British Couple Reacts to 4 Ways American English is Pretty Weird

British Couple Reacts to 4 Ways American English is Pretty Weird
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[@kikibigbangfan3540]

Brit's said/spelled aluminum first. Then as per usual changed it and started spelling it differently aluminium. Which therefore the pronunciation is now different. Americans say it the orginal way. 😊

[@Hillbilly001]

The Brits have a bad habit of doing that. ie Soccer. They invented the word, we use it, but they point and laugh at us because they call it football. Just saying.....

[@codygates7418]

@@Hillbilly001Then they make fun of us for saying it not the “original way” lol 😂 despite that fact that many words non English origins are pronounced more similar to the native language in the U.S. while in the UK they usually anglicize it. Also the fact that many Americans are said to sound similar or use similar words to people in Shakespeares times then actual British people do. Maybe they’re jealous lmao 😂

[@WGGplant]

both pronunciations were used at the same time in britain. it just so happens that both pronunciations survived in the different countries. neither one of them is "the original"

[@nedludd7622]

Until the middle of the 19th century, the British pronounced "herb" as "erb" as Americans still do. Who knows why they changed what they had said for centuries by suddenly pronouncing the "h"?

[@Etereys]

The Brits' pronunciation makes sense only if they spell it as "aluminium" with that extra i. Otherwise, the pronunciation is illogical. As an American, I've never seen it spelled that way.

[@spaceshiplewis]

We call woodlouse, roly polies because we hate lice and because they roll up into little balls for protection and they are adorable, unlike lice.

[@jeannem.6534]

Millie we use pavement to describe the substance. For example a large area outside The door of a shopping center might be considered the pavement. Pavement can be shaped into a sidewalk or a patio. Asphalt can be shaped into a driveway or a street. Cement can be turned into pavement which can be shaped as a driveway or a sidewalk.

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

And we use different words for things because we named them independently whether by creating new words or adapting old ones.

[@ThatSoonerGuy]

I suppose if you break the word down, you get “Pave” and “Ment.” So with that being said, you “pave the way” with pave(ment), meaning it’s typically a walk way or a driveway. “Ment” is the result of an action, giving us the full word. I’ve never thought about it so I’m glad you brought that up! I think most people, including myself, consider the word “pavement” to mean cement or concrete, when really it’s simply explaining the cemented pathway as a “paved way.” Kind of interesting to break that one down.

[@kieranshae]

In America a forward roll is called a sommersault

[@mlee6050]

That is weird, in UK as far as I know we rarely say somersault as often say front flip or back flip, basically somersault is in the air and not roll on ground I always thought was spelt summersalt or summersault

[@georgepoteet495]

James mentioned aluminium. Do British people say platinium as well? If not, why not?

[@RogCBrand]

Or when they say schedule as "shedule", do they also say "shool" for school?

[@corinnepmorrison1854]

@@RogCBrand I love your post/comment!! 👍🏻

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

Because Platinum is only spelled Platinum. Aluminum was first isolated by a British chemist. He proposed the name Aluminum, it was accepted, his friends pointed out that, actually, -ium was the modern naming convention for metals and tried to get it changed but there aren’t any renaming rights so most people stuck with the original name.

[@davidcosta2244]

@@RogCBrand Americans will say schedule with a soft c, and usually in the high society groups.

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

Also, Just so James knows, Aluminium sounds as weird to us as aluminum does to him.

[@zaphod2505]

I grew up in Louisiana and you call them Crawfish, however Crawdads and Mudbugs were perfectly acceptable but under no circumstances were you allowed to call them Crayfish.

[@davidcosta2244]

They are crayfish, though. They're basically mini lobsters, and since I'm from MA, I'd prefer the real lobster, thank you.

[@jeffhampton2767]

They are crayfish and more people call them crayfish than anything period and technically they are crayfish

[@ThatSoonerGuy]

I’ve never heard anyone actually call them crayfish. I lived in Louisiana for a year and learned how much I love a good crawfish broil. Used to buy bags of them after work and snack on em all night. I miss good crawfish! I’m in Oklahoma now so I don’t get to have them as often anymore.

