Why American English is Highly Misunderstood

After spending the last year discussing British and American word origins on my YouTube Shorts, it's time to come clean: American English is highly misunderstood. Watch the video to find out why.

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[GaryBirdmin]

To quote my grandmother "The British pronounce words 'properly'. The Americans pronounce words 'correctly'."

[richardkev]

I was once ridiculed in a bar for saying “Peter” in all its rotic glory. One of the the British lads said, “I can’t believe you pronounce it He then added “What gives you the idear it sounds acceptable?”

I answered, “I reckon I prefer to keep my ‘R’s where they are instead of donating them to words that don’t have any, like

[MellowYellowCJ]

My dad talks about meeting a man in the Virginia mountains when he immigrated to the USA from England in the 60’s. He assumed the man was also from England. The whole mountain town had a British accent.

[sunflowervibes]

The retort given for Thomas Jefferson's word "belittle" actually serves as the very definition

[raziel]

In line with the whole "America changing things based on the word's origin" I had a British friend who would try to call me out on the American spellings of things like color, armor, and other words that the Brits add a U into. I knew it was a word originating from Latin and that Latin didn't use the U. So I got to researching why the Brits add it, I found it was part of the French rule of England in the 1300s where they mixed a lot of French into English as it was used in royal court and other official settings. When America went independent Noah Webster took on a life long mission of making the American Dictionary to standardize language within the new nation and part of that was reverting some words back to their origins. The next time after I learned this that my friend tried to mess with me telling me I was spelling words wrong I informed him that in fact he was the one spelling things "wrong" and when I told him he was using French spellings he had a mini meltdown (he hated the French.)

[claytonmiller]

To know that 'belittle' is an American word makes me appreciate 'embiggen' all that much more

[glenmale]

You can never, ever disown soccer. You invented the word and you own it.

[empicek]

Since English doesn’t use accent marks to the extent that some European languages do; as a result certain English words are spelled the same, but are pronounced differently depending on their usage.
EXAMPLES:
LIVE-
I live in this house.
NBC is doing a live broadcasting of the show.
CONTENT-
Have you seen the contents of this box?
Are you content with your new puppy?
WOUND-
I wound up the old clock yesterday.
I have a wound on my leg.
WIND-
The wind is blowing hard.
I’ll wind up that toy for you.
PRESENT-
Thank you for the present.
I will present the gift to him.
MINUTE-
Now wait just a minute.
That matter is a minute issue.
POLISH-
Did you polish his knob?
That guy is Polish.
PROJECT-
My science project won first place.
I can’t find the film screen so we’ll have to project the movie on the wall.

[teresabillings]

I don’t know if it holds true today but I was taught that English was a living, breathing language that adapts easily. We were taught to be proud of our common language.

[Anna-B]

Sometimes British people in YouTube comments (usually not these comments) will act as though current Americans are the ones that changed the language. And I’m always like, I learned to talk like this as a baby, just like you did

[GraceTruth]

6:20 love the British bicycle helmet labeled "nutcase!"

[apblolol]

I made this argument against a highschool english teacher who would pronounce the H in herbalism, he cited the oxford dictionary and i countered with its french origin and the merriam websters dictionary. Each of the seperate dictionaries have different pronunciations of the word and its one of the many interesting points on how communication has canged.

[petertrudelljr]

Bless James D Nicoll for his oft mangled quote. “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

[uncralph]

Love the saying attributed to Sir Winston Churchill " Britain and the US, two countries separated by a common language"

[Jeannie-Coffey]

Remember, the chemist who first named the element Aluminum originally called it Alumium, but then later settled on Aluminum. It was a completely different person who decided to call it Aluminium. The Americanism of calling the 13th element 'aluminum' that many Brits lambast, was started by a British man. The first to name the element even.

[diane]

I loved your video on Mourning Doves. Thanks, it was fun. 😊

[altortugas]

My favorite explanation of dialects and regional accents:

Rose Tyler: “If you are an alien how come you sound like you're from the North?”

The Doctor: “Lots of planets have a North!”

Still, so many Brits just won’t come off it.

[jeffdege]

I've sat through international business meetings with Brits, Americans, Germans, Japanese, Thais, etc. We all spoke English, because it was the only language we all shared.
And we all understood each other, except the Brits and Yanks, who sometimes descended into idiomatic language that confused the rest. The odd thing was that the Brits and Yanks generally understood each other's idioms, even when they were different.

E.g., Americans could figure out "Bob's your uncle" and Brits "screwed the pooch", but hardly anyone else could.

[markpeavy]

All of your videos are fascinating. This one in particular. Would love to see more on your observations and research on the South vs. England. And I can hear many varieties of British accents as well.

[nohabloemojislosiento]

People always hear old English writings and say “wow, everyone back then spoke so eloquently.” But 1) it was quite a privilege to know how to read and write, and 2) in my opinion, how we write today being less formal is more indicative of the language developing and becoming more accessible, not that we are somehow stupider these days. The gap between the highly learned and the common person is much slimmer now, which is clearly not a bad thing.