4 Ways American English is Pretty Weird | PART 2 

Need new frames like me? Click the links below & receive crazy offers for 24hrs only👇🏽 Revel Pit Stop in Red: glassesusa.me/LostinthePond_RevelPitStop Other pairs featured 👇🏽 Revel Drift in Blue: glassesusa.me/LostinthePond_RevelDrift Muse Nova: glassesusa.me/LostinthePond_MuseNova Revel Sullivan in Red: glassesusa.me/LostinthePond_RevelSullivan Check out over thousands of styles at GlassesUSA.com 👇🏽 Eyeglasses: glassesusa.me/LostinthePond_Eyeglasses Sunglasses: glassesusa.me/LostinthePond_Sunglasses

"The buck stops here" alludes to the saying "passing the buck" ie. handing off responsibility for making onerous decisions.

My favorite acronym is FUBAR: f---ed up beyond all recognition

The US is legitimately obsessed with acronyms. Especially the military. If you need more than three words to describe a thing in the military, it gets an acronym.

A bit of information I learned while studying dentistry is that those anatomical folds we feel as little bumps and valleys in our palate right behind our front teeth (rugae) are what your tongue uses to form certain letters and sounds. They serve as markers for tongue placement. Think about the word attachment and pay attention to the different places your tongue touches when forming the word and how the tongue actually curves or lifts to create those sounds. When people get dental appliances such as retainers or dentures, they often have difficulty speaking until they train their tongue to make those sounds without the ability to use the rugae. Rugae are like fingerprints and are different on each person. So there is your lesson for today, Lawrence. I hope you find it interesting.

An unusual bit of trivia about Martin van Buren: He is the only US President for whom English was NOT his first language. His first language was Dutch.

The "ooh" sound is not used in "boogie-woogie." It always sounds funny to hear Brits pronounce it that way.

lol I was just mentioning this but. I'm from the south in the US and I once told someone up north. "I was fixing to go to the store" They couldn't understand what I was fixing or what was broken. When it just means I am about to go to the store down here in the south.

"Normalcy" existed before that, but it was exclusively a mathematical term describing figures at right angles to each other.

my favorite anacronym is captcha. it originally stood for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.

And the British word for a cars rear trunk, the BOOT. We in the US call it a TRUNK because early on stage coaches has trunks strapped on top and also on the back, but then very early cars in the US would have steamer trunks strapped on the back for storage - so when cars developed a rear storage compartment with a lid we called it a TRUNK.

When I was in the US Air Force (1978-1982), we pronounced almost every acronym. For instance, in Korea we had the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, AFRTS - A-farts.

bro your wife has an excellent advert voice ngl

A good example of s backing in British English is when you guys pronounce assume as "ashume" which I've noticed a lot with Brits and Aussies.

You know, as an american.. your exploration of our culture has taught me mour about being an american and our language, history, and culture than you realize.

AWOL is actually an acronym for Away Without OFFICIAL Leave. It's been incorrectly passed down for years. I learned this from my teacher in 8th grade. She pointed out that 'without' is one word, which of course it is, and people just got lazy with it over the years. This was over 40 years ago and she was fairly old then so I've no reason to doubt her.

I really appreciate your content. When my ESL students start to quibble about British English being superior to American English, I send them links to your videos and remind them that English has many dialects and none are superior.

Pronouncing "st" as "Sht" is also something done in German. It may be from our heavy German immigration before the 20th Century.

You have me constantly thinking about how I say words now....and saying them over and over again until they no longer register as real words in my brain.

Good heavens! The Mrs. has an amazing voice and she is great fun to listen to. Please don't waste such boundless magnificence on cheesy sponsor ads. She has so much more to offer the channel.

i cannot stress enough, how Laurance is both a British AND US cultural Treasure.. i know how tight the path you walk, to make your point, WITHOUT upsetting political and cultural vultures on both sides of the "the Pond" is. I applaud you sir. Cheers Mate! Glad to have you in the US Glad youre proud of being British as well!

1) I'm heard from people who've travelled the world that the one English word it seems everybody knows is "okay." 2) I read somewhere about an older teacher who was heartbroken that her students considered her a "goat," until she learned it's no longer a bad thing. 3) Here in New England, people do not say "shtrong," in my experience.

It was nice to see Tarah in this video! "Snickerdoodle" is another -oo- word. The Joy of Cooking says it's a corruption of the German word "Schneckennudel." The meaning of "goat" is almost opposite to what it used to be. It was a shortened form of "scapegoat," and was used in sports to mean someone whose critical mistake led to a loss.

Born and raised in Texas… never knew I was pronouncing my S any way other than what I’d call “normal”. But now that you point it out, everyone I know in my local social circles pronounce str as shtr, and when they don’t, we are abundantly aware that they’re from up north… and we charge them extra for everything…

Lawrence: *Makes video. Devotes the first two-and-a-half minutes to self-promotion and commercialism.* Me: He has fully acclimated to the American way. I'm so proud of him.

