It highlights the American penchant for adding -ass to any adjective as an intensifier. Like a bumpy-ass road, or a sweet-ass ride, or some sour-ass candy, or spicy-ass chili.
The way my brain felt like it hit a brick wall when I realized that this saying is just 100% violently American... that explains why foreign friends have given me weird looks when I've used that phrase.
Lol I got chewed out by an English dude a couple weeks ago for usin y’all cause “iT’s NoT pRoPeR eNgLiSh”. Thankfully I had some fellow Texans backin me up usin the fabled y’all’ll lol
A surprising amount have made it into UK, without people even necessarily knowing they have origins in baseball. Cover all bases, throwing a curveball, knocking it out of the park, first base, the idea of three strikes. Whether through TV, the metaphor being straightforward or even some overlap with cricket or early British baseball I am unsure. Compared to I would imagine almost no cricket, Rugby or even soccer terms going the other way.
I am curious, and I apologize if this seems rude, but because there are so many dialects of slang in black American culture, have you ever seen someone outside of the United States use it in conversation? Do other countries have as many slang dialects? I know in America the time periods have a lot to do with it too. It’s weird, when I was a kid in the 90s, slang was very pop culture and it’s still used in my area but not nearly as fluently/heavily as back then even though I feel like our population is pretty similar. Do you think maybe that was more influenced by MTV and when freestyle rap became popular?
One that was a curious figure out in France was "-ish", for close or approximate in any circumstance. Such as the sky is grey-ish today. I'll be over around 10-ish. There were like 30-ish people at the party
Interesting; we also do this sometimes sort of with -esque which comes right from French! I wonder if French speakers ever make up descriptors using -ois, -eaux, etc. for emphasis? Maybe not.
I wonder where this one comes from. My friend refers to her fathers parents as (and im spelling phonetically becuase i have no idea how it should be spelt):
There's a word used in the hills of North Carolina, I've never seen it written, so I'm just gonna go for it: Sygogglin. Means crooked, bent, warped, out of shape or place. "You need to fix that fence, it's all sygogglin."
Hey, my Kentucky family has a word for this! “Whopper-jawed” (Thought it was whopperjod my whole life til my mom wrote it out in a text a couple months ago)
I work retail and have realized “How’s it goin’?” And “Have a good one” sound almost the same, I often get a response from people entering and leaving the store for both.
I was visiting a friend in Peru recently and taught her this one. She thought it was hilarious. I now consciously think about how often I say it to mean bye (almost exclusively).
I watched a German movie (in German) where the main character (a German man) repeatedly said "what's good" (in English). The entire movie was just essentially a coming-of-age movie where the American character was a mockery until he grew up and learned to be like the Germans. It was, uh, interesting.
A blog that I follow published an article in 2020 about a survey on English vocabulary. The words that had the biggest discrepancy in their familiarity were:
Interesting, the American side seems to have a really heavy amount of loanwords: kwanzaa, kielbasa, tomatillo, provolone, luau (arguably), and a few others. Did the article provide anything on words with a more local origin?
Huh, I thought acetaminophen was just a generic drug name, but TIL it's our regional name: "paracetamol and acetaminophen are contractions of para-acetylaminophenol."
The only British slang words in the list that I recognize are dodgem (which I know thanks to Rollercoaster Tycoon) and kerbside (which is just a spelling difference.)
One is all the distinctive AAVE that varies throughout all different states and cities that you won’t really find on social media like Twitter. Regional slang foreigners haven’t got a hold of yet 😂
Not to mention that we purge and refresh our slang every ten years or so. Mainstream just started using “Shade” and “Tea” when we’ve been saying it for almost 15-20 years.
Here in the inland northwest US, a common-ish one is "loaded for bear" and means overloaded, absolutely full, or in some contexts, overprepared but only if it also means overloaded or close to. Not everyone uses this idiom, but they all seem to know what it means.
Loaded for bear (at least in my understanding) means more like zealously prepared or ready for a big fight. “Oh he came out of that conversation loaded for bear” as in mad and ready to fight.
This is a bit of confusion as in the UK fries are still fries, but it is specifically the thin french fries, like you get at McDonalds. The chips in fish & chips are fatter and squidgier things.
Some Spanish-speaking countries say "all ring-ring and no popsicles", because there are street vendors who sell popsicles from little carts, and they walk around ringing a bell.
Granted, I was told this in the USA, but apparently the Spanish word for peach is harder to say than peach. I speak Spanish… no idea how to say peach. I was told this by a native speaker.
Fall instead of autumn. An American friend now resident of England (and now a British citizen) reports that his usage of fall seems to annoy his higher ups. But why? It’s poetic in calling to mind the dropping of leaves. It’s a good
I said “panties in a twist” to my british colleague while referring to a snippy client and he thought it was hilarious. The british saying isn’t much different (knickers in a bunch?)
