Thirith on 17/1/2013 at 14:49

---

@faetal: Why do you think it's a parody? It's obviously generalised to the point of pointlessness - the three options usually default to 1) Joe the Plumber, 2) Dick van Dyke and 3) middle-of-the-road, sort of English over-generalisation - but where's the parody in that?

faetal on 17/1/2013 at 18:05

---

It isn't designed to genuinely see if people are familiar with British phrases, it is just offering up 1 US-style option, 1 dull option and 1 obvious UK stereotype, being obvious either by dint of being widely known, or by being obfuscated with out of date, comedy slang similar to (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgPH0tYXJrA) THIS. It'd be like being from the UK and trying to answer e.g.

You meet an American in the street, how might you greet him / her?

1: Good afternoon, how are you?
2: It is the afternoon, there you are.
3: Yeeeeehaaaaw hoooooboy oooooeeeeee PARDNER what's-a the happy hap? (fire pistol into the air)

DDL on 17/1/2013 at 18:57

---

(http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2012/02/five-american-expressions-the-british-dont-understand/)

Google succeeds when a site's own bloody hyperlinks fail.

Having said that, it's a fairly disappointing list (and seems to assume you've never been exposed to any US media, which is a bit stupid given that it's a list for people on the internet)...

demagogue on 18/1/2013 at 02:01

---

People would say actually howdy in (parts of) Texas at least. It's true. It's easy to see they're usually explicitly taking up the stereotype with a certain kind of pride though.

I'm going to try to think of five phrases in American English that aren't immediately obvious. I've heard some British ones that I didn't get the first time around, like seeing a man about a dog, their understanding of being pissed, and a few others.

We were talking about this here yesterday, but that was more regions within the US. In the South, it's common for people to use the term "Coke" to refer to any soft drink, even something like 7-up or Sprite; I've even done it a lot & recognize it's kind of strange. And in Texas in particular, sometimes we do that even with Dr. Pepper, which would really pinpoint you.

Edit: Oh, didn't even check the link above me. I don't know if that's a good list though. I'd never say "I could care less"; it's not an expression, just someone speaking out of habit without thinking of what they're saying. The right phrase is "couldn't care less", even in the US.

"Bite me?", sounds kind of dated like "radical". Speaking of dated, my dad sometimes says someone "ate him out" or "don't eat me out" when a person is upset and rages at him, lol, and I always wince. That's not how we'd understand that today! I think we'd say "chewed me out" for that.

"Oh snap" is dated in the other way; it's a fad now but I don't know if it has legs. It's something you'd see in a black comedy or a white show pretending to be a black comedy to sound in touch, and everybody's supposed to laugh.

"Momentarily" is right, but it's the tip of the iceberg with the way Brits & Americans treat time & space in language; there's a lot of phrases that touch on that that I've noticed. The difference usually comes out of the context though; it's not like an idiom like "seeing a man about a dog" where nothing could cue you. You either know it or you don't.
I still want to think of some good Americanisms.

nickie on 18/1/2013 at 06:46

---

The only ones in that list I'm not familiar with or don't/haven't used are Bunny boiler, More bangs for your buck and Knock into a cocked hat. I'm surprised at Wear the trousers though - I thought the US wore pants.