[@johnvaccaro7022]

In the North they are called crayfish and were dissected in Lab Biology along with the earthworm and frog.

[@jonadabtheunsightly]

Does it make you twitch if somebody calls them "craydaddies"?

[@codygates7418]

Most Americans say words in its original spelling while the Brits are the ones that actually changed it haha 😂 so most Americans would say something similar to a 16th century Brit than a modern Brit would. Most people say many Americans talk more like Shakespeare than English people. Not to mention various words in English are from the Americas, such as Raccoon that comes from an Algonquin word spoken by the Algonquin speaking Natives.

[@betsyduane3461]

Rizz is short for “charisma,”

[@lindaclark7868]

Archie is so adorable!

[@FuzzyMarineVet]

Sir Winston Churchill, who had a mother from America and father from English nobility, knew a great deal about the differences between the language of both nations. He said, "Great Britain and the United States are two great nations divided by a common language."

[@williamirelan9332]

The term sidewalk started with wood or gravel walkways beside the road or street. The roads were the first to be paved with concrete or tar. We do sometimes refer to sidewalks as pavement ,such as telling someone it is time to leave, we say ( It's time to hit the pavement) . We also refer to any hard paved surface as pavement ,parking lots, streets, etc.

[@averagejoe845]

Land / home ownership is recorded and therefore is public information.

[@jimgreen5788]

In addition to our 2 countries, there are the Irish, Scottish, Manx, Aussie and Kiwi versions. Crawdads and their aliases aren't fish; rather, they're crustaceans. I've always seen the pizza shop spelled pizzeria.

[@brucegreenberg7573]

Love you guys! US here, and a user and lover of the English language in all its amazing and sometimes befuddling permutations! 🇺🇸🇬🇧

[@gidgyb1359]

In Southwest Washington State, we grew up saying crawdads and potato bugs. Fun video guys!

[@GenXfrom75]

Falling pregnant is just hilarious to me 😂😂😂 I’m thinking that’s primarily a British saying?

[@mikepaulus4766]

Rizz is Charisma

[@corinnepmorrison1854]

I adore you three, very special people!!! ❤️❤️❤️

[@nedludd7622]

I was recently watching a rugby game when an announcer said after an early try, "That's a good stat." It confused me until I understood that he was trying to say "start". Did you notice that Lawrence had an innovative spelling of "addictive"?

[@Deadcntr]

The strangest thing about UK English is pissed. I was hanging out with some British sailors and they said they spend their weekends. "We get pissed and we go out and we get pissed again" 😅 I had no idea what they were talking about. I had to ask them to explain themselves.

[@rayleneknight8718]

I love the "it's pissing out" saying for raining. I've tried to adopt it but I just get looked at very weird 😂

[@user-gk9lg5sp4y]

I grew up in the mid-Atlantic, and we called them crayfish, but crawfish and even crawdad wasn't unheard of

[@pjschmid2251]

In my American ear when you say the word forward, you are dropping both the Rs. I hear faw-wood.

[@WGGplant]

About the "remaining non-rhotic", in actuality England and the US were both rhotic. It makes more sense to say "pockets of the US started dropping their r's like most of england did"

[@davidcosta2244]

I was born in MA, and several years ago moved to FL, and people are perplexed when I call that thing that's on the wall to let people drink water from a bubbler. It still sounds weird to me to call it a water fountain, when it's a bubbler

[@KevinHarrington1979]

Love your videos, and hoping you enjoy visiting the US on your quickly approaching vacation (I think y'all would say holiday)! I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts about Northern California... I believe I heard y'all say on a previous video that San Francisco was one of your planned destinations. Lastly, Y'all make an absolutely beautiful family ... The baby is adorable... Congratulations! ~k

[@GenXfrom75]

In South Carolina, my area, we call them buggers crawdaddies. 😂

[@Blondie42]

Colonel having an r where it "shouldn't" be was a poor example on Laurance's part. He should have use the non existent r that some people put in in Warshington and warsh. 9:14 Pizza didn't become popular, nation wide, until after WWII. And the word pizza has been around since at least the early Renaissance.

