
American Phrase Book - troydavis
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~guy/american/
======
9nGQluzmnq3M
Yup. One of the great mysteries of the world is how Americans think they are
so straightforward and direct and honest... and then they ask a German if
their butt looks big in these pants, and burst into tears on hearing the
answer.

On a mildly more serious note, I remember well my first ever serious business
meeting in the US, where we pitched a potential joint venture to another
company. 30 minutes of mutual praise about the awesome potential of the idea
and positive affirmations of how we're totally going to do this ensued... and
immediately after we left, my (American) business partner dropped the smile,
said "welp, that went badly" and stated that there was no way in hell they'd
proceed. Which proved to be the case.

~~~
keiferski
This is something of a misunderstanding of American culture. It's far more
complex than can be summarized in a HN comment, but it's more accurate to say
that American culture prides itself on accessibility, egalitarianism, and a
"lack of barriers" more than directness, defined as pure unfiltered honesty,
per se.

A good example to illustrate this phenomenon: in most American cities, it is
considered fairly normal, even expected, to talk to strangers on the bus, in
the street, in line at the grocery store. There is no mental "barrier" to
overcome in the public sphere. However, one is typically expected to be polite
and not overly direct while interacting with strangers.

The same activity, contrarily, is borderline verboten in German culture. The
typical German will rarely engage in spontaneous conversation with a stranger,
even if he/she would be extremely direct (in American terms) if such a
conversation were to occur.

~~~
yati
This resonates with my recent experience. I'm Indian, but I live in Europe,
and during a recent trip to the US, I was amazed by how easy going the people
were. I was able to have nice conversations with random locals. From a nice
uncle spontaneously telling us about the history of Santa Cruz to a stranger
helping us park the car properly in SF, to jolly waiters in restaurants, it
all felt very human. I find it quite hard to make small talk in European
cities. I used to think it's the language barrier, but I realize now that it
might be more than that.

~~~
blaser-waffle
Plenty of US cities aren't like that. You're going to get a wayyy different
response talking to random people on the NYC public transit than in SF.
Seattle has the infamous "Freeze", and DC has that government contractor
omerta thing going on.

Santa Cruz is a whole 'nother creature too.

~~~
Breza
I'm a government contractor in DC and I'm thankful to you for teaching me the
word "omerta."

~~~
eru
Would you please explain? Thanks!

------
toomanybeersies
I'd love to see one of these for Australian English, although I don't think it
would be possible. Aussies have a love of metaphor a simile that's unmatched
in any other dialect of English, especially if you hang out with bogans
(basically Australian Rednecks, for lack of a better description). It's
basically the opposite of America, where instead of trying to be excessively
polite, we try to be excessively offensive. The other habits of Australians
are to shorten words down and add an "O" to the end, and to swear excessively.

Here's a couple of my favourites:

"Not here to fuck spiders" => Not here to waste time

"Mad as a cut snake" => Very angry

"Busier than a one armed brickie in Baghdad" => Very busy (a brickie is a
bricklayer)

"Built like a brick shithouse" => A large, muscular man

"Crack the shits" => get annoyed

"Dog act" => something done to a friend that's uncalled for, e.g. skipping
your round at the pub

"Stitch up" => A scam or a trick

"Sick cunt" => An outstanding person

"Old mate" => Someone who's not your friend

"Smoko" => Morning break at work

"Misso" => Girlfriend (short for missus)

"Ambo" => Paramedic (short for ambulance)

"Servo" => Service Station (gas station for Americans)

"Seppo" => American

"Pokies" => Poker machines

"Yeah nah" => either yes, or no, depending on context. Can also be used as
filler in a sentence.

This leads to beautiful sentences, such as:

"Yeah nah, the misso cracked the shits at me 'cause I spent the whole arvo at
the pokies"

Here's a decent sized list of Aussie slang: [https://nomadsworld.com/aussie-
slang/](https://nomadsworld.com/aussie-slang/)

~~~
MrsPeaches
"Seppo" => American

Seems related to the cockney rhyming slang:

Septic tank = Yank

[http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/septic_tank](http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/septic_tank)

~~~
ollie87
It is. Also as a Brit I love calling American's "Septics".

------
Stratoscope
This is a fun list! Let me add two of my personal favorites:

"Literally", which means "figuratively".

"I could care less", which literally means "I couldn't care less".

[https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/misuse-of-
lite...](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/misuse-of-literally)

[https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/01/i-could-care-
less...](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/01/i-could-care-less.html)

Edit: I feel like a party pooper saying this, but I see a few comments where
people may be taking this phrasebook seriously, perhaps because it's been
Published on the Internet by MIT?

It's not a serious phrasebook! It's just an MIT alumnus having some fun with
us all.

In fact the author is clearly not a native American English speaker. Here are
a few "tells"...

"Upon arrival it is therefore often to their surprise how many seemingly
simple phrases actually turn out to mean something completely different in the
US American variant of the English language."

"You might want to consider to do X."

"You might want to consider to postpone your trip until after the deadline."

"It is highly recommended that you turn in your application in time to
increase your odds at being considered."

These are close, but not quite what anyone would write who grew up speaking
American English. And that's fine! My goodness, the author's English is 1000
times better than my... whatever their native language is. And I'm glad they
shared this fun list with us. :-)

BTW if you enjoy this phrasebook, I heartily recommend English as She is
Spoke:

[https://www.amazon.com/s?k=english+as+she+is+spoke](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=english+as+she+is+spoke)

~~~
TACIXAT
I use literally as incorrectly as I can as a joke, but I probably just sound
like a moron. I think that is true of most my jokes though.

~~~
hiccuphippo
I always say _figuratively_ and try to see people's expression when they
realize that's the correct word.

------
sn41
This is great. I think we need phrasebooks for all cultures. I'm Indian, and a
Chinese friend was pissed that Indians say "yes" and never do it. I think it's
a cultural no-no in India to say "no" to someone's face. I finally realised
that a short "yes" most probably means "yes", and a long-drawn out "yes"
probably means "no".

~~~
shifto
This is not helpful for a Dutch person like me (who are usually very direct)
when the IT has been outsourced to India. You ask them to do something, they
say yes and when time comes it hasn't been done. This got me so annoyed.

~~~
quadrifoliate
> This is not helpful for a Dutch person like me (who are usually very direct)

While we are at this, I think Dutch people should work on being less "direct",
and also try to improve their sentence construction when writing English.

Plenty of my (former) Dutch coworkers' emails in English just came across as
rude, in both senses of that word.

~~~
benj111
Hows your Dutch sentence construction?

~~~
scarejunba
I mean, if we're going down that road, might as well go one step back and ask
how the Dutch fellow's understanding of Indian culture is.

In any case, these are things you learn once. After that, the better you are
at navigating the differences, the more successful you'll be. After all, it's
low probability that you'll reform (in your mind) another culture and high
probability that you can improve your ability to win. So might as well chase
the win by modifying the self every time.

~~~
benj111
Learning a language is hard.

This whole thread is the differences between nations who speak the same
language. If they can't agree what chance has a non native got?

As a native English speaker I appreciate that I don't _need_ to learn another
language. But on the other hand, the language has also become the worlds
language, so its about as fair criticising the Dutch for sentence
construction, as it is for criticising Australians for making everything into
a question?

------
wenderen
I got bit by "How's it going / How are you?" when I first came to the USA.
Turns out you're not actually supposed to answer with how you really are, and
if you do so, they look at you like you've said something weird.

~~~
LandR
This is such a weird thing isn't it.

It's like this in the UK too, every conversation starts with "How are you?"
"Fine, how are you?" "Fine."

It's always the same, pretty much. It's daft, it's just like a ritual that
everyone is happy to partake in.

No one is actually asking you how you are, it's just a noise that both parties
have agreed to start each conversation with. No actual information gets
exchanged. You could easily replace those phrases with nonsense and as long as
both parties are aware of the nonsense and what the nonsensical response is
expected the it would work just as well.

Person 1: "Hippopatumus soup triage?" Person 2: "Triangle, Hippopatumus soup
triage?" Person 1: "Triangle."

It's so strange.

~~~
chrisin2d
It's known as phatic communication. It's not nonsense or noise: it conveys a
wealth of information.

It (re-)establishes the relationship between two parties (and to observing
parties). You can tell if two people are strangers, friends, or enemies by how
they do this ritual.

