Why does...

[smilin]

I think it did a couple of months back (thats another thing I hate about Americans, they always say stuff like 'a couple months'),

...

I have been know to play the American stereotype in the past so perhaps you're right.

"A couple months" is proper English btw. You're saying a quantity (a couple) and a measurement (months).

When you say "a couple of months" then you're saying a quantity ("A" or a single unit) followed by a measurement (couple of months).

In other words you say 1x2 and we say 2x1.

Other similar phrases:
A few years
A few of years
Many months
Many of months


To put a serious answer to the OP though: Americans were born and raised knowing that the English use the Pound. You guys then joined the EU which uses the Euro. This made headlines.

The fact that the UK (and I think Denmark) skipped the Euro was a big deal for the respective countries and the EU. It was not a big deal outside the EU though and never really made headlines over here.

That left most Americans with the impression that you use the Euro.

Those of us that travel know otherwise. You have to also realize that traveling outside one's own country isn't as widespread in America as it is elsewhere. Most Americans will hit Canada, Mexico, and some Carribean nations (our equivalent of like Palma, Spain) for vacation. Most other travel requires going over the ponds and it's just not affordable.

 

[Acemaster]

Its dosh, nothing more nothing less

 

[Sammers]

I usually just call them Zedeclotides(Zed-eh-clo-tides). I made them up
HILARITY ENSUES

 

[trilance]

Where do we get this misinformation? The people around us. Our friends, family, music/math teachers, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines...all those things.

What do I call it? BBBBBBBBBBBBB and there's your money.

 

[mamoo]

1. "A couple months" is proper English btw.

2. In other words you say 1x2 and we say 2x1.

3. Other similar phrases:
A few years
A few of years
Many months
Many of months

1. No it isn't.

2. They're the same thing (just thought of another hated americanism, when they say 'math' instead of 'maths')

3. English is a complex language.

 

[-[SiN]-bswearer]

sigh......if i wanted to listen to a lecture over linguistics, i'd have signed up for ENG422 this semester which would actually not help out much as what's typically tought in American schools is Americanized English

anywho, most americans typically don't pay attention to world news unless it directly affects them, so of course many americans don't realize that the English still use the pound and not the euro. also i bet you if we polled our citizens as to what the Euro is, we'd be lucky to get 50% to correctly answer that it is a form of currency.

yes, i sometimes hate my country. i blame our educators and the media, who instead of properly educating our society, waste their time covering stories like this

btw, the microsoft word 2007 spelling and grammar tool recognizes "I think it did a couple months back" as a proper sentence. granted i would personally say "a couple of months back" i can accept sentences that leave out the word "of" as the sentence is still recognized as being "proper" .....just consider it a form of dialect. regardless, who really cares? did he not communicate his thought well enough for readers to understand it?

just call it DOSH

 

[Benjamin]

Usage note:
The phrase a couple of has been in standard use for centuries, especially with measurements of time and distance and in referring to amounts of money: They walked a couple of miles in silence. Repairs will probably cost a couple of hundred dollars. The phrase is used in all but the most formal speech and writing. The shortened phrase a couple, without of (The gas station is a couple miles from here), is an Americanism of recent development that occurs chiefly in informal speech or representations of speech. Without a following noun, the phrase is highly informal: Jack shouldn't drive. I think he's had a couple. (Here the noun drinks is omitted.)

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/couple

While we're on the subject of bad English, I hate the way some Americans use 'got' in place of 'have', considering they are different tenses. It's especially annoying when they say something like "I don't got", as if you replace the verb with another with the same meaning and the same tense, it can be something like "I don't obtained" which I'm sure even they can agree sounds just wrong.

One can only hope that in the distant future they will eventually learn to speak correct (ie. British) English.

 

[SocksFoHands]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/couple

While we're on the subject of bad English, I hate the way some Americans use 'got' in place of 'have', considering they are different tenses. It's especially annoying when they say something like "I don't got", as if you replace the verb with another with the same meaning and the same tense, it can be something like "I don't obtained" which I'm sure even they can agree sounds just wrong.