If I am in the Northeast and have to drive to the middle of nowhere I might be going to bumblefuck. But when I lived in Florida, they knew this mysterious place as BFE, which is Bumfuck Egypt.
My English friends cracked up at my use of "hauling ass" to describe a very fast train.
No idea where the term comes from but hauling ass is one of my favorites.
It highlights the American penchant for adding -ass to any adjective as an intensifier. Like a bumpy-ass road, or a sweet-ass ride, or some sour-ass candy, or spicy-ass chili.
The way my brain felt like it hit a brick wall when I realized that this saying is just 100% violently American... that explains why foreign friends have given me weird looks when I've used that phrase.
It happened in Friends when Pheebs yelled this when she cracked opened a van to make way for Ross. I did not get it before but now I see. Thanks.
"I plead the fifth" is a pretty uniquely American phrase since it references our Constitution.
Really good one to think of!
Y'all
Another one I like is “all y’all.” I think it means all of you but not me.
ppl here in the northeast have picked up the word and it just doesn’t sound right at all without the southern twang to it.
Lol I got chewed out by an English dude a couple weeks ago for usin y’all cause “iT’s NoT pRoPeR eNgLiSh”. Thankfully I had some fellow Texans backin me up usin the fabled y’all’ll lol
Baseball idioms.
A surprising amount have made it into UK, without people even necessarily knowing they have origins in baseball. Cover all bases, throwing a curveball, knocking it out of the park, first base, the idea of three strikes. Whether through TV, the metaphor being straightforward or even some overlap with cricket or early British baseball I am unsure. Compared to I would imagine almost no cricket, Rugby or even soccer terms going the other way.
That's what I was thinking, and there's a lot. You know there's a lot when there's a
Americans love
You knocked it out of the park!
That came out of left field.
This example is a touchdown!
That boy is as useless as a football bat.
If I like a person I call him “good people”.
Dogs are good people.
I’m surprised there arent more Southern folks weighing in here with classics like
That instantly makes me think of “good samaritan”. I have never heard that in British I think, sounds very American to me
BBQ so good make you wanna slap yo mama.
Make ya run up a hill backwards. It'll even make ya throw rocks at your own house.
Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning is one of my favorites in the cabinet.
Bless your heart
And it's partner phrase, "oh my sweet summer child"
For words anything Native American based especially names of towns and cities
Winnepasaukee, Pemigewassett, Kenduskeag, Chaubunagungamaug, Cobbosseecontee, Piscataqua
Lol and boy if someone not from the area pronounces it differently than they think it is, prepare for all the corrections!
Non American here, but fellas and folks always sound American
Guys too
Do people use dude where you’re from?
We're all just folks.
As a black person, we have tons of slang that’s regional a lot of times.
I feel like you invented like 80% of all American slang while being like 15% of the population.
You have a whole dialect that uniquely American
‘Play cousin’ is one of my favorites.
I am curious, and I apologize if this seems rude, but because there are so many dialects of slang in black American culture, have you ever seen someone outside of the United States use it in conversation? Do other countries have as many slang dialects? I know in America the time periods have a lot to do with it too. It’s weird, when I was a kid in the 90s, slang was very pop culture and it’s still used in my area but not nearly as fluently/heavily as back then even though I feel like our population is pretty similar. Do you think maybe that was more influenced by MTV and when freestyle rap became popular?
Cattywampus. Janky.
Because that is an Algonquian word for a trickster spirit.
I use the word janky all the time at work. Shit's just so fucking janky there.
I never used cattywampus until I moved out west
Any colloquialism related to pigskin football.
Milquetoast - a timid, meek, or unassertive person.
... timid, meek person," 1938, from Caspar Milquetoast, character created by U.S. newspaper cartoonist H.T. Webster (1885-1952)
One that was a curious figure out in France was "-ish", for close or approximate in any circumstance. Such as the sky is grey-ish today. I'll be over around 10-ish. There were like 30-ish people at the party
Australia here, we DEFINITELY use -ish
Interesting; we also do this sometimes sort of with -esque which comes right from French! I wonder if French speakers ever make up descriptors using -ois, -eaux, etc. for emphasis? Maybe not.
Very common in the UK. There's a famous joke about Sean Connery playing tennis at ten-ish
Meemaw
I wonder where this one comes from. My friend refers to her fathers parents as (and im spelling phonetically becuase i have no idea how it should be spelt):
Pawpaw
There's a word used in the hills of North Carolina, I've never seen it written, so I'm just gonna go for it: Sygogglin. Means crooked, bent, warped, out of shape or place. "You need to fix that fence, it's all sygogglin."
