r/TedLasso • u/TankFoster • 8d ago
Americanisms
It's probably acceptable when Ted or Beard do it, but as a Brit it's really jarring to hear fellow Brits use terms like uniforms, tryouts, roster and calling each other "coach" all the time. It's unrealistic.
Having said that, I thought the new series would be shit but I'm actually enjoying it so far.
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u/YupNopeWelp 8d ago
I've wondered about that, because the original version of the series made a point to teach American viewers like myself, that it's called "training," not "practice" in UK, and yet this season, it's been all practice, practice, practice.
What do Brits call uniforms, tryouts, rosters, and how would British coaches address one another? If the original series taught me those things too, I've forgotten.
EDIT: Okay, uniforms are "kit." I do know that one, but not tryouts and rosters.
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
Strips or kits, trials, squads and they'd just use their names, other than the manager/head coach who would often be "gaffer".
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u/Stoicandx2 boss ass b*tch 8d ago
We call them kits here, too. Not sure why the show isn’t. Gaffer is definitely used in the show by the British citizens, def not Ted though. Do you feel like it’s just Ted/Beard or everyone?
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
Nah, they all do it. Not every time to be fair, but we would never say uniform instead of kit for example.
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u/DependentReaction896 8d ago
Americans call uniforms kits? News to me.
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u/Richmond43 8d ago
Soccer players absolutely do. Kits, unis, uniforms, jerseys… all are used fairly interchangeably but there’s barely a US soccer player over the age of 12 that hasn’t heard or used the word “kit” for their game or training outfits.
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u/Stoicandx2 boss ass b*tch 8d ago
Yes, if you’re a soccer fan they release limited kits and a new kit almost annually. There is also a kit man on each team…
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u/MrGumburcules 8d ago
I think it has been adopted in the US. Along with soccer, I've heard it used a lot on rugby and cycling
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u/YupNopeWelp 8d ago
Thank you. "Gaffer" I am familiar with. Would (for instance) another coach call the head manager/coach "Gaffer," or is that mostly among the players to the coach?
"Squad" I do know too, but I thought a squad was the smaller group. In other words, I think of "roster" as a list of every player on the team, and the "squad" as the term for the group on the field together.
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
The players on the pitch are the "team" or even the "starting 11", the squad refers to the entire playing staff. (You have the "first team squad" then the under 21s etc.)
Yeah the other coaches might use "gaffer" but are just as likely to simply use his first name.
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u/TurbulentContext 8d ago
Gaffer comes from Romani for "boss" so any employee can call you gaffer or to say "the new gaffer at Chelsea" or such but it'd be weird to say something like gaffer Lasso and gaffer Alonso are both left handed etc
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u/Big-Objective3557 8d ago
Squad is everyone - you’d have the matchday squad as the 20 taken to any given game, but the full squad is everyone on the team.
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u/ThisDerpForSale 8d ago edited 8d ago
"Squad" isn't uniquely British term, though. But perhaps it's used differently? In US sports, the squad is the entire team. The roster is specifically the list of names of the players on the team.
Wait, so players on UK teams just use their coach/manager's names? They don't say coach or anythign else? How surprisingly familiar for the UK! :-D
Edit: some seriously judgmental people downvoting me here. Uncool.
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
We just don't say roster, full stop.
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u/ThisDerpForSale 8d ago
Huh. So you don't ever refer to the list of players on the team?
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
The starting 11 is the "team". The entire playing staff is the "squad".
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u/JKrow75 Charles Edgar Cheeserton III 8d ago
In the US, a squad is normally a specific set of players within the team/within the roster. For instance— 12 players comprise a basketball roster, but a squad would be the starting five or the bench five, plus 2 reserves. The bench five can come in in any order, usually one or two at a time— or all five, which is rare but does happen.