[@Timeisirrelevant]

The Brits pronounce Sade as Sharday. 😂😂

[@everyonelovesmajima]

I'm American, most of us can't even get it right. I work in a medical laboratory and the sheer amount of misspelled signs all over hurts my head and my heart.

[@warrendavis9262]

Re: Scrabble...a university buddy from Belize took advantage of the literal Scrabble rule that a dictionary must be used. (She proceeded to break out an Aztec dictionary) 😮😮😮😮😮

[@h.s.lafever3277]

Alaskan Here, to be honest, many of the differences he points out, esp betwixt the American accents, i do not even notice much. i guess thats due to exposure. and we say the r in colonel because it came into american english before the french changed r to ll... coronel to collonel. we retained the older french form for conversion , much like the Quebecois tongue is deriven from an earlier french. acadien, cajun, all similar tales. colonel rightly is pronounced with a rhodic r

[@warrendavis9262]

I know them as roly polies....never heard of potato bugs until just now....

[@warrendavis9262]

I knew a girl who got exceedingly grumpy when she didn't get her regular supply of crawfish...

[@MarquitaR]

@3:53 #Tennessee i call them crawdads

[@JEREMY99218]

Rizz = Charisma

[@theresa4850]

Archie is such a cutie.

[@frankisfunny2007]

Calling the sidewalk as a "pavement" is weird to me. Because you don't pave concrete, you lay it down. Plus, it's a designated area for pedestrians to walk on the side of the road. Americans alternately pronounce the road as "pavement" because it's a designated, paved area to drive a car. If it's a designated area that was made away from roadways, it's a "walkway", or "pathway", depending on context.

[@JEFFwasHERE...]

5:50 Beesley you are too smooth 😎

[@rayleneknight8718]

In some parts of the south, people will say "I don't care to do (something)" meaning "yes, I'll do that." It was really confusing when I moved from the western part of the USA.

[@mildredjeff5024]

I don’t care to do something, means I don’t want to. Not, I want to. That’s backwards.

[@ThatSoonerGuy]

James, I’m happy to hear you feel the same way about the word “rizz” as I do. For some reason that particular word goes all through me and drives me nuts!

[@divinedesolation4825]

Louse or Lice is almost always used for the bugs you get in your hair that you have to get special shampoo or shave your head to get rid of. Rollie Pollies or Pill bugs (I’ve heard them called both here in Virginia.(Pill bug is something I’ve only heard my grandparents call them) are cute and not harmful so we don’t want to associate them with something as nasty as lice. I’m pretty sure if you called them Woodlice people would think them gross and kill them.

[@ashleycrash8838]

You two should do a D-Day react video, I searched your channel and I don’t think you have covered that invasion, but it would be really cool to see your reaction!

[@DustinHawke]

I'm feeling a bit knackered, think I better go to hospital.

[@randalmayeux8880]

Hi guys! There's another English KZbinr who doesn't pronounce the letter T if it's in the middle of a word, e.g. "water" comes out " wah- uh" and "better" is " beh- uh". Also, on both sides of the pond, the word " mischievous" very often is mispronounced as " miss- chee- vee- us" instead of "miss- che- vuss".

[@RegisteredDems4Trump]

6:53 “like most of (NEW) England”

[@MRB-19]

I have a bit of Americana in my background, including connections in and visiting the USA quite a few times over many years. But recently I came across a new one, still to have it confirmed; the baggage claim in airports. I have been used to carousel (with the emphasis on the final syllable), but recently had to listen twice to the PA, to be sure that it was saying "carousal" (with emphasis on the 2nd syllable) 😮 (Cd be an ESL error but ...)

