Americanisms that might seem strange to us

[countessalmirena]

There’s a thread in the Seller Discussion Board about new wording sent to sellers to inform them of a sale. It’s now “You made the sale for [$xxxx]”.

That’s quite bizarre wording; as has been mentioned in that thread, it doesn’t seem natural, and not the way that an Australian would express himself/herself.

What other US wording or expressions just seem a little odd to Australians?

(Of course, some of our Australianisms are equally odd to Americans…)

1. “I’ll fix you a meal.” (To me, this seems to be an admission that the steak is charcoal, the eggs are rubbery, the potatoes are burned, the sauce has separated, and the soufflé has collapsed… and the unfortunate cook is going to attempt a culinary repair.)

[ambercat16]

Many years ago I was driving my young son and a couple of friends of his somewhere. They were chatting in the back seat and one (being a bit cheeky) made a comment about his 'butt'.  I told him that 'butt' was an American term that wasn't allowed to be used in my car and that the correct term was "**bleep**".

Screams of laughter ensured......"Your Mum said **bleep**" and it probably didn't get the point across.....but I did love shocking them just a little😀

🤔Will be interesting to see which term gets 'beeped'

[domino-710]

That was a bummer. lol

[countessalmirena]

Ah yes… Americans will use “ass” rather than “ar*e” where * = s.

The differences are just that – differences. Bidicus, what do you say when you want to convey second person plural?

[domino-710]

Same as us - you.

They even spell it the same. lol

[bidicus*maximus]

Rather than, "y'all",  most of the US would say, "all of you".

[domino-710]

You could confuse everyone and use - youse. lol

[countessalmirena]

Bidicus might have a unique solution. I confused the holy mistletoe out of someone recently when I jokingly used “the multiplicity of you” just after I’d mentioned “y’all” as not being my style… and he came back back with “No, no, no, it’s every last one of you.”

The odd thing was that I realised he had used “every last one of you” and he wouldn’t accept that asking if every last one of you would like some coffee sounded weird.

(As he’s a leg puller, he may well have been kidding.)

[domino-710]

Especially if they only liked tea. 😉

[bidicus*maximus]

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@domino-710 wrote:

You could confuse everyone and use - youse. lol

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Just saying, "everyone" could also replace "y'all" or even, "all of you".  

Nobody that I know says, "youse".  That sounds like something out of an old Bowery Boys movie, if y'all are familiar with those.  

[countessalmirena]

bidicus, there are many Australians who use “youse”. Some use it simply because they use it (if that makes sense), and some use it as an almost self-conscious and possibly self-mocking appropriation of the slang/non-standard usage.

I don’t use it; I have different ways of mocking myself.