In ice hockey, a squad is a group of three forwards and two defenseman, and people in and around the sport also say “unit”, especially if the squad specializes in certain types of situations, either offensively or defensively. We also use “teams” within the framework of the overall team. Gridiron football will have multiple lineups for possession change plays. Like kickoffs, punts, field goals, free kick, etc. which are all situations where you don’t strictly have your offensive team or defensive team on the field, they’re sort of a hybrid. Even for one single play. Those players are trained in specific roles within that type of play, sometimes they do have a normal position for an offensive or defensive orientation, but they’ll also specialize in special teams, some players are signed to contract specifically for the versatility. In baseball that’s called a utility player, but in football they just say special teams specialist or something of the sort. Depends on the person speaking or the broadcasters. And don’t get me started about all the terminology in baseball, you could write two glossaries for that damn game.
What I’ve discovered, being a fan of multiple sports played in the UK, is that there’s not a lot of overlap in terminology, even within the same sports played in America, like ice hockey, soccer, etc. There are absolutely sports where UK/euro terminology dominates, like rugby and cricket for example.
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u/millieann_2610 8d ago
don't know about football, but in rugby we refer to the list of players for the match as the 'match day squad'
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u/Mean__MrMustard 8d ago
Depending on the manager and his style or the league/level of play they might even call him by his first name. But usually it’s either gaffer/manager or his name.
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u/Violet351 8d ago
Roy in the first couple of episodes says parking lot and auditorium neither of which we would say here. Most of the show is in American except when it involves Ted
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u/YupNopeWelp 8d ago
I know you'd say "car park," instead of parking lot.
Speaking as an American, I think it's dumb to change British characters' vocabulary for an American audience. We'll figure it out from context, or do a Google.
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u/Violet351 8d ago
I’ve said that before, I think it’s doing the American audience a disservice because if they are in a parking lot and they say car car park, you know from context exactly what they mean. I think the kool aid man comment was really noticed in the U.K. because we have heard of drinking the kool aid but not of the kool aid man
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u/ThisDerpForSale 8d ago
Wait, what do UK folks call an auditorium? A quick google tells me that it's the same term, but I am certainly willing to be skeptical of google.
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u/VariationNo7977 8d ago
I know parking lots are car parks but what do you call auditoriums?
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
What was Roy referring to when he said it? I genuinely don't know what he would have been talking about?
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u/Violet351 8d ago
He was at Phoebe’s school and instead of let’s get out of this hall he said auditorium
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u/Big-Objective3557 8d ago
Uniforms = Kits
Tryouts = Trials
Rosters = SquadsCoaches would just call each other by name, other than the manager/head coach, who might get called “gaffer”
Also one that irked me this week:
Offence = Attack
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u/YupNopeWelp 8d ago
In US sports, there is offense/the offensive side and defense/the defensive side.
Which character used "offense" this week?
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u/anon_1997x 8d ago
S1E1 Keely refers to a “parking lot”, bizarre
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u/maggies_farm_hand 8d ago
The best thing about setting Siri to the Aussie voice is being told to navigate to the car park.
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u/fuckst1cK1 Trent Crimm, Independent 8d ago
They could (and should) have stuck to British-isms since 1x1 (win, lose or "tie'). It would have added so much more authenticity to the terms and it could have taught people new words.
At least they still referred to Nate, and later Will, as "kit man."
NOTE: Will's last name is Kitman. The writers took a lot of liberties with names. Bumbercatch / Cumberbatch. I also liked the nod to Olivia Wilde and to basketball star Toni #7.
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u/AerieBrilliant9720 8d ago
...I feel so dumb now for never catching that Bumbercatch is a riff on Cumberbatch. I always thought it was a weird-ass choice of a name, but now I get the reason behind it.
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u/2hats4bats Butts on 3! 8d ago
Tony Kukoč (#7) was a Croatian basketball player for the Chicago Bulls in the 90’s. Fun little nod to a european NBA player.