[@GenXfrom75]

They’re Rollie pollies!

[@warrendavis9262]

You can come up with much weird stuff when left unattended in a place this massive...

[@disoriented1]

I go overboard on the rhotic in the quagmire mixture of north, south and midwest that is Missouri. I finally, in my 40s stopped pronouncing the nation's capital with an 'R". WaRshington..what I can't understand is that Walter Cronkite, the most so called 'standard' American accent I've ever heard was born and raised a mere 40 miles north of me, in northwest Missouri.

[@Jliske2]

1:38 yup! running joke on his channel--

[@MarquitaR]

@4:39 #Tennessee i say rollie pollies

[@jeffhampton2767]

In the Northeast United States we do call the sidewalk the pavement

[@jsamuelsen]

Pavement is asphalt and is what we drive on. A sidewalk is concrete and is made to walk on.

[@craigh.9810]

I’m from Philadelphia. Pavement and sidewalk are the same thing.

[@deemariedubois4916]

That was fun. I have lived all over the US and the different dialects are wonderful. Great things have come from the WWW but one negative is the commingling of those accents and dialects are being diluted.

[@cynthiaalver]

That boy is such a cutie pie!

[@tomgardner2638]

That nasty little bugs... we always called them sow bugs!

[@jeffhampton2767]

We always told them garbage bags because if you had a bag of garbage sitting on the side of the curb by the next morning it would be those bugs underneath that would roll up into a little ball

[@Gothguy1961]

Two peoples separated by a common language.

[@alanr4447a]

Does "platinum" sound weird?

[@espgranny]

What about dough, through, though, thought and their pronunciations. Spelling defies pronunciations.

[@ScottLeeper-mm4is]

Hi Beesley's 😂😂

[@holyfire11]

You guys gotta visit oregon. We say crawdad lol. But i think this state will convince you to move to the USA. :)

[@WGGplant]

that's highly depends on whether ur in the west or east

[@bethdale2012]

In the south east USA, we call "Wood lice'. Doo Doo bugs. Why you may ask? Because they love poop! And all kinds of poop. Dog, rabbit, cow, etc. I know it's strange. I have no idea what the real name is, unless it's wood lice. Thanks guys

[@andrewchristopher7138]

Hi

[@lordscheemo1892]

As an American, I also hate the word Rizz

[@Robertz1986]

Not sure what Laurence meant by "retain" non-rhotic pronunciation. Rhotic pronunciation is the original. As for forward, you guys wouldn't like pronounce either R, as England is mostly non-rhotic.

[@stevepalmberg5905]

Love zed vs. zee Zedbra

[@warrendavis9262]

Already subscribed to both of you...

[@GenXfrom75]

Rizz is just short for charisma 😅

[@leaflady100]

We in America say, “flashlight”, the Brits call it a “torch”. We say “diaper”, they call it a “napkin”, we say “elevator”, they say “lift”, we say, “cookie”, they say, “biscuit”, we say “fries”, they say “chips”, we say “bathroom” or “restroom”, they say “loo”, we say “line”, they say”queue”… and there are many more…😊

[@roseitalia6]

Where is your accent from ? I can hardly understand what you’re saying. My husband is was born and raised in London in a very working class neighborhood. I never heard a word from him that I couldn’t understand. We had fun laughing at each other pronunciation God bless us all

[@user-sy7rm2ed8z]

IF YOU POKE THEM WHILE THEY ARE.ON THEIR BACKS THEY "ROLL UP IN A BALL" ???

[@user-sp6jk3zz5b]

Brits stopped pronouncing R in words around the time of American colonization . It's strange to me that Brits would find American English/ accent odd since we still basically speak it the way Brits once did

[@catwhisperer9489]

Oh, that "I could care less", drives me utterly insane!!!!! Several times, when I've heard people say that, I've said "Go 'head", meaning, of course, "Go ahead and care less"---they never get it !!!

[@corinnepmorrison1854]

I could NOT care less is proper.