My father taught speech in our community college system here in Massachusetts for 40 years. My speech, and the speech of my two brothers was constantly corrected. Hence, although I grew up near Boston, no trace of a Boston accent exists in my family. Fascinating right? LOL perhaps not. Enjoyed the video.

In the midwest an R has been introduced in some words; most famously "warsh" for wash.

I live in the Southern Appalachians where some people say 'Schtrong' and any time I hear somebody speak with intrusive letters it always gives me a giggle (another common one in the area is 'Warsh' for 'Wash', though that one is mostly among the older generation now). I have a lot of friends from Britain and Australia, and after hearing 'Chiner' (instead of 'China') for the hundredth time I can tell you that it's not exclusive to the U.S. (Boston does it too, I should note). I don't believe I have any intrusive letters in any of my pronunciations, BUT in some words I'll change letters, often exchanging in a 'K' for words that end in 'G'. For example, I would say 'Stronk' (I thought the video was going to be on that, actually, based on the thumbnail!) as well as 'Thinkink' 'Waitink', etc... And my online friends often rib me on it. I like your new glasses, by the way, they complement your face.

The mention of "I am shook" reminded me of the way my older Irish relatives speak. When something upsets a great aunt to a certain extent she'll go on "OOOH I AM SHOOK! THAT HE WOULD DO SUCH A DREADFUL THING! He was always so sweet." or some variation thereof. Or they might refer to a friend who's getting on a bit and say "Aw, she's lookin' awful shook, so she is."

OOH, Laurence! You forgot to mention how the OO sound has deviated into two distinctive pronunciations: the longer sound as in "spook", "raccoon" and "boondoggle", and a sound that leans more towards the "schwa" sound, as in "look", "book" and "nook."

My dad's favorites: "SWAG" & "FUBAR" Scientific wild-ass guess. F'd up beyond all recognition. 😂

As an American, i adore these types of videos, but absolutely fear the comments section. The creative ways strangers find to hate each other really tends to ruin every great joke.

@3:55 - They're gonna romp and tromp 'till midnite They're gonna fuss and fight 'till daylight We're gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long - Willy Dixon

Ooh, Lawrence! I didn't even realize I pronounced the "sh" till I saw this video in my feed and now I can't unhear it.

Lawrence is probably the only product promoter that I bother to watch. He's a gem.

"O.K." originated in Boston in the 1830s as a slang term for "all correct". At the time, it was a fad to abbreviate misspellings. So "O.K." stood for "oll korrect". Vox did a great piece on it.

You covered SNAFU, but skipped the follow-up: BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. 😂

Mrs. Laurence - LOVE your new glasses! Cat-eye is always a great choice!

6:53 you are actually correct. Franklin D. Roosevelt originated the "only thing to fear" quote and NOT JFK

As a scholar with a background in phonetics, I'm happy that Lawrence is giving us this lesson in place assimilation from articulatory phonetics. P.S. I'm also a [sh]trong pronouncer!

Lawrence: “America is responsible for most of the OOs” Australia: “Hold my stubby”

Hurtling ever closer towards your eventual collaboration with Geoff Lindsey

The song “Meet me in St. Louis, Louis” has several oo-ey moments: hoochy-coochy, tootsie-wootsie, and, of course, Louis, Louis properly pronounced.😉 Oo is forever!

President Teddy Roosevelt used the term "bully pulpit". Bully at the time meant great.

Great video Lawrence! The production quality is the best so far! Keep it up 👍

9:18 Another one from the Navy is sonar - which originally stood for SOund Navigation And Ranging, but now is just... the noun "sonar".

My friend if you havent seen Gallager's word play comedy bit, you're missing humor gold

OHIO was an acronym for "over the hill in October." It lasted only for the few months before America joined World War 2. The US army, knowing it would join the war, was training its recruits very hard during the summer of 1941. The young enlisted men weren't happy the hard work. Graffiti of OHIO began appearing and the officer corp were afraid of mass desertion (over the hill) in October. The bombing of Pearl Harbor ended this. The OHIO acronym, though very popular, lasted only a few months.

Still one of ,if not the, most entertaining and informative channels on RU-vid! Tanx Larry

What gets me is a lot of people in the UK pronounce th as F. Three=Free, Third=Fird, Thought=Fought

LMBO I have never realized I say "shtrength" and now I can't unhear it. Thanks! 😂

I read medical records all day for work. My favorite acronym is FOOSH - fall on outstretched hands.

Very cool! Thanks for the awesome video, Lawrence and Tarah.

I love these language videos! Between Laurence and Dr Geoff Lindsey, I'm learning a lot of things about my own language that I had no idea about!

Love Tara's cat eye glasses frames 👍

Good to know MY anglomania is still alive and well and I feed it with this channel 🙂

My favorite acronym is from the show Futurama. *ACRONYM: A Criminal Regiment Of Nasty Young Men*

Owl loo men yum: a metal Shed jewel: event plan Pay tent: protect intellectual property Gare radj: fix your car

OMG--- I use the s-backing. Lived in the Midwest most of my life. Jumpin' Joeshaphats.