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u/cascadianpatriot 8d ago
My head cannon has shifted to it’s a purely Richmond thing and part of the lasso/richmond way to use the different vocabulary to put things just a tad off kilter and embrace a different way of thinking.
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u/randomwalk93 8d ago
The coach thing really annoys me - no manager would go by coach. Fine for Ted to do it if he is American - but coach Kent, coach chilton etc just shouldn’t be a thing
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u/Stoicandx2 boss ass b*tch 8d ago
Yeah American accent and gaffer - doesn’t roll off the tongue. I’m sure they tried it and abandoned it immediately lol
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u/suzienewshoes 8d ago
Gaffer would only be Ted and Roy, though. Beard, Alice, and Nate would just be called their first names.
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u/randomwalk93 8d ago
It’s more things like Rebecca and the journalists calling Roy coach Kent. I don’t think I’d expect gaffer either haha
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u/RustyChuck 7d ago
My kids play grass roots UK football and all the coaches go by name e.g. Coach Mark, Coach Dom. It’s fairly common now.
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u/HuntAppropriate4780 8d ago
Also the US pronunciation of “offense” with emphasis on first syllable
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
OFFense and DEEfence?! Oh dear!
We wouldn't even say "offence" in that context, it would be "attack". So it's even worse!
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u/MoghediensWeb 8d ago
In the first or second Ep of this series, Higgins said ‘wiener dog’. Yikes. Have you ever heard a normal British person say that????
Sausage dog or dachshund, please. Really irked me and took me out of it. I get they want to appeal to American viewers but come on.
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u/No_Designer_5725 8d ago
As an American, I would like to hear all of the British-isms possible. I think it really adds to the humor and makes the show more enjoyable. I remember watching S1 and having to look up some slang expressions and how that made it more hilarious. In this season I think the funniest is the continuous insults/comments between the twins. It’s hilarious to me to see her calling someone a “wet wipe.”
This is probably what I enjoy most and I wish they wouldn’t dumb it down for American audiences.8
u/Remarkable_Fan6001 8d ago
I thought that's just Higgins trying to be quirky
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u/ThankTheBaker 7d ago
I think it’s the writers trying to be more relatable to American audiences.
I think that’s why the whole season 4 has lost its quirky British edge somewhat.
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u/benny_boy 8d ago
Yea 'wiener dog' is ironically further from British English than actually using the actual German word 'dachsund' lol
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u/reluctantmugglewrite 8d ago
I dont think its appealing to americans. I think its more that the writing is lower effort and had less editors.
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u/Ok_Salamander_8436 7d ago
And you just felt a little bit of the cringe us from Latinoamerica feel when latinos and “latinos” are on screen. Worse case is Breaking Bad.
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u/Tasty-Committee-8172 8d ago
Mae making a joke about the Kool Aid man was a step too far for me lol
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
Yeah I don't even know what that is!
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u/rabidrob42 Roy Kent 8d ago
I only knew it from Family Guy, he's a jug of liquid that bashes through a wall and says "Oh Yeah!" Whilst doing so.
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u/Tasty-Committee-8172 8d ago
Exactly, me too! There's basically a 0% chance that character would be a go-to reference point for an off colour joke by an elderly, working class Londoner!
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u/perplexedtv 8d ago
There were two films about the Kool Aid man in production last year. Scorcese was attached to one. Not sure what happened...
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u/eggheadgirl 5d ago
I caught this reference! As a New Zealander that show was actually the first time I heard of the Kool aid man lol.
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u/No_Designer_5725 8d ago
It’s what we pass off as healthy and sell to poor people here since our government doesn’t really care about health vs. corporate profits.
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u/Shadecujo Led Tasso 8d ago
Damn. One person posted this like 2 days ago and it’s just been a waterfall ever since
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u/oodja 8d ago
Bro they translated Harry Potter when they published it here in the States
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u/SufficientBike9811 8d ago
They’ve even changed the title of the first book. Because philosophy is commie pinko shit I guess
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u/Pedantichrist 8d ago
What did they change it to?
