“It Just Seems So Insincere”: 17 Phrases Americans Use That The Rest Of The World Doesn’t Really Understand

“Start a family.” 

“I have a visceral negative reaction to ‘to start a family’ which, contrary to the way I interpreted it the first time I heard it, means not moving in together or getting married but having children. My problem with this phrase is, of course, purely ideological: it implies that childless families are not actually families but merely candidates for being one. Because now is a very difficult time for reproductive freedom in the United States (or, to put things bluntly, now is the time when reproductive freedom is actively threatened), every time I hear it I also feel its sharpness, its potential to be weaponized, its meanness.” ― Irina Zaykovskaya, a lecturer in Russian and linguistics at the University of Minnesota who was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia

“Sure” or “uh-huh” instead of “you’re welcome.”

“When we study English as a second language, we learn that the correct way to respond to the phrase ‘thank you’ is ‘you’re welcome.’ But in everyday life, Americans rarely say that, am I right? I only hear ‘you’re welcome’ in more formal situations. The most common way to respond to a ‘thank you’ is ‘sure’ or ‘uh-huh,’ in New York at least. When I first moved to New York, I was shocked when people said ‘uh-huh’ to me! I thought people were being rude or that I had done something wrong. But, of course, now I’m used to it.” ― Langhammer

“Bite the bullet.”

“I never really understood this and always took it literally. I always thought it meant shooting someone.”― Ipinmi Akinkugbe, a Nigerian British travel blogger who runs the site Férìnàjò 

“First floor”

“The first day when I went to work in the U.S., I asked where my desk was located. My manager told me that it was on the third floor. I went all the way up to the third floor but couldn’t find my desk. Later on, I realized that Americans called the ground floor the first floor, and the first floor the second floor, and the second floor the third floor.” ― Sindy Chan, a blogger from Germany (by way of Hong Kong) who recently moved to the U.S.

“Used their services.”

“Using the word ‘use’ to refer to people’s services, like in the sentence ‘I’d definitely use him again.’ Nothing wrong with the word per se, but in Brazil, we never employ this word to talk about services an individual renders. If we do, it sounds disrespectful to that person’s efforts; it’s like they can be used up and discarded. You use a product, you use software, but regarding a person — you work with, you hire, you resort to their services.” ― Sousa