BRILLIANT work, Laurence & wife!

Love the videos.Keep up the good work my friend.

I greatly enjoy your work, sir, and have done for no small time now. I am delighted by the manner in which you seem to fear or be concerned about the last word or two of half your sentences. Cracks me up, best RU-vid vocal affectation ever.

Hearing Lawrence say Gen Z slang is so satisfying

Great production value and very humourous!

Petition to henceforth call Benjamin Franklin "The America's Grandfather"

The way Hermione Gingold pronounced strength in "Bell, Book and Candle" has stayed with me all of these years. "Drink it before it loses its strength!" Boonie Stomping was a time honored pastime when I lived on Guam.

Harding also gave us "bloviate"

Sean Connery saying mish-isle in the hunt for Red October vs Americans saying mistle. English is just so good at adopting other words and accents.

Fascinating, worth every second. Watched to the end.

Great episode, really enjoyed it

I love Kafka! And, Tarah's new glasses are wonderful. Yours are OK, too, Laurence (see what I did there?). Love you kids! From an old lady in SoCal.

8:53 Love how, if you stare at the word RADAR, it turns green after the video moves to the next picture. Fun optical/brain thing. 😊

Never knew I needed a youtube channel that reveled in etymology! Thanks!

When is somebody going to address Brits not pronouncing t when it's in the middle of a word? Butter, water, better, writer. What happened to make people quit pronouncing t, when it occurs in the middle of a word?

Ben Franklin did not coin the term 'Harmonica'. Ben Franklin completed his glass 'Armonica' in 1761, which was an instrument of concentric glass half spheres rotated in water and played similarly like wetted wine glasses.

My favourite American pronunciation of any word ending with "shire' Worcestershire, Lancashire, Yorkshire etc 😂😂

Loved this one!!❤

One of my friends made FORD an acronym. I once own a Ford car that turned out to be a lemon: FORD: Fix or repair daily

I totally do the “shtr” pronunciation and never knew it until now. Thanks for the coming years of self-doubt! 😂

Nice job...polished.

Thank you and your wife Tara for putting Soo much effort into this video. It must take days of research to find all of these facts. And it must take days to decide what to use in the video; then there’s filming and editing that. 😮 I’m exhausted just thinking about how much effort is required to make these incredible videos. Thank you for being…. who you are. I Love this channel.

reminds me of the youngest Gibb brother song lyric..."like some puppet on a shtring..."

Video idea: How Americans are so much more direct in communications. e.g. I have worked with and also had family members in England that I have communicated with. The opening conversation is always about how are you, what is the weather like and other time consuming trivia. All I want to do, as an American, is to get to the business at hand. I'm sure they think I am rude.

Dear Lawrence, have you considered that since German regularly pronounces st as sht as in strasse, and as there are more people of German heritage than British in the US, it might be carryover from the immigrant language. This is also why the inhabitants of the NYC area are known for pronouncing th as d, as in dis, dat, dese and dose. English is one of the small number of languages that produces th, and two ð and θ.

Thomas Jefferson, a noted Francophile, calling other people Anglomaniacs is hilarious.

The 'harmonica' invented and named by Ben Franklin was a completely different musical instrument from the one also known as the mouth organ. It's generally called the 'glass harmonica' today because it consists of a series of tuned glass bowls attached to a spindle, and is played by rotating the spindle with a foot pedal and touching the glass bowls with your fingers. It makes a very strange, ethereal sound. It wasn't popular for very long, but there have been some attempts to revive it and you can watch and hear people playing it if you google 'glass harmonica'.

Where are you at? I've never heard strength pronounced that way

Love seeing Tara in your videos! ❤

another brilliant video , good job

Don't forget my fav, FLEA market (Found, Lost ,Earned or Aquired) We did a unit in college about 42 😮 years ago and learned many of the acronyms you showed us today. Still love learning them!! ❤❤❤

TASER is the weirdest acronym I can think of; since it's not only an obscure reference to a book most people haven't read or heard of, and secondly, it's got a bit of fan-fiction in its acronym by giving the main character of that story, a middle initial that didn't exist but was added to force an acronym. Thomas A (Where did this come from?) Swift's Electric Rifle.

I'm in my 20s living in the American Midwest and am only just now learning that I say "shtrong." I didn't need this on my Friday. Thanks for ruining my life, keep it up. 5/5

Normalcy is also used in a movie acronym. The 1987 film Dragnet features the group P.A.G.A.N., whose name stood for People Against Goodness and Normalcy.

I prefer fubar over snafu.

Why brits pronounce schedule that way? How do brits pronounce school?

This was a very educational video, both the video itself and the comments!

Nice to see another language lover with good taste in women. Well done sir

My submission for the next episode of this is the anacronym FUBAR (fu*ked up beyond all reason).

I adore English history! Especially the ancient pronunciation of many towns , names and cities like “Beauchamp”( said as “beach- ham) etc and many others! I adore language!

Excellent as always!👍🏿💙💙💙🥰✌🏻