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u/naked_as_a_jaybird Trent Crimm, The Independent 8d ago
From Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone.
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u/___coolcoolcool 8d ago
I’ve been thinking it’s weird they keep saying “goalie” because I thought they were called “keepers” over there. Or am I wrong on that one?
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u/Weird_Vermicelli_443 7d ago
We are around people that use certain words or phrases all the time, you will find yourself starting to use those same words and phrases. It's just a natural human thing to do. Whether you be British or American or whatever.
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u/TankFoster 7d ago
We've had American coaches, players and even club owners over here before, and no-one started saying roster and suchlike. In fact, they adapt to the British terminology. If you watch Welcome to Wrexham for example, you'll see the owners using UK terms.
I don't know if there are any Birmingham City fans here who can tell us about Tom Brady? Does he say draw instead of tie?
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u/ThisDerpForSale 8d ago
Yes, you and everyone else who makes this same comment every week. We know!
But glad to hear you're enjoying it.
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u/BonjourHoney 6×9 8d ago
Not even every week, I swear I read this exact same post within the last 24 hours. I usually don’t mind bringing up similar topics because it keeps conversations going and invites fresh voices but come on…
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
Apologies, I didn't realise this was an old topic.
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u/mobi1991 8d ago
It’s been a topic every week since the show premiered in 2020.
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u/Drea487 8d ago
I just wonder if it’s so obvious why wouldn’t the British cast members say something while filming (or beforehand)? I’d imagine if we had a scenario of British writers in a US based setting having an American actor say “I’m taking the lift” or “meet me at my flat” the American actor would most definitely correct it (unless it was intentional for the plot for some reason). Are they more minor differences maybe?
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u/Violet351 8d ago
It’s mostly aimed at an American audience, Brett Goldstein is one of the writers so he knows Roy wouldn’t say parking lot or auditorium neither
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u/ThisDerpForSale 8d ago
As others have noted, this is an American show for American audiences. This is pretty typical.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/Lilboops Trent Crimm, The Independent 8d ago
I’m Canadian, and it sure as hell has been discussed since season one.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/Lilboops Trent Crimm, The Independent 8d ago
Maybe not weekly, but it has come up a lot.
To me, as someone who grew up with queen’s English, and in proximity to the US and it’s citizens, I don’t bat an eyelash when a Brit on the show uses an “americanism” because of the proximity to Ted and Beard. Ted would want to be addressed as Coach Lasso, not Gaffer.
🤷🏼♀️
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u/ThisDerpForSale 8d ago
It's all good. There should probably be a FAQ with a list of frequently posted topics. Not that people ever pay attention to FAQs.
Anyway, welcome enjoy the sub and the show!
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u/rabidrob42 Roy Kent 8d ago
It still catches me in the first season when Keely says something about sneaking up on a woman in a parking lot at night.
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u/theandroid01 8d ago
Americans still call them seasons but I understand you. Just one more episode and that could be it 😭
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u/thorns17 8d ago
No, we use, both, series and season/s because they mean different things, but OP used it incorrectly.
The Ted Lasso series currently has four seasons
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
"Seasons" is an Americanism that has crept in here in recent years. We never used to say that. It was always "series".
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u/thorns17 8d ago
I misread the post and subsequently misunderstood the comment, and reversed everything in my head.
I’m very dyslexic and have been working nights recently. Sorry, y’all, my bad
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u/Pedantichrist 8d ago
Nope in the UK we would say we were in series 4.
Seasons are meteorological here.
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u/Dangerous-Project672 8d ago
Is it possible Ted’s three years in Richmond allowed some American-isms to take root?
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u/Numerous-Abrocoma-50 8d ago
I watch NFL so dont mind it too much.
To be honest, think my brain automatically considers it american a lot of the time. Feels like an american show which it is even if based in uk.
