braindead

[frodsham]

Are any other people like me and hate the way we in the UK have adopted the american way of speaking. I mean I had never heard the phrase I "snuck" up on someone or that "snuck" in" Whatever happened to sneaked. Also why do the youth of today have to say "Oh my God" at nearly every sentence they utter. I honestly believe we have become a nation of braindead imbeciles. Except me of course.

[snewt]

innit ! ; )

[squarebear]

Indeed. Language is changing all the time.

I imagine many moons ago, a similar conversation along the lines of: "How come everyone says 'gosh'. Whatever happened to Gadzooks!"

[jake-the-peg]

Not only that but some American uses such as "gotten" are original uses that we've stopped using.

Why does it upset you so much?

Are you sure there's not just an itsy bitsy bit of snobbery going on here?

[spudqueen]

I know where frodsham is coming from. I have heard my teenage sons and their friends come out with 'Americanisms' and I have immediately asked them if they are American! I'm afraid it is all the American TV programmes (programs) and films (movies) that seem to be influencing people.
Though for a wonderful insight into the English language the Bill Bryson book 'Mother Tongue - The English Language' is well worth a read.

[Postdog]

Never heard of "snuck"? - that's hardly new as I was using it (and heard it) back in the 70's.

[China Doll]

OMG it's like so annoying, I am totally not happy about some of the latest americanisations, it's like so last week or something and I'm totally over it

[flip_flop]

I love "bite me" - I think that is a brilliant expression.

I much prefer the Oh My Gods and Whatevers from the Americans than the Innits and Das from Brit chavs.

[jonah hart]

I think snuck up on someone is a northern word cos iv said it for years,I live in the south now where a few years ago everyone said hiya,But up north we said aup to greet someone,But then when i visited family up north everyone was saying hiya,So i think new words do travel.

[puddicat]

I hate the way people use "at the end of the day" when they are talking piffle where did this come from!

[squarebear]

"Touch base" is one that annoys me and "We're having a workshop". A workshop?! Do I need to bring my hammer and saw?

[snow_storm]

people not pronouncing their t's like saying twenny instead of TWENTY!!!!!!!

[monkeyeyes]

LOL, China :o)

[ethandron]

y'all have a nice day!

[Rtaxron]

I hate it when people say '' Hi Hun '' or '' Bye Hun ''

Its said a lot on here : - )

[Tom Braider]

It's disappeared now, but a while ago everything was "random". I never did work out what that meant!

[carsonking]

puddicat
Thurs 15/05/08
11:53 I hate the way people use "at the end of the day" when they are talking piffle where did this come from!

'
''
Thank you, i am so glad there is someone else out there who cringes when they here that sentence, plus the bustards never finish there they carry on, i hate it even more than people who say 'seriously' at the end of your sentence, as if they are really smart, tw4ts, hate, them, hate them, hate them.

[beso]

No doubt some also complained when "digged" gave way to "dug" and "sangged was replace by "sung". Or when "cometh" was replaced by "came".

English is the vibrant incredibly expressive language it is because we adopted words and expressions from many other languages including Old German, French (from the Normans), Nordic (from the Vikings). We took the best words and grammatical structures. It screwed spelling but gave us a wonderful vocabulary.

Variants between words like sneaked and snuck come from the differences between the way the contributing languages used the past tense. I am not sure but think the "uck" type came from Nordic languages which is probably why it is more common in the North.

Words that were resurrected after being deprecated often returned with the past tense replaced by the short form. Read some old you literature and you will see many example of "ed" words that now use the short form.

If I am not mistaken Nordic also gave us possession by adding ('s) while Latin based languages stuck (or should that be that sticked?) with "the object of" structure. And the simplicity of English grammar was imported or we would still be using gender on inanimate objects and dozens different words for verb tenses.

In Australia "snuck " was already a common expression when I was a kid in the 1960s so don't think it is particularly attributable to American.