It signals intention on part of the initiator and receptiveness on part of the
responder. If "Hey, how are you?" gets a cold and abrupt "I'm fine." without a
reciprocating question, then it's a pretty strong signal that the other party
isn't open to further or prolonged conversation.

It's also like a shibboleth. How someone interacts in the ritual can signal
how well socialized s/he is and whether s/he's an in-group or out-group
member. If you ask someone you don't know very well "How are you?" and s/he
immediately begin telling you about the rash on his/her belly and how s/he
hate the traffic and the weather, then that might tip you off that s/he
doesn't understand your society's social protocols and therefore is either a
social misfit or an outsider.

------
dvirsky
As a non American, I sometimes just enjoy deliberately messing a bit with
Americans when they utter these expressions, by doing it over the top.

Someone meeting me for some boring work related thingie: "Hi! How are you
doing?"

Me: "Super awesome, thanks so much for asking! Super excited to meet you and
discuss this!".

They probably think I'm crazy and/or are not sure what to make of it, so it's
fun to see the puzzled looks, but I'm also just being nice.

~~~
plorkyeran
I've met plenty of people who respond like that without it being a joke, so if
you're going for over-the-top you're undershooting the mark quite a bit.

~~~
dvirsky
I'll try to raise the crazy a bit. Relocating to SV soon so I'll have plenty
of opportunities. Umm, I mean, I'm super excited and stoked to finally be
where all the magic happens!

------
inglor
As an Israeli this was a shock for me when I first moved to the US. Here
"let's have lunch sometime" is literally "let's have lunch sometime".

The American culture is so indirect and giving direct feedback is so hard. One
of the biggest prides in our culture here is that employees can always burst
into the CEO's office and tell them they are wrong if that's the case :]

~~~
nir
Same here, even after five years in the US I still had to remind myself how
some phrases actually communicate the exact opposite of their literal meaning.

Wasn't surprised at all to see this phrase book was authored by another
Israeli :)

------
onion2k
This feels like someone has taken the classic "Anglo EU translation guide
(2011)"[1] and tried to do the same thing for American sayings. It works a
little better for British sayings because, frankly, we Brits are incredibly
repressed and never say what we mean if we can put our true meaning in the
subtext.

[1] [https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/05/17/anglo-eu-translation-
gu...](https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/05/17/anglo-eu-translation-guide/)

~~~
greatpatton
I worked on multiple cross European project. And my favorite time (as a Swiss
guys used to try to find a middle ground solution) was when we had meeting
with British, French and Polish guys that don't agree on a subject. You can
really see the huge cultural divide in action. The English guys will says
"hmmm interesting", the French will raise his voice (creating a huge
discomfort for the British guys) and start a long speech how all of this is
stupid" and the Polish guys will just tell everyone that they can go f...
themselves and that they won't do it. I really miss that time.

------
ElijahLynn
They lost me on the first two.

"Let's have lunch sometime" \- Yeah, when I say that I genuinely mean it. It
does NOT mean "I don't want to see you again." to me.

"Thanks for reminding me" \- Again, I genuinely mean that when I say it. NOT
"Stop bugging me!".

~~~
Stratoscope
Most people are like you or me: we mean what we say and say what we mean.

This list is not supposed to reflect how people actually talk with each other.
It's just a made-up sarcastic list, put together for the sake of humor. That
can be a fun thing, as long as we don't mistake for an useful phrase book that
tries to describe what people actually say and mean.

~~~
hervature
This is either completely wrong or the perfect satire.

~~~
smonff
Good satire that explain the cultural meaning that would stay hidden
otherwise.

------
emmelaich
Some are too cynical but pretty funny.

As a recent inductee to silicon-valley-ese I found it odd and funny how often
people were "excited" about something.

~~~
synack
Hella excited

~~~
ollie87
Maybe I'm old now or too into old school rallying, but when someone says
"hella" I just think of massive foglights on old rally cars.

------
tigroferoce
I remember when a native American told me that saying "it's OK" doesn't
actually mean that something is good, but just average. I must have told "it's
OK" a million of times to partner about their work; they must have assumed
that I had huge standards.

------
peteretep
> US natives will usually phrase everything in a manner that creates the least
> social friction in any given interaction

This person has clearly never been to Asia, where a whole different level of
this exists.

