Even worse, chester drawsSomething I always see English people (don't shout at me please) writing..."I opened my chest of draws" NO!
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One pet peeve I'm seeing creeping in is a lot of lax Americanisms of word usage or sentence structure. In the capacity I work, communication and English skills are pretty key, so it's becoming a bit of a mare seeing many of my colleagues, who should know better, lapsing into these.
Some of the top ones:
Some of the top ones:
- Confusing 'bring' and 'take'
- Confusing 'come' and 'go'
- Saying 'amends' instead of 'amendments' — this is my favourite one because we get many people constantly 'making amends' with text documents in some ongoing, obviously tumultuous relationship
- Similarly, saying the likes of 'disconnect' and 'intent' to avoid that extra syllable of '-ion'
reminds me of my frustration when people confuse "taught" and "learnt" and "lend" and "borrow".
I'm sure this has been mentioned before but what's with this latest thing among influencers to say "arrive to"? 
We all act a bit crazy after a few, drink'sAdmittedly, I might have had a drink
My husband used to send messages with the wrong to/too; or you’re/your. I only found out last year he’s been doing intentionally to wind me up- we’ve been together for fifteen years!
I get annoyed by Americanisms creeping in everywhere! My phone keeps correcting ill to I’ll. No, I won’t write « sick », as if I say I have been sick, that means I vomited, not that I was poorly/unwell.
Also nail polish instead of nail varnish annoys me no end, as does pants for trousers, said by an Irish colleague!
It annoys me that Brits make the effort to learn the US word ( elevator, trunk, pants…) but if you say lift, car boot and trousers in the US, you are met with blank stares. It just does my head in!
I had a friend who kept using the word 'panties' for underwear. My face resembled crumpled paper because I kept cringing hard.
Still, I can only breathe a sigh of relief to read someone that shares my frustrations. Overall, I find our (as in cultural 'our') gradual pandering to/aping of US culture rather mortifying. I don't mind learning the US words, naturally, but when it's overriding or replacing UK ones [e.g. a colleague at my workplace trying to correct my use of 'doughnut' before she had to be told it was the right spelling], it's a bit troubling. Naturally, the prevalence of social media, media streaming, etc. have contributed to this import and inevitably blurred the boundaries, but it's nonetheless disappointing.
I could go further and express my alarm at how this import has gone beyond merely language [for example, a UK job advert made the rounds on social media a while back, where the employer expressed they were an equal opportunities organisation recruiting people from 'indigenous groups'...
], but that's for another thread.i feel the same way when my spelling of words is queried - my phone etc trying to correct the "s" to "z" in words like organise, or erase the "u" from words like honour and harbour. just STOP.
same with the word "yoghurt" which i still spell with an H, as i was taught as a kid. the americanised spelling of "yogurt" has seemingly rendered the original spelling obselete but it just looks wrong spelt that way. and american terms such as "thru" and "tho" to replace "through" and "though".
Pants is common in Hiberno-English. It's not an Americanism.
The same goes for "bring" vs "take", which a previous poster claimed was an Americanism.
My biggest grammar pet peeve is people assuming that every piece of dialect that they don't use is an Americanism.
Again, not grammar per se but rogue apostrophes strike again. The comment!
I’ve noticed a lot of ‘prolly’ instead of probably online, which makes my eye twitch. The other thing I can’t abide are the adoption of American phrases- ‘I could care less’ or ‘I did it on accident’. They get on my pip!
i hear "i could care less" constantly and it makes me want to scratch out my eyes. how can you not understand that it doesn't make sense in the context of saying you don't care?! ARGH.
This gets me so angry for some reason. It's just very basic English that everyone should know and I don't get the confusion.reminds me of my frustration when people confuse "taught" and "learnt" and "lend" and "borrow".
Twenty years ago I used to read things on a frugal living American website. I kept reading about the "food bank". I had no idea what this was at the time but look at us now! I was glad to read the explanation for "ill" and "I'll" as I've found it so irritating. Also the "neighbor" and changing our "s" to "z". They were so hot on grammar when I went to school so this all pains me. The "should of, could of" is my biggest bugbear.
I’ve thought of another one! People who use sink when they mean washbasin! A sink is where you do your washing up, in the kitchen, and a washbasin is where you wash your face, brush your teeth etc and is in a bathroom!
Don't think I've heard anyone say washbasin in my life
sounds awfully poshAlso, people not knowing when to use less or fewer! Drives me insane and it’s not a hard rule to understand!
My mother was pretentiously posh.Don't think I've heard anyone say washbasin in my life
We had a wash hand basin!
Except I got confused and called it a right hand basin.