There have been some common catch phrases I've noticed over the years, that you'll tend to see only on forums and not in everyday use... I find it funny, yet...Intriguing. But sometimes annoying...
Here's one: "What are you on about"
LOL, "on about"...
American English has a unique idiom and it’s often obvious, just from the written words, that a poster is American.
As an American you may not be aware of some of these distinctive differences. The following Americanisms crop up regularly in CF posts:
Of
Sticking ‘
of” into places where it’s semantically superfluous is a fairly standard Americanism. Where the rest of us might say “Get off my back”, an American will say “Get off
of my back”. Sentences like, “It’s not that big
of a deal”, are also typically American. A non-American might drop the ‘
of’ and say “It’s not that big a deal”, but, since this version is bit awkward, is more likely to do a complete substitution with something like “It isn’t that important”
"if this is too abstract
of a question then…"
Would
“If he
would have known he wouldn’t have come” is an Americanised version of “If he had known he wouldn’t have come”. Technically ‘would’ adds an unnecessary, conditional element to ‘have’. It seems to be most prevalent in informal, vernacular American.
Second of all
Most other Englishes tend to use ‘secondly’ where American English seems to favour ‘
second of all’. This is either derived from “
first of all” or is yet another opportunity to work ‘
of’ into a sentence.
Different than
In American English ‘
different than’, is the most common way to express differentiation. American English seems to rarely use ‘
different to’ or ‘
different from’; the forms of differentiation most commonly used in other English dialects.
‘Then’ vs ‘than’
CF posters regularly confuse ‘
then’ with ‘
than’. It seems to be a habit peculiar to American posters. Typically, ‘
then’ is used when the correct word is ‘
than’. The most common form of this is when ‘
different than’ (mentioned above) becomes ‘
different then’ although I have often seen
then/than confusion in other contexts. Surprisingly, the
then/than mix-up is even a problem for some of the more articulate CF posters.
Dropping the ‘d’
Dropping the final 'd' on 'suppose(d)' and 'bias(ed)' is a very common Americanism
"He is suppose to help us"
"She is bias against Asians"
Anyways
Pluralising
anyway to
anyways is a peculiarly American habit.
Time & number
A quarter of three vs
A quarter to three
Two hundred forty-seven vs
Two hundred and forty-seven
Convicted
In my English 'convicted' means found guilty of a crime. Using 'convicted' to mean 'strongly convinced' appears to be peculiar to American Christians.
On
Study on it, preach on the Bible. This use of 'on' is peculiarly American.
I could care less
Notoriously the equivalent of Fingernails on a Blackboard for most non-American English speakers. We would say "I
couldn't care less".
OB
