Let’s not beat around the bush here: Americans have a way with words.
The idioms and sayings we’ve collectively coined through the years run the gamut from folksy (“couldn’t hit the side of a barn”), to adorable (“cool as a cucumber”) to mean and adorable (“not the sharpest knife in the drawer”).
There’s also a lot of weirdly body-specific Americanisms. We’ve really got a thing for legs: “That idea has legs,” “Break a leg!” “That cost an arm and a leg.”
A few weeks back, we asked non-Americans to share the phrases specific to American English that get under their skin. To keep things balanced, we asked the same folks to share the Americanisms they instantly loved when they first heard them.
See what they had to say below.
‘Hang In There’
“I love [it] mainly because of the imagery it creates in my mind. I begin to picture myself hanging somewhere until I’m attended to. That’s a bit funny.” ― Firdaus Baig, an Indian tutor who teaches Hindi online
‘Guilty Pleasure’
“I find this expression intriguing because I don’t think the concept of having a guilty pleasure even exists in Brazil. I have never heard a Brazilian put those two words together. But now that I know this expression, I can think of many things I do that I could call a guilty pleasure!” ― Virginia Langhammer, a Brazilian who teaches Portuguese and owns the Speaking Brazilian Language School
‘Hella’
“I love the word ‘hella.’ It originated in the Bay Area, where my wife is from, and it’s very distinct in San Francisco and neighboring counties. My first impression was that it reminded me of the Australian version of the word ‘heaps.’ We use ‘heaps’ to mean a lot of or very, so ‘hella’ is like the American equivalent! It’s short, concise and to the point, which is what Australian slang is all about.” ― Jules Hatfield, an Australian travel blogger
‘Monday Morning Quarterback’
“This hits me personally because I always…
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