Hey, my Kentucky family has a word for this! “Whopper-jawed” (Thought it was whopperjod my whole life til my mom wrote it out in a text a couple months ago)
Sounds like it may come from the Scottish influence in that area, has a Gaelic sound to it
"Get the hell out of Dodge" I imagine is pretty American.
The various -asses
never heard “piece of ass” referred to as a sext/sexting. i’ve only ever heard of it as referring to a person/sexual partner.
Have a good one. (Meaning, have a good day)
I work retail and have realized “How’s it goin’?” And “Have a good one” sound almost the same, I often get a response from people entering and leaving the store for both.
I was visiting a friend in Peru recently and taught her this one. She thought it was hilarious. I now consciously think about how often I say it to mean bye (almost exclusively).
“I’m set” or “I’m all set” instead of “no, thank you”
"Welp" is a midwest classic. Slap your legs, stand up say "welp, better get goin'" then talk for another 30mins while inching closer to the door.
“What’s up?” seemed to confuse a Brit I worked with.
As a greeting? I can see that a little bit.
Sunshower. Pretty sure that's used mostly in the states. When the sun is out but it's still raining.
I’ve heard sunshower all my Gen x life in Australia
In the south when this happens we say “The devil’s beatin his wife”
Oh man I did a dialect test once and one of the options for 'what do you call that' was "the devil beating his wife." What in the actual fuck?!
My old mad dad says 'fuddyduddy'
In the UK that is someone unfashionable or out of touch, is it the same meaning?
Pickles? Apparently other countries call them gherkins
I’m from Canada, we call them pickles too. If I ever heard someone refer to one as a gherkin I’d be like wtf
Yep, a pickled cucumber is a gherkin over here and pickle means a kind of vegetable chutney.
Flip a bitch
I think non-Americans are taking aight and yo from us lol
I say ‘flip a dick’ or ‘hold onto your tits!’
as a northern brit we most definitely use whats good yo and aight in daily convo
Yall, and ain't
I watched a German movie (in German) where the main character (a German man) repeatedly said "what's good" (in English). The entire movie was just essentially a coming-of-age movie where the American character was a mockery until he grew up and learned to be like the Germans. It was, uh, interesting.
Gabagool, Capeesh, Chutzpah, Kvetching, The -ass suffix (eg, regular-ass, dumbass)
Deadass gabagool, mutzadehl, prozhut
Gabagool? Ova heeeere! 👈🏻
Is that East Coast talk? I’ve never heard anyone say that other than in movies and TV.
My husband (NY Italian) says gabagool.
Isn't Chutzpah yiddish?
Gabagool = Capicola?
Chutzpah and kvetching are Yiddish and said by Jews worldwide!
I think 'howdy' is very American. Am I wrong?
One of my favorites is “that dog don’t hunt.”
"NOW YOU CUT THAT FENCE AND GET THIS GODDAMNED PLATOON ON THE MOVE!"
A blog that I follow published an article in 2020 about a survey on English vocabulary. The words that had the biggest discrepancy in their familiarity were:
Aside from korma, I’ve never heard any of those British ones
Interesting, the American side seems to have a really heavy amount of loanwords: kwanzaa, kielbasa, tomatillo, provolone, luau (arguably), and a few others. Did the article provide anything on words with a more local origin?
Aussie here, I know biro, dodgem, kerbside, brolly, and judder.
Huh, I thought acetaminophen was just a generic drug name, but TIL it's our regional name: "paracetamol and acetaminophen are contractions of para-acetylaminophenol."
The only British slang words in the list that I recognize are dodgem (which I know thanks to Rollercoaster Tycoon) and kerbside (which is just a spelling difference.)
I’m sorry but you’re not going to convince me all of those British words aren’t fake
Half those American words aren't even English!
I was watching the British Baking Show and i had no idea that Brits call Eggplant ..Aubergine.
Lmao most of the "American" words are just foreign words we've popularized.
I only knew 'tombola'. Thanks to my misspent youth on Neopets.
The only one of the British ones that I understand is abseil, although I would have guessed it was spelled absail.
My favorite British word is "rubbish". We all know what it means but no one ever uses it. "Loo" is another one that is way up there.
Dear god, we really need to teach the British to speak English. They have lost their way.
Hahaha the British ones sound like an American was tasked with making up hilarious sounding British slang
"yeah, no" and "no, yeah"
Oh, yeah no for sure.
Yeah no definitely used in the UK. Sorry!
bro you just robbed Australia, every Aussie knows:
Wouldn't this make more sense in other, non-American Ask reddits?
How would we know of US idioms that we don’t use?
Right?
I hope OP does this. I’d love to see the answers in AskACanadian and AskUK.
Pretty much any slang that foreigners see on social media.
Aussie here, never used to say yall and now i do (only online though)
Naw they’re saying it,I mean just look at Reddit! 😂
Measuring things in schoolbuses/football fields
Anything to avoid the metric system.