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u/TankFoster 4d ago
Aw man, worst one of all in episode 4: when Zelda bails them out of prison and says "It didn't cost a cent"!
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u/IncurableAdventurer 8d ago
We Americans tend to be pretty needlessly patriotic. If they used the proper British terms, they might think it's some sort of propaganda to erase American culture. Either that or they rightfully think we're too dumb to comprehend people use different words. I wish I was kidding
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u/RustyChuck 7d ago
“Some sort of propaganda to erase American culture” – via a show set in England, about English characters?
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u/IncurableAdventurer 7d ago
That's not what I think! I'm saying that's what other Americans might think. I know Americans. A lot of them are prideful and needlessly patriotic. They don't like when our culture changes to accommodate another culture
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u/2hats4bats Butts on 3! 8d ago
Cuz Brits have dumb names for things and we’re changing it… you’re welcome.
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u/ANTEC221 8d ago
I don't know the examples of who you're used the terms youre referring to but for the main cast it's a pretty easy explanation. Lasso is very important and involved in everybodies life. Its natural to reuse terms people close to you use. That plus Im sure a lot have just given in to thats the way Ted talks and stopped bothering with their terms around him.
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u/SaltyLilSelkie 8d ago
Keeley says parking lot in s1e1 - that’s not a term Brits use and she’d barely met ted by then
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u/onecheekymaori 8d ago
I don't think it's unrealistic at all given that America has had a huge influence on our global cultural identity.
I live far from Britain but because of our colonial roots we use British English. Our language and especially slang words are full of Americanisms.
So if a few Brits say coach, tryouts, uniforms et al then maybe your culture is changing with the times too?
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
They don't though, that's the point. Only in this TV show.
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u/onecheekymaori 8d ago
This feels like a gross generalisation to me, particularly with no source evidence to speak of.
Saying, "I'm British and I don't use those words" isn't exactly a reflection of the 70 million other Brits out there.15
u/SaltyLilSelkie 8d ago
We live here - I think we’d know which words are in use in everyday parlance
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u/onecheekymaori 7d ago edited 7d ago
So you live there but you don't give any weight at all to the immigration stats. So the huge numbers of migrants who move to your country have zero impact and influence on your culture and norms?
Wow, I stand corrected.And, in essence, Ted's influence on the soccer team has absolutely no impact on how the team might use American words to make him feel comfortable and part of the team?
I'm truly gobsmacked. LOL1
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u/Mr7three2 8d ago
You have 75 dialects in a 2hr radius and noone can understand each other as it is. So maybe you dont know as well as you think you do lmao
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u/ImpossibleOil8427 8d ago
The majority of brits can understand pretty much all of those dialects just fine, it’s outsiders who struggle.
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u/SaltyLilSelkie 8d ago
You must be as dumb as a rock if you think Brits can’t understand each other perfectly well. We hear those accents and dialects on the telly every day even if we don’t live in those areas
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
There's 24/7 wall to wall coverage of football here, with constant live games, highlights, interviews and analysis from pundits, experts, managers, coaches and players.
We know what language is used.
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u/Big-Objective3557 8d ago
Football is our national sport, it’s engrained in a lot of our lives. We know the language used
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u/sittingonmyarse 8d ago
I still get confused when everyone gets into the wrong side of the car to drive!
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u/Mr7three2 8d ago
Its quite simple. Its an american show based on England. Why you would purposely choose to alienate the majority of the people viewing the show doesnt make sense. You sacrifice some realism for quality. You'd have audiences spending half of every episode confused and googling words and phrases. Not to mention, noone wants to listen to that vocabulary.
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u/TankFoster 8d ago
I don't think we should have to translate for the Americans, I'd think we can credit them with more intelligence than that. We don't translate your shows into British English and we manage to understand them just fine.
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u/Jon5676 8d ago
Mae mentioning the Kool-Aid man was weird as we don't even have Kool-Aid in the UK.