Following on from a couple of Team Grumpy/Grammar & Spelling Police comments I've made this evening, I felt it wise to start a fresh thread for my spleen venting.

An Americanism - should that be Americanizm? - that really annoys me (more than embiggen and envision, yes, really) is the word they use to indicate leaving a ship or aeroplane.

Now, in normal English, like what I was teached , when you get on a boat you embark, and when you get off you disembark. Apparently, Americans are prone to debark when they leave a boat, failing to spot the fact the only thing that barks is a dog.

Anyone else got classic examples of two cultures divided by a common language?

Aluminum or Aluminium? We say one, they say the other...... and it bugs me.

Fanny pack - not a selacious activity in Merkinland

Yeah, that's a good one. But why do we have platinum and not platinium? Or titanium and not titanum?

I'm going to stop there before I confuse myself.

There are several different terms used offshore.
We name things after what they do, eg "shut in valve".
The yanks (for some reason) name them after the company that made them , eg "TWI valve".

^^^ That irritates me a lot.

They use brand names for verbs e.g. xerox for photocopy etc

i suppose hoovering would be an americanism aswell?

People in my house are constantly reminded that it's a vacuum cleaner, not a Hoover (it's a Dyson).

Debark in my language means take the bark off a tree But then I live in the countryside where we do that. It's also the source of bark mulch of course.

Otherwise don't get me started. And why do so many 'UK' dictionaries in software still have American spellings in them?

Richard.

The debark thing reminds me of music, where the opposite to a crescendo is a diminuendo, but some people call it a decrescendo...

The Americans also seem to love acronyms, we have SMF, FMA, TOI, RMA, and others that I have forgotten...

One thing I learnt recently was that people aren't hung, they are hanged...Despite being taught one could use either, to be hanged just sounds awful...

Tabling an issue.

We table an issue and mean that we place it on the table for discussion, but in the good 'ol US of A they mean that they postpone discussing the issue. It's a real rib tickler at meetings.

Brit: "Let's table that issue."
Yank: "HELL NO! It's important."
Brit: "Yes, that's why we're tabling it".

English grins and American incomprehension all round. Exeunt omnes.

Sharks

One thing that really bugs me is when you install a program and it gives a language option, which is usually 'US English'. Fair enough, but there's rarely a 'British English' or anything else. Surely with a lack of alternatives, it's just 'English'?
(I've also seen many installers where US English is the only option. Why even have the option then? )

One thing that bugs me is the American-based past participle for some words ending in "m". "Dream" should go to "Dreamt", not "Dreamed", for example.

I got mental when I hear that for some reason.

Peter.

The French/Brazilians just swim not disembark

Herb..thers a bloody "H" at the star of the effing word!!!

Hmm. Well, okay then. Preserve ancient English dialects in aspic if you like. Or if you will.