).
Nonetheless, there are some preferences for American spellings that are more evenly distributed across the generations: around six in ten (57-62%) of all age groups spell ‘fulfil’ the American way.
Which Americanisms do Britons use: pronunciations
The American influence doesn’t just limit itself to the written word, extending to how many Britons pronounce words too. While this might incur the ‘wrath’ of traditionalists, just 18% of the public would be reading the word to rhyme with ‘sloth’, as British pronunciation should be, while 68% instead rhyme it with ‘math’, as per Americans.
Small majorities (53-54%) also tend to use the American pronunciations of advertisement (rhyming the ‘ise’ sound with ‘eyes’) and neither (pronouncing the first syllable as ‘nee’), with Britons also tending to say ‘sked-ule’ over ‘shed-ule’ (48% vs 42%) and ‘pry-vacy’ over ‘priv-acy’ (44% vs 35%).
Just half of Britons (49%) keep to the UK pronunciation of rhyming ‘clique’ with ‘sleek’, with 36% typically seeing it as a homophone of ‘click’. One in seven Britons (15%) rhyme ‘vase’ with ‘maze’.
As usual, younger Britons are also most likely to have adopted American pronunciations, with 18-24 year olds substantially more likely than over 65s to say ‘adver-tize-ment' over ‘advert-iss-ment' (77% vs 35%), ‘sked-ule’ over ‘shed-ule’ (70% vs 29%), ‘nee-ther’ over ‘nye-ther’ (68% vs 33%) and ‘wroth’ over ‘wrath’ (80% vs 49%). However, ‘cleek’ vs ‘click’ is not generational, with 33-39% across all age groups using the latter pronunciation.
When it comes to the letter ‘Z’, the context matters. Generally, just 12% of Britons use the American pronunciation of ‘zee’, with 77% using the British ‘zed’. When it comes to the phrase ‘Gen Z’, however, Britons are more divided, with 38% saying ‘Gen Zee’ against 43% who say ‘Gen Zed’.
This difference is most apparent among younger Britons. While just one in six (16%) 18-24 year olds would normally rhyme ‘Z’ with ‘bee’, seven in ten (71%) would do so when talking about ‘Gen Z’. Though the difference also exists among older Britons, among over 65s the shift is only from 6% when talking about the letter to 15% when talking about the generation.
Which Americanisms do Britons use: grammar
The inconsistent ways in which American English is catching on can also be seen when it comes to grammatical differences. While half of Britons (51%) would – perhaps controversially – describe themselves as ‘feeling good’, compared to 34% who say they are ‘feeling well’, just 8% would say ‘can I get a cup of tea’ rather than ‘can I have a cup of tea’.
A common difference is in the past tense of verbs, with British English tending to use irregular forms for words like learnt or dreamt. British usage of the regular forms, which are typical in American English, is again inconsistent. While 34% of Britons would say ‘she learned it at school’ and 31% would say ‘the room smelled horrible’, just 13% would say ‘I dreamed’ instead of ‘I dreamt’.
Similarly, although most Britons (53%) would use the American ‘he snuck’ rather than the British ‘he sneaked’, just 4% would say ‘sawed-off shotgun’ rather than the British ‘sawn-off shotgun’.
One thing that Britons couldn’t care less for, though, is the counterintuitive American phrase ‘I could care less’, which just 2% of Britons would typically use to denote that they don’t care about something.
As with other types of Americanisms, it is younger Britons who are most likely to use American grammar. A majority of 18-24 year olds (55%), for instance, would say ‘she has gotten better at football’ instead of ‘she has got better at football’, compared to just 9% of over 65s.
Relative to over 65s, 18-24 year olds are also more likely to say ‘he was not interested in sports’ rather than ‘he was not interested in sport’ (64% vs 33%), more likely to favour ‘he pled guilty’ over ‘he pleaded guilty’ (47% vs 16%) and to say ‘can I get a cup of tea’ (16% vs 4%).
While 36% of the public would read the number 1,500 as ‘fifteen hundred’ rather than ‘one thousand five hundred’, just 3% would say the number 150 as ‘one hundred fifty’ instead of ‘one hundred and fifty’.
Britons typically eschew placing dots in initialisms, a practice that is discouraged in British English but still common in America: just 14% would write out ‘U.S.A.’ and 9% ‘N.H.S’. The contrasting American practice of removing hyphens also only has minority appeal in Britain, with just 30% opting for ‘cooperation’ over ‘co-operation’.
The American practice of using dots for abbreviations also divides Britons, who are split between the 45% who favour ‘Dr. Smith’ and 46% who prefer ‘Dr Smith’.
Using full stops in initialisms bucks the usual trend of younger Britons being the ones who tend to adopt American English. In recent decades, it has become the norm in British English to drop the dots – so it would be ‘USA’ rather than ‘U.S.A.’ – but older Britons are least likely to have caught up with the shift.
Which other Americanisms do Britons use?
Britons still largely favour the British convention of putting the day first when writing out the date in full, with 85% favouring the style of ‘1st January’ or ‘1 January’, while just one in eight (12%) prefer the more American routes of ‘January 1st’ or ‘January 1’.
But the British public are split on the ‘seasons vs series’ debate, with 39% agreeing with the British usage of a television programme being made up of series, compared to 34% who favour the American form of a television series being made up of seasons, with this rising to 55% among 18-24 year olds.
However, Americans have won the offensive hand gesture wars, with – if they had to – half of Britons (50%) tending to give the middle finger, compared to a quarter (24%) who would show someone the index and middle fingers together in a V-shape. Even among over 65s, just 29% say they would stick to giving the Vs, while 79% of 18-24 year olds would show just the middle finger.
Are they always Americanisms?
But there are some instances where the difference is not purely a case of Britain vs America, with some supposed Americanisms being the norm in Scottish English. Eight in ten Scots (82%), for instance, say Santa Claus, compared to a third of English people (32%), while ‘janitor’ is the typical term of 73% of Scots, but just 7% of English people, who instead favour the word ‘caretaker’.
Thanks to differences between English and Scots Law, six in ten Scottish people (59%) would typically say ‘he pled guilty’, as per Americans, instead of ‘he pleaded guilty’, as you would in an English court.
Which Americanisms do you use? How do you feel about the English language in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
