Things you don't understand about English--Let's Talk!

[sushy00]

I find the term "African American" confusing. It seems to mean black American, but not all black people are from Africa (and there are also other ethnicities in Africa).

[darthmongoose]

I find the term "African American" confusing. It seems to mean black American, but not all black people are from Africa (and there are also other ethnicities in Africa).

It gets very silly when people ask how many "African Americans" we have living in the UK, because it's like "um... not many. We have plenty of Black British, Jamaican and African people though!"

[NickRowler]

And in general English you can watch a clip of a movie!

This term comes from an old technique of film where they literally had to cut the film strip (or clip in this case). Even tho technology has changed, we still use the term.

This is also where the term “left on the cutting room floor” came from. Because rejected clips would sometimes be thrown on the ground.

[simonitropunk]

When Colonel is pronounced as Kernel!!!!

How the hell does this work???

The short name for Richard is Dick.

[rajillustration]

I find the term "African American" confusing. It seems to mean black American, but not all black people are from Africa (and there are also other ethnicities in Africa).

Little history lesson, but the reason why the term exists is because if you're African in America, and your descendants are from hundreds of years ago in the States, you don't actually know where you're from if your descendants were slaves and there is no way to find out since the records are incomplete (many of the record buildings in the South were burnt down during the Civil War which makes family history incredibly difficult). Nowadays if you're a more recent immigrant, people tend to use the country that they're from and say they're Egyptian or Nigerian or wherever (although you can still use the term African American if you want to). If you're a non-African ethnicity from Africa, you wouldn't use the term African American because you just don't have the same family history.

[kitschensyngk]

Bough.
Cough.
Bought.
Enough.
Thorough
Through.
Hiccough.

Explain that to me.

[Wocalich]

Hiccough? It's the first time I've heard that word
Edit: I thought it was spelled hiccup

[kitschensyngk]

"Hiccough" is the British spelling.

The same country that gave you "centre", "colour", "aluminium" and "lieutenant" pronounced "LEF-tenant."

I watch a lot of British television, and their form of the language has never ceased to fascinate me.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Then there's English weirdness you'll often see that is probably from mishearing or from voice-to-text screwups. Prime examples are:
"Should have" contraction "should've" being written "should of".
Same for "Could have", "would have", etc.

[Black_Conscious]

Same that is confusing

whenever they name people in America most of the time they go by of looks and categorize you

Just the whole calling people White and Black it gets confusing

You could even go back to when people used the "one drop" rule where if you have a drop of black ancestry then you are considered black.
So these labels it is difficult to understand

the whole thing is strange tbh
(I'm mix myself and I don't know what to call myself most of the time)

[bakasama25]

I'd blame the William the Conqueror of the Normans for that. They Latinized Old English with their Old French words.

[Black_Conscious]

Same
never heard of that word but only hiccup
, but it seems to be real I guess

[Neverseen]

Olives can be brown too. Kalamata

[Wocalich]

There are just so many colors...I wish they used something with fewer color variants, tbh.

[thecrystalrook]

The whole language.

"Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence. Need I say more?

[Black_Conscious]

Just the whole calling people White and Black it gets confusing

Heres a video

[Kiweevil]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[WhiskeyMadDog]

If we just borrowed accents from the French, I think English would be a lot easier.

Like the words live and live and spelled the same, but are pronounced differently, and mean different things.

[crowstories]

"Biweekly" means twice a week, but also every other week.

Clearly this word doesn't know what it's about.

[Black_Conscious]

When the t sounds like a d in some words

or the th-e sounding

sometimes :'A" sounds like o, uo