Don’t forget the well respected washing machines and flamingo measurements.
Yinz
Jaggoff
One is all the distinctive AAVE that varies throughout all different states and cities that you won’t really find on social media like Twitter. Regional slang foreigners haven’t got a hold of yet 😂
Not to mention that we purge and refresh our slang every ten years or so. Mainstream just started using “Shade” and “Tea” when we’ve been saying it for almost 15-20 years.
Here in the inland northwest US, a common-ish one is "loaded for bear" and means overloaded, absolutely full, or in some contexts, overprepared but only if it also means overloaded or close to. Not everyone uses this idiom, but they all seem to know what it means.
Loaded for bear (at least in my understanding) means more like zealously prepared or ready for a big fight. “Oh he came out of that conversation loaded for bear” as in mad and ready to fight.
Fries instead of chips. Chips instead of crisps
This is a bit of confusion as in the UK fries are still fries, but it is specifically the thin french fries, like you get at McDonalds. The chips in fish & chips are fatter and squidgier things.
Big hat, no cattle.
I've heard this as "all hat, no cattle."
I've heard this as "all hat, no cattle" haha
Some Spanish-speaking countries say "all ring-ring and no popsicles", because there are street vendors who sell popsicles from little carts, and they walk around ringing a bell.
Mother fucker.
State name checks out.
"Crazier than a peach orchard boar."
Imma fixin' to.
Where I'm from, that's "Ah'm fixin' tuh"
fittin' ta
"Do NOT call me an ambulance"
Lmao you win
Granted, I was told this in the USA, but apparently the Spanish word for peach is harder to say than peach. I speak Spanish… no idea how to say peach. I was told this by a native speaker.
It's durazno in Spanish. It's not hard to say at all but it does have more syllables.
A whole lotta these phrases would be familiar to most Canadians
Generally speaking, when talking about American English, Canadians are included under that umbrella
“I don’t have a dog in this fight”
I cracked up some European coworkers the other day by saying my parents live in "bumblefuck nowhere".
Ope
Ope, just gonna squeeze right past ya here.
Originally from Missouri, now in NY, Ope is ingrained in me and I can’t stop saying it if I wanted to.
Lol. Originally from Southern IN and have no idea how I picked that up. We left for the west coast when I was 2.
Over yonder in the holler
Dipshit
We say dipstick in the UK
Y’all but it’s catching on too.
Doozy
tons of southern expressions haha
How's your mom and em
Fall instead of autumn. An American friend now resident of England (and now a British citizen) reports that his usage of fall seems to annoy his higher ups. But why? It’s poetic in calling to mind the dropping of leaves. It’s a good
Kittycorner. It means something is diagonal, or just not perfectly aligned.
Skuzzy
Ha! I grew up in Salt Lake City and it was common among young people there 30 years ago.
What’s the meaning because we used to call people that if it means what I think it means
This was in common usage in Idaho where and when I grew up, at least.
My mom (from SC) uses that word.
Jawn
Jit
insert name is dumber than a sack of hammers.
I've heard that as "Dumber than a bag of bricks".
About as sharp as a marble or about as sharp as a pile of wet leather
"Not the brightest bulb on God's Christmas tree" and "not the brightest or fastest star in the sky."
I'm pretty sure no other cultures say something is "wicked cool" or anything like that.
Armchair quarterback
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make 'em drink"
Sorry, a few of those are British 🇬🇧
"odds and ends," which should be, according to my British friend, "bits and bobs"
Odds and Sods 🇬🇧
I said “panties in a twist” to my british colleague while referring to a snippy client and he thought it was hilarious. The british saying isn’t much different (knickers in a bunch?)
Medical bills
I've seen an American type yallve, I think it means "you" or "you have"
It's a group description, as opposed to the singular 'you'. 'you all have'
Y'all've. Double contraction for "You all have."
Jesus H Christ in a chicken basket
Christ on a Bike in the UK.
"Well, slap my ass and call me a buttered biscuit!"
I've heard this as "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!".
youse guys
we say ‘youse’ in the UK as well but commonly with ‘lot’ at the end.
Using a football field as a form of measurement
Oh boy, as a new englander we have a few but “Wicked pissa” probably takes the cake.
Bless his/her heart has got to be unique to the us, specifically to the south
“Y’all.” In every country I’ve visited and said that the people there get wide eyed and say things like “You really say that?”
Certain double modals like "might could" are common in the American South and Midwest.
Deadass
If I am in the Northeast and have to drive to the middle of nowhere I might be going to bumblefuck. But when I lived in Florida, they knew this mysterious place as BFE, which is Bumfuck Egypt.
Does a cat have an ass, does a wild bear shit in the woods? That was my dad's favorite so I cross stitched it into a bookmark for him.