Americans are chuffed as chips at British English
Why doesn’t the affection run both ways?
British intellectuals enjoy bewailing the influx of Americanisms into the language of the mother country. The BBC once asked British readers to send in the Americanisms that annoyed them most and was flooded with thousands of entries, including “24/7”, “deplane” and “touch base”. Matthew Engel, a writer who had kicked off the conversation with an article on unwanted Americanisms, even turned the idea into a book, “That’s the Way It Crumbles”, in 2017.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “What’s your ⇔cup of tea?”
Culture October 12th 2024
- How humans invented good and evil, and may reinvent both
- How complicated is brain surgery actually?
- Why you should read Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
- Boris Johnson shows how not to write a political memoir
- Americans are chuffed as chips at British English
- Is TV’s next sure-fire hit, “Disclaimer”, a must-watch or a dud?
From the October 12th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
In the second world war, some diplomacy was done between the sheets
Pamela Churchill Harriman, daughter-in-law of the prime minister, ran an effective charm offensive
Why the world is so animated about anime
Japan’s cartoons have conquered its screens, and more
How a second nuclear disaster was avoided at Chernobyl in 2022
The Russian occupation underscored the risks posed by nuclear sites in wartime
Han Kang wins the Nobel prize in literature for 2024
The South Korean author offers another example of the country’s cultural clout
How complicated is brain surgery actually?
A doctor reveals the myths and realities of his profession
Why you should read Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
The Senegalese novelist is one of the boldest writers working today