~~~
nir
My experience (as non-American, non-Asian) has been the interaction was
actually somewhat easier in Japan or China, because you don't expect a smooth
communication to begin with and both sides are not speaking in their native
tongue.

When you're in the US you have the false sense that you actually understand
what's being said, while in truth learning the actual meaning can take a
while.

------
thatoneguy
I picked up an English copy of the Culture Shock series of books at a
bookstore in Japan that was focused on the US (where I was born). Hugely
enlightening. The biggest "ah ha" moment was how Americans always worried
about owing people something, so they don't like to ask to borrow things or
ask for help.

------
mogadsheu
At first I thought this was pretty garbage content for HN.

Then I realized how many people on here aren’t native English speakers, and
might need years of socialization to understand these nuances. Bravo

------
sideshowb
As a Brit the really stand out difference here is "not bad", which for us
means "good". (And our stronger "not too shabby" \- excellent).

~~~
dghf
Also "quite good", which can mean either "good" or "not good", depending on
whether the stress falls on "quite" or "good".

And "with the greatest respect", which means "you, sir/madam, are a blithering
fool."

------
mattgibson
There is a British English version of this, which has been around on the
internet for a few years.

A friend of my partner's, who works at a high level in the European commission
told us that it is passed around in diplomatic circles as a (non-ironic)
instruction manual.

The American/British preference for avoiding direct communication is
apparently not normal in Europe at all, and causes a lot of confusion amongst
people who are unfamiliar with the layered meanings.

~~~
peteretep
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BlAcKM5IMAAuezm.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BlAcKM5IMAAuezm.jpg)

------
xg15
Might be worth noting that this is a private page from MIT alumni.

I saw the "mit.edu" next to the link and thought it was a study or official
publication first.

~~~
timkam
As a European, I assume the page is presenting a stereotype and not the (more
nuanced) truth. Personally, I've experienced problems communicating with US
folks that reflect this stereotype, but at least in Tech/Science, I assume
(and hope) people are somewhat more straight-forward in their communications.

~~~
nullc
I think most fluent American speakers here would agree that a few of these are
true, but most of them are just humorous exaggerations.

... unfortunately, I'm not quite so sure that there would be much agreement on
which ones were the true ones. :)

------
nstom
So, what would an American say when they actually do want to have lunch
sometime?

~~~
elliotec
"Let's get lunch tomorrow/this week/some actual date!"

Took me a while to realize this actually works, as a born and raised American.

~~~
sofayam
“works” as in “gets the other person to leave me alone”?

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
“works” as in “the meaning of the phrase depends on whether timing is
indicated.”

------
elliotec
Overall I think this is bad and completely attributed to politeness, and is
even weak at that compared to other languages. Many people in the Philippines
would lie in response to seemingly important questions just to seem polite.
"Do you know where the {important building} is?" "Oh yes, it's just across the
way over there!" (it wasn't)

~~~
Stratoscope
It's not a serious list. It's just a bunch of made-up stuff. _Some_ of it hits
close to home, as good humor should, but much of it is just there for humorous
effect.

------
benj111
As a Brit some of these seem fairly universal, "no offense" for example.
Although my Grandparents don't say it before announcing something outrageously
offensive, I just put that down to mental filters breaking down due to old
age.

There also needs to be a section on Americans aversion to discussing bodily
functions. "restroom", "powder my nose"?

~~~
masonic

       "restroom"
    

Is "loo" any less ambiguous?

Speaking of Brits, they did point out the perils of faulty phrase books many
years ago:

[https://youtu.be/bNP7uQQT-oo](https://youtu.be/bNP7uQQT-oo)

~~~
benj111
Strictly speaking it is less ambiguous.

I understood it to be a shortened corruption of lavatory and it's worth noting
that the English definition of that gives toilet, and the American definition
gives the sink in the toilet, which kind of reinforces my point.

~~~
denton-scratch
I took "loo" to be from "gardy loo", which in turn is a corruption from the
French "gardez l'eau", meaning "watch out down there, I'm tipping this bucket
out of the window".

