![[OC] Which Americanisms do Britons use?](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/1td5j9sj4ete1-1024x965.png "[OC] Which Americanisms do Britons use?")
While we in Britain might previously have expected to only hear Americanisms from tourists or on TV, they're increasingly being used by our youngest generation as well. 14% of British 18-24 year olds now go on 'vacation', 16% pronounce 'Z' as 'zee', and 37% sit on their 'ass'.
But it's not just younger Brits who are picking up Americanisms, with some now largely embedded in British English: 79% of all Britons would assume the word muffin meant a small sweet cake, 59% of us would feel horny rather than randy and most of us would say we're feeling good rather than feeling well.
I've only been able to post a few of the Americanisms that we asked about in the chart, but you can see the full 91 we asked about in the article: https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/51950-zed-or-zee-how-pervasive-are-americanisms-in-britons-use-of-english – I score 14/91, what about you?
Did we miss any Americanisms that bother you? Let us know and we might do an update in the next few weeks.
Tools: Datawrapper
Posted by YouGov_Dylan
30 Comments
Anyone who says ‘gotten’ in the UK needs a fucking slap.
I would argue that fairy cakes and cupcakes are different things, though you don’t see fairy cakes much these days.
I use pharmacy, Skeduke, neether, the past participle of get, Ass and truck and well we can’t see the last line.
Did you know Randy comes from Hindi?
Truck and Lorry don’t really mean the same thing.
Not sure Fairy Cake was every a thing here.
Its interesting with some of the pronunciation ones, its hard to tell which one is which as we are so familiar with both. American and British English mutually exist and language is always evolving and changing, so these kind of things are always a simplification.
Pharmacist reflects more a shift in the profession. Back in the day a Chemist sold chemicals, which might have pharmaceutical purposes but many had other uses. But a modern Pharmacy (staffed by a Pharmacist) merely dispenses pre-packaged medicines made by chemists in big factories, and give you funny looks when you try and buy plain chemicals. I (a proper chemist) see the use of the word for he-who-dispenses-prescriptions as an anachronism.
I’m an American and I pronounce “neither” both ways.
Pretty sure that pronunciation of neither and either isn’t an Americanism but regional variation within both countries (Fred Astaire ‘Let’s call the whole thing off’ literally has this in the lyrics for American English).
The other thing to note is that as people age, the choice of vocabulary can change. You can see this in Canada, where the majority of children say “Zee” rather than “Zed”, with this reversing in adults. This trend has stayed consistent over the last few decades, indicating that people are switching to the non-American “zed” as they get older and want to emphasise their Canadian identity. I suspect this could start happening in the UK too.
This is interesting. I think a lot of it has to do with global communication. With Reddit and a lot of other social media being so American-dominated in terms of usership, I suppose it makes sense that this happens. Eventually, people adopt the habits of those they’re surrounded with.
It looks like the people using Americanisms skew overwhelmingly younger, which would be consistent with this being a social media thing.
I’m sure the road goes both ways.
Social media and online communication speak with an overwhelmingly American accent. Makes sense why the youngest would have switched, they’ve been immersed in those worlds for their entire life.
An interesting other element might be Brits who use extremely American terms like “folks” and “y’all”. Seriously, some of us can sound 100% Surrey when speaking out loud, only to turn into Billy Ray Cyrus the moment we start texting.
I’m upset that 64% of any age group would use pissed to mean angry over drunk wtf
Since when is train station an Americanism?
‘Randy’ is the sort of shit people outside of porn stopped saying in the 70’s.
Also, ‘pissed off’ would like to have a word.
Funny, Geoffrey never orders dictatorship from his politicians at home. What’s in this American Koolaid?
What’s the status on that aluminium router?
Too much Sesame Street.
And since when do Americans say Pharmacy? It’s Drug Store.
If I’m not around friends or family, I say bathroom instead of toilet. Really don’t care if it annoys anyone, I’ve just never liked announcing to strangers that I need to take a piss/shit so bathroom is more neutral.
Could be I’m washing my hands, grabbing a tissue, checking my face in the mirror or whatever
I was going to say “lol, we really are controlling their speech so much” !
Then I remembered the name of the language I speak….
Totally disagree that ‘sked-ule’ is American and ‘shed-ule’ is British. Pretty much everyone I know uses the former, you don’t send your children to primary shool do you?
I’ve heard more and more Brits using the typical American prounciations of words such as migraine, lichen, privacy, glacier, vitamin, patriot, and geyser.
This makes me want to vomit
“gotten better” can die a million deaths – It’s vile!
Americanisms are affecting Brits a lot but I’m not sure these are the best examples..
don’t you dare over take arse
I thought most people use pissed for angry and drunk
I’m from New Zealand (which also traditionally uses British English), in my 30s, and the *only* one of these where I use the British one is “holiday”. Never even heard of “fairy cake”.
I’m surprised that 43% of 18-24 year olds would even have heard of draughts, let alone have a preference of what to call it.
I love this stuff; thanks for your visualization. I think dialects and language change are inherently interesting. And I love how language is beyond anyone’s control — politicians may claim otherwise, and grammar teachers may lament, but language is going to do what language is going to do.
The entire concept of gen Z (and all these other generations) is American and is not designed to fit with other societies.
I honestly thought that “shedule” was the American pronunciation. Everyone in the UK says “skedule”.
What about poop vs poo? *Both* are fucking infantile imho, but when I see poop in a UK sub, I lose my… shit.
I’d say that “train station” can no longer be called an Americanism when the majority of those over 65, and nearly half of those over 65, use it.
Edit: Same goes for horny, except for the oldsters.
someone pls explain checkers/draughts