Thread: Illogical American expressions?

I did a search and found this in Wikipedia:

In Royal Naval tradition—and other English-speaking navies outside the United States—a reduced pronunciation /ləˈtɛnənt/ ( listen) is used. This is not recognised as current by recent editions of the OED (although the RN pronunciation was included in editions of OED up until the 1970s).

I'm told that looking at Naval expressions for extended periods can make a Buddhist out of you.

Another one that irked me (and yes, I'm American) is the way we/they pronounce "jewelry' as "joolery". 🤔

Why some Americans persist with the MM/DD/YYYY thing, in spite of the problems it causes and the rest of the wold refusing to follow suit has got me stuffed. It isn't even a logical progression.
Calling a 10th Anniversary a 10 year Anniversary is just plain infantile and it's creeping in here as well.

It's not all their fault though. There was a period in the 80s and 90s when Teachers here, considered gramma an option.

Not an expression or pronunciation , but always amused by the weather reports. Seems that all weather patterns end at the borders where Asian or European reports cover the continent?

Originally Posted by cuppabillytea

Why some Americans persist with the MM/DD/YYYY thing, in spite of the problems it causes and the rest of the wold refusing to follow suit has got me stuffed. It isn't even a logical progression.
Calling a 10th Anniversary a 10 year Anniversary is just plain infantile and it's creeping in here as well.

It's not all their fault though. There was a period in the 80s and 90s when Teachers here, considered gramma an option.

My teaching was , August 25 2017 , thereby not to be confused by different systems of using just numbers to define the date. This is something I will not change.

Hi,
From My Fair Lady....

The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely
disappears.
Well, in America, they haven't used it for years!

Cheers

Originally Posted by Railey

Another one that irked me (and yes, I'm American) is the way we/they pronounce "jewelry' as "joolery". 🤔

And you spell it differently to us, too - "jewellery" in British English.