So "loo" would be from "l'eau", meaning "water"; so possibly "water closet",
or WC, a.k.a. crapper.

~~~
benj111
My opinion wasn't particularly informed so ill happily defer. The only other
explanation I heard was that it was a contraction of Waterloo.

------
newsbinator
I often wonder if part of America's productivity can be attributed to the
shortness of this list.

It's just a handful of expressions that are mildly misleading.

In other cultures, you have to get together with friends over dinner to
discuss the hidden meaning of a single suspect word your boss had used that
day.

High context cultures take a lot of mental effort.

~~~
bjornsteffanson
Which cultures would be considered high-context? (Genuinely curious)

~~~
newsbinator
Not sure if everybody would agree, but here's one chart I found:
[https://online.seu.edu/wp-
content/uploads/795x400-Internatio...](https://online.seu.edu/wp-
content/uploads/795x400-InternationalBusiness-Chart-SEU.png)

> In high-context communication, a message cannot be understood without a
> great deal of background information. Asian, African, Arab, central European
> and Latin American cultures are generally considered to be high-context
> cultures.

[https://online.seu.edu/articles/high-and-low-context-
culture...](https://online.seu.edu/articles/high-and-low-context-cultures/)

~~~
stfwn
Cultures that differ the most from author’s require most context to be
understood by author? Hardly surprising.

The quoted source is an anthropological work from 1959, a time when
anthropology still wanted to be a natural science. These sort of
generalizations do not go over well in contemporary cultural anthropology.

------
js2
Odd omission of "Bless your heart."

------
scarejunba
How about "with all due respect". It means "no respect is due to you for this
absolutely idiotic opinion you have tendered you insufferable clown"

------
alexmlamb
Many of these fall under the pattern of comedic overexpression or tactical
underexpression. For example, "You're really dirty, you literally smell like
trash" obviously means "you figuratively smell like trash" but the latter
doesn't pack the same punch.

At the same time something like "not the best programmer" is a minimizing
statement which is less mean than something like "bad programmer".

------
nullc
In the same vein,
[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6919](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6919)

------
philwelch
There's a bit of a directness/politeness spectrum, and even in the US there
are different places on the spectrum, with the Northeast being more direct,
the West and South being more polite. I would say we're not nearly as polite
as the English--who can often get away with completely insulting an American
without the American ever realizing it--but we're also not Dutch :)

------
PaulRobinson
Seems inspired by [https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/what-british-people-
say-v...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/what-british-people-say-versus-
what-they-mean) \- a guide I have known to help marriages between people from
opposite sides of the Atlantic.

------
PeterStuer
Would be nice if they added a column with 'But if you really mean to express
(what is in the first column), say ...

------
snowmaker
As an American I found this list funny at first, and then it made me realize
how difficult it must be for people who learned English in other countries to
come here.

While this may have been intended as a joke, it may actually be useful to
people who want to do business in America.

------
riffraff
IMO some of those aren't american only. When I lived in Ireland, everybody
kept looking at me oddly when I talked about my well being after being asked
"how are you doing". Took me a while to realize they only meant "hello".

~~~
circlefavshape
We (Irish) are very indirect too, but here we mostly avoid direct positivity
as well as direct negativity

------
_def
I think this isn't exclusive to Americans. Also I think this shows perfectly
how there is a positive and negative perspective on everything, with which you
could relabel the columns most of the time.

------
SandroG
My favorite is “literally” which really means “figuratively” these days.

~~~
iamnotacrook
It's true: [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10240917/Uproar-as-
OED...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10240917/Uproar-as-OED-includes-
erroneous-use-of-literally.html)

------
dusted
Yup, I quite enjoy answering, as detailed as possible when someone asks me how
I am, interrupting and insisting I tell my full story since they were so good
as to ask. :)

------
edpichler
Definitely, this list is not something you should be proud of.

------
rbrbr
Where is all this suppressed behavior coming from and what does it tell you
about the country? Language is the key to the psyche of a person.

~~~
tempodox
Bless your heart. You may also want to consider that there is a thing called
culture that influences the typical patterns of communication.

------
lazzlazzlazz
I'm American, and I've got to say - we haven't been talking with the same
Americans.

------
z3phyr
In my school in India, "That's a good question" means that the teacher knows
the answer pretty well!

