Gonnae no dae that!

Millennials who wish they were American.

My niece was like that, so when Trump won, I was winding her up saying "Still love America then?" and she was like "No! I'm moving to Canada now!"

I think it annoys me more than anything to think that foreigners learning to speak English might be picking up these American variations and thinking it's actually English. I think Microsoft is a major culprit in this, making it necessary to make a concerted effort to ensure that everything on a PC is set to UK English.

People say 'they're done' a lot too now. As in, they've had enough.

Ergh, I'd hate to know anyone who says that. They sound like the same type of people who say they want something "ASAP"

I do like some Americanisms though, like I prefer "Ass" to "Arse".

I think arse just reminds me too much of all those cringy 90's Brit romcoms- I mean I liked Four Weddings, but it really seemed like they were trying to sell some brand of British to the world that wasn't really that reflective, same with Love Actually, in parts.

I want the view of Britain to at least be reflective, even if it's bad, as long as it's accurate. It really botherers me for example when US comedies like Family Guy take the piss out of the UK, not because they're taking the piss, but because it's so inaccurate. We don't sound like we're in a Monty Python sketch.

I find it odd too, I can identify so much with the mick taking when they think they're jibing at the US only, because that's actually more reflective of the UK too. Feels we know a lot more about their culture than they do ours, but actually we aren't as different as they think.

I've always assumed it was perfectly acceptable as in "ill gotten gains"

That's the only time it is.

gotten is a legitimate word.

i`ve got issues with words like "conversating" "boughten" "drug" for dragged and "tooken", i hope that disease doesn`t spread over here.

I have gotten a man from the Lord (Genesis 4:1).

British people using "gotten"? This is not something I've noticed.

I was at a family get together as a kid, maybe 6 or 7, and I asked an elderly great-aunt something and she replied, "I daresn't tell you."


Me and you both, I'm from Bermondsey.


Treading on thin ice there Princess, they won't like that in the Valleys.
I quite like South Wales, nice people, lovely accent., but in the north, Wrexham, Llangollen, Denbigh, Rhyl, quite often if you walk into a pub, and they hear your English accent, they'll switch to Welsh.


The U.S. as usual.
I use the word guys a lot, and I hear other people using it too.
At the risk of upsetting the cognescenti, I'll also say to a waiter/waitress, "Can I get the steak, medium please, and a baked potato with sour cream on the side."
I KNOW he/she is getting it, not me, but I don't see the harm in saying can I get, or I'll take, instead of can I have, the staff know what I mean.
As a rule I drink vodka, or vodka and tonic, but occasionally I'll fancy a bourbon, or Canadian whisky, and will have a small glass of water with it.
I just naturally say in the U.S., Buffalo Trace, water back, please.
You'd spend all day explaining that to a British bartender, so I just say, Jim Beam, or whatever, and a small glass of water please.

I've been using it since my teenage days. I'm 52. Not a recent thing. It's just one of those things you've heard and suddenly realised a lot say it.

Really? I always think "have" sounds American -- e.g. "I have a car", rather than "I've got a car".

But there are some phrases where you can't substitute "got" or "gotten" for "have" -- e.g. "you shouldn't have got involved".

I've gotten used to it too, occasionally (such as now). Sometimes, it just rolls off the tongue better than got. In a more formal setting, I'd probably use become rather than got or gotten, in that example.

She'd have hated a certain Gershwin song then, as it didn't go like this:

I have rhythm
I have music
I have my man
Who could ask for anything more?

Americanisms are creeping into UK English.
Britishisms are creeping into US English.

That's what happens when two living languages are mingled together through the media for decades.

We can either accept it or stress about it, the latter of which will shave a few weeks off your life and earn you a reputation as a grammar nazi.

I only went and gotten goddam gonorrhea

Given the thread is about Americanisms, at first I thought you were being ironic. Now I'm not so sure.

Do you mean A. S. A. P., which I don't find too bad, or "asap" as a word, which marks then as the spawn of Beelzebub in my eyes (ears?).


Go back 400 years or so and (according to those who think they know about such things at any rate) "ass" as on donkey was pronounced with a long "a". Think of how someone from the West Country would pronounce "glass" or "castle". At the same time "arse" was pronounced with a softened "r" (having evolved from "ærs") so that the two sounded very similar (is it an unintended coincidence that, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Nick Bottom is transformed into an ass, for example?)

It looks as though colonists to the Americas further softened the "r" and shortened the "a" so that the two pronunciations converged. On this side of the Atlantic, it looks as though the upper classes retained the long "a" and the "r", while the middle classes adopted the short "a" for the donkey in order to avoid potential vulgarity (being traditionally more concerned about such matters).

Nonetheless, there is an old story of a railway traveller whose wrote a letter of complaint about overcrowding of the train on which he had travelled. His letter included a comment that he envied the man from the country of Elam referred to in Chapter 18 Verse 18 of the Book of Jashtar, "who was leisurely going on the road, seated upon his ass".

Used to hear "gotten" all the time when I lived in Kent but not much in the Midlands.

Mom is mainly used in Birmingham. I grew up in Coventry / Warwickshire and everyone who I knew used "Mum".

I've never heard 'mum' being spoken as 'mom'. Certainly not in the North.
Just wondering, do the card shops in Birmingham have Mom on their greetings cards? ..eg: Happy birthday Mom....?

I think people need to be taught that language is a living thing in constant flux where the rules are defined by mutual agreement, not by manuals of textbooks.

"Gotten" is gaining ground in the UK because of American English influence, It may irritate some, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that. American English is by far the most dominant dialect of English in the world.

my family are brummies, it`s mom all the way, they also swap she for her

"any road, what`s her doing with that plate of faggots"

"arh, that`s what her said"

you get the picture.

It's always people under 30, usually under 25.

It is not an Americanism.

It may be new to you, and who knows where these people you're only now hearing use it picked it up from, but it's been in use here for donkeys years. If anything, it looks like Americans may be using it more these days than they used to. And by "used to" I mean over the past 50 years or so, but then again most of the real Americanisms have been in common use longer than most English language snobs have been alive.

See the Google Ngram of "gotten" from the American English corpus versus the British English corpus. Even if there was a direct link and more people over here are beginning to use it due to the influence of American culture (and we're about to see a sharp upturn in the British English corpus) it's still an English word.