[@garyi.1360]

You do know you put in an "I" that doesn't exist in the way you pronounce aluminum. And pavement is usually asphalt which is in the street. Sidewalk is more specific to confirm that you are not discussing something in the street itself but rather on the side next to the road. The bugs are sal bugs.

[@corinnepmorrison1854]

Sow bugs…

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

They spell it with the extra i.

[@garyi.1360]

@@JustMe-dc6ks well there it is then. Thanks

[@beaver6d9]

I know people who say fo-ward and it sounds weird to me, but not totally uncommon. I always wondered where it came from.

[@tracyallshouse2730]

Rizz is short for charisma, not everyone here in the US like it either.😖 Oh my goodness ‼️ Archie is growing so fast, he is absolutely adorable ❣❣❣❤

[@allenkramer2143]

2 mato ta mah toe.

[@Kosmokraton]

Lawrence said parts of American English "remain" non-rhotic. That's sort of correct, in that non-rhotic accents are receding, iirc. But it's kind of misleading, since "originally", British English and American English were both rhotic. British English became non-rhotic, and some port cities in America followed Britain's lead. Given that Irish English and Scottish English are both rhotic, calling "British English" non-rhotic is itself misleading.

[@pappaFersh]

Is it Adidas or Adidas? 🤔 or is it route or route?

[@TEZabel]

But, aluminum is spelled 'um', not 'ium'.

[@mildredjeff5024]

A-Lu-Mi-num is the correct way to pronounce it. A-Lu-Mi-Ni-Um is the wrong way since there is no -ni- in the spelling.

[@DiscipleOfLeisure]

Archie!

[@lawrenceliebman9079]

Inasmuch as I live in the Chicago area, I have his home located within a 5-mile radius based on the confugration of his garage and adjacent alley, and some the streets he takes to go shopping. I wonder how close I am.

[@buckeyegirl16]

Zed is so weird to me

[@disappointedenglishman98]

Lawrence spelt pizzeria wrong. it is pizzEria, not pizzAria.

[@stevehorn4680]

I grew up on military bases in mostly northern military bases in the USA. When Dad retired we moved to the deep south because Mom has a huge family here. I fought trying not to sound southern, to no avail though. I have managed not to say Y'all. I'll call 3 ladies "you guys" before I'll say Y'all. I'm not sure if that's a good thing but I hold strong.

[@lavenderoh]

You guys is more common in the part of the south I'm from, and with people under 50 in general. Don't get me wrong we hear people saying y'all all the time but I hear you guys or you all a lot more often. I don't say it though, neither does my sister, nor my parents or any of my friends.

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

For your information, we do not understand why your letter A sounds like the letter U. For instance, we play sports with a ball. You on the other hand play sports with a bull. To us a bull is a male cow. Same with the letter S which you pronounce like the letter Z. We have Kawasaki motorcycles whereas you have Kawazasi mototcycles. Something else you should know is we HATE the fact that you are unable to find the letter R. Car to us, to you Caa, to us Party to you Paaty. Martin to us Maatin to you and so on. Just grates on us sometimes.

[@user-sp6jk3zz5b]

Ways British English is weird The U in or words Colour is not pdonounced the same as hour er words are pronounce like ar Derby is pronounced darby where as in American English its pronounced like dERby

[@ChristaFree]

We call crawfish crawdads or mudbugs. They're delicious!

[@craignickum6551]

Z is simply pronounced Z not Zed

[@kikibigbangfan3540]

How is it that Brit's say the letter (zed) as in zed-bra. Doesn't stand up. Because you don't say "I'm going to the zed-oo". You're going to the zoo. Make it make sense, y'all 😜😄

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

Zed makes little sense, but they say zeh-bruh which for spelling in English is as reasonable as zee-bruh.

[@damm1957]

American English is a melting pot of languages. THAMES = Tems? Boot = Trunk? Bonnet = Hood

[@jwb52z9]

Archie is just adorable!!