One can only hope that in the distant future they will eventually learn to speak correct (ie. British) English.

Oh god flame bait...


Why do you even care? You're French.

 

[Benjamin]

I think the words you are looking for are discourse and humour. I'm not trying to bait anyone.

 

[mamoo]

Can anyone remind me what this thread's about?

 

[smilin]

Can anyone remind me what this thread's about?

A bunch of limeys making incorrect assumptions and griping about yanks?

 

[Madhate969]

Oh god flame bait...


Why do you even care? You're French.

LOL!!!!

Ya'll are getting that annoyed about small gammer errors, I'm just glad noone is getting gansta on here.

 

[SocksFoHands]

A bunch of limeys making incorrect assumptions and griping about yanks?

Actually it started out with a yank making and incorrect assumption about limeys then a frog joined in.

 

[mamoo]

A bunch of limeys making incorrect assumptions and griping about yanks?

Thank God for that, I thought the whole discussion was pointless for a second there.

 

[-[SiN]-bswearer]

Actually it started out with a yank making and incorrect assumption about limeys then a frog joined in.

perhaps we should all just form the UN of KF so we'd each get personal translators...then we'd have (got muaaahahaa ) a way to translate broken Frenglish into Spanish, then to Spanglish, then to American and then finally to English so that the Brits can understand what is going on.

but what would the translator get paid in......dollars, euros, DOSH??? of course we could just create one global currency and end this language barrier, but that would be a sign of the coming apocolypse so, perhaps we should stay with our differences for a while.

 

[timur]

Oh please......

Oh please......

I do agree with the fact that, unfortunatley, many people in my country have no clue what country they are in now, might as well what other countries are doing. But, here's the catch: some of the citizens, like me and many others if this forum, are actually rather intelligent, or at least up to date with what is going on internationally. This is a big country, so don't judge ALL of us because some of our population is idiotic (of course, what this 'some' means in the end is up for debate). It's like saying that all people from England are arrogant, hateful, overly-refined chaps who are xenophobic. It's just not true.

This is officially a xenophobic thread.

 

[Madhate969]

Some? I would have to say most of us really are either stupid, or don't care what goes on outside of our area (city, state, country). Most don't really care what happens in washington, can't really expect them to care enough to know about Europe.

 

[SocksFoHands]

Some? I would have to say most of us really are either stupid, or don't care what goes on outside of our area (city, state, country). Most don't really care what happens in washington, can't really expect them to care enough to know about Europe.

I think that us probably an accurate assessment, I don't know how most Americans rate intelligence wise but I do know it's just not part of your culture to show much interest in the outside world. Most Americans don't even have a passport.

 

[Madhate969]

Most Americans don't even have a passport.

well, I wouldn't get much chance to use it. From where i'm at its 8-10 hours to drive to border, and up till a year or 2 ago, i didn't need a passport to cross just a state ID, and our other neighbor is at least 6 hours by air (not that I can afford a plane ticket) and don't need a passport for them either. So I can't afford to get to any place where I could use a passport cause i'll either have to cross a contry or an ocean. It takes 8 hours for me to get to the state on the far side of mine

 

[smilin]

I don't know how most Americans rate intelligence wise but I do know it's just not part of your culture to show much interest in the outside world. Most Americans don't even have a passport.

This seems to come as a shock to many Europeans. Few have passports but it is not an indication of level of interest in the outside world.

It's not so much a behavior of Americans as it is a reflection on America. The country is huge and has plenty of vacation and business destinations so there is rarely a reason to leave. We've got places where you can snow-ski in the morning then go swimming at the beach in the afternoon. Do do the same in the UK you'll need a passport.

Should you decide to leave America you've basically got Canada, Mexico, and the Carribean that you can travel to. Anything else is going to require a 6-10 hour flight which is too expensive for casual travel.