Americans like big numbers

Scott Milne and I had a little fun over ‘American English’ recently on Twitter (and hopefully US friends will see this in the humour in which it was intended). He wrote:

   I responded that Americans like big numbers. It’s a big country, and everything must sound more impressive, even yuge. Therefore:
 

Rest of world: Audi 100
USA: Audi 5000
 

Rest of world: 2019 Range Rover Evoque
USA: 2020 Range Rover Evoque
 
‘Black Friday’
Western world: Friday 13th
USA: Friday 23rd (it was this year, anyway)
 
1,000,000,000
Originally in English: ‘one thousand million’
USA: ‘one billion’
 
1,000,000,000,000
Originally in English: ‘one billion’
USA: ‘one trillion’
 
   I realize Americans mean something different when they say ‘Black Friday’ (and it doesn’t mean we need to adopt a change in definition, though judging by the last two we probably will), and I realize how their model years work (and they have nothing to do with calendar years).


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