Do they teach American language in Primary schools nowadays?

[Pat "5mph"]

And when did macaroni cheese become 'mac and cheese'?

I guess at the same time it ceased to be Pasticcio di Maccheroni

 

[Accy cyclist]

Zero for 0 when giving out phone, bank card numbers etc, period for full stop/end of sentence, guys for both male and female. I hate it when adults call children guys.

 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The main Americanism that grates on me is “I could care less” when they actually mean “I couldn’t care less”. The next most grating is “literally” for “figuratively”. Everything else is trivial IMHO.

 

[PaulSB]

Zero for 0 when giving out phone, bank card numbers etc, period for full stop/end of sentence, guys for both male and female. I hate it when adults call children guys.

Are you complaining about the use of zero? I use it, correctly, all the time. Zero is a number and not a letter.

 

[PaulSB]

We spent a month in California recently and on occasions people might have been speaking a different language. In some situations my wife and I both needed young people in particular to repeat themselves and even slow down their speech. More than once I noted a roll of the eyes and an exasperated expression.

 

[figbat]

Are you complaining about the use of zero? I use it, correctly, all the time. Zero is a number and not a letter.

Exactly this. Zero is easy to understand and totally unambiguous. None of my phone numbers contain the letter O.

 

[Illaveago]

I can't wait until next OED is published , that'll get you frothing

Cant trust them ! They don't even know what a dolly is !

 

[further]

Cant trust them ! They don't even know what a dolly is

It's for turning washing at the bottom of a dolly tub.

 

[Cathryn]

I was telling my grandson that the temperature was -1 this morning and he said: " You mean negative 1?" Where does that come from? I asked him why he said
negative 1 and he said this is what his teacher taught him. He is in year 5.
So, are there any primary school teachers on here to advise on why they teach the American way?
Personally, I will stick to the proper way and use minus for lower than 0 temperature.

I teach Y4 and no, we say minus 1, minus 2.

 

[PK99]

And when did macaroni cheese become 'mac and cheese'?

I made similar comments to my new Canadian son-in-law and was promptly educated by him and DD on the differences.

Mac and Cheese is much more interesting than the UK's nursery food macaroni Cheese of basic white sauce with cheese.

 

[ColinJ]

Exactly this. Zero is easy to understand and totally unambiguous. None of my phone numbers contain the letter O.

I bet they do - e.g. 01422... zerO One fOur twO twO...

 

[GuyBoden]

We watch a lot of USA films and TV programmes, the internet is dominated by USA language too, so eventually it was obviously going to filter into our British language.

Edit: I read a lot of USA books too.

 

[BoldonLad]

What about 'can I get' - illiterate yobs yobs corrupting the English language. There's no hope.

"can I lend", instead of "can I borrow" is a common one which irritates me, or, perhaps, it is just my daughter's usage as in "can I lend £20, dad".

I think it is a "local" usage, rather than national.

I seem to recall that, at school (1950s), we were regularly told ti use "may I", not "can I".

 

[gavroche]

I agree with you on this one. The " Can I lend " really irritates me too and I always correct it.
" Can you borrow me" is another one.

 

[rualexander]

We watch a lot of USA films and TV programmes, the internet is dominated by USA language too, so eventually it was obviously going to filter into our British language.

Edit: I read a lot of USA books too.

But we watched plenty of American films and TV programmes in the 60's and 70's too, but it didn't influence our language as much.