Gransnet forums

Pedants' corner

It’s mum

(64 Posts)
nandad Wed 07-Feb-24 08:39:11

Keep seeing British posters using the word mom. Why? It’s mum or mother not mom. It causes confusion when the location of the poster is relevant if you are giving advice.

MissAdventure Wed 07-Feb-24 22:35:46

Muvva. smile

Callistemon21 Wed 07-Feb-24 22:33:29

Bella23

Callistemon21

utha for other

How else would you say it? 🤔

t'uther
Bath without the r and grass and not graass .

😁

Of course it's grass and bath.
No Rs in either 🙂

And, if we're being proper, it's Muther.

Bella23 Wed 07-Feb-24 20:58:25

MiniMoon

I'm a Cumbrian lass too, although I now live in Northumberland. My mother was always called Mam by my sisters and me, but I am Mum to my DD. My DS usually calls me Mother.
As for grandmothers, I had a Nana and a Granny.

We called our grandmother's mother and then the name of the village they lived in or their surname. So I had a Crosby mother or mother S........ .
My DDs were born in N/C and called me mam or mammy. It soon changed when we moved to East Yorkshire they got laughed at for saying it and calling each other man and suddenly I became a mummy.My grand children call me Grandma to my face goodness knows what to my back. I really don't mind.

CanadianGran Wed 07-Feb-24 20:54:57

Here it is always Mom, spelled (spelt?) and pronounced. I go back and forth, my mother was Mum.

I do remember getting heck for calling her Ma; I think we were influence by watching Little House on the Prairie which was popular on TV in the 70's. Mum wouldn't have it!

Iam64 Wed 07-Feb-24 20:50:57

My mother didn’t like mum and insisted on being mummy, till be rebelled in mid teens. She was strict about us “speaking nicely” - maybe she was channelling her inner Queen 💖

pinkprincess Wed 07-Feb-24 20:35:08

I am in the North East, born and bred .It is always Mam here.My younger son, who has a strong Geordie accent always calls me ''muvva''.My older boy who lives in the Midlands has started referring to me as Mum.Young children always call their mothers Mammy.

NotAGran55 Wed 07-Feb-24 20:24:32

Theexwife

NotAGran55

Are there greetings cards with Mom or Mam on them anywhere in the UK 🤷🏼‍♀️ ? Or any where else in the world for that matter?

I put mam into search on Hallmark, there are lots of them.

You have sent me down a rabbit hole now 😀

Loving the Geordie and NE websites selling cards and merchandise. My dad was a Geordie and I loved hearing him say mam.

flappergirl Wed 07-Feb-24 20:21:13

Using Mom is, so it would seem, a West Midlands thing although some posters are contesting this.

The thing that annoys me (given that this is pedant's corner) is the use of Mom when the writer is neither American nor from a UK region that uses it.

It has been increasingly adopted into the English language from social media. It is trendy to say mom and not mum. I've even seen it used in newspaper articles.

Borrowed words are one thing and that is how language evolves but this is the corruption of an existing word.

Someone I work with (30 years old, born and bred in the West Country) always writes mom. It is most definitely not a West Country thing and she has not lived in the West Midlands or America. She is doing it because it is prolific on social media and a direct American influence and it gets up my nose!

JenniferEccles Wed 07-Feb-24 17:09:39

Maybe we should go back to mater!

Daisyanswerdo Wed 07-Feb-24 17:02:11

I think if you allow for differences in dialect/area pronunciation, you end up with very much the same sound.

NotSpaghetti Wed 07-Feb-24 16:37:07

Or could can use your actual names - as we do in our family (and someone upthread).

Theexwife Wed 07-Feb-24 16:26:49

NotAGran55

Are there greetings cards with Mom or Mam on them anywhere in the UK 🤷🏼‍♀️ ? Or any where else in the world for that matter?

I put mam into search on Hallmark, there are lots of them.

JamesandJon33 Wed 07-Feb-24 16:08:26

I’m from Wales and always used Mam. My daughter , brought up in the Home Counties, used Mummy as a child and now Mum.I have always thought of Mom as American. You live and learn.

Oreo Wed 07-Feb-24 15:54:26

Doesn’t bother me, but I’m Mum and so is my Mum.Never heard anyone in England say Mom but it’s obvs a West Midlands thing.

Oreo Wed 07-Feb-24 15:52:06

Grammaretto

Another anuther thing learned from GN.

My DM didn't like mum and we called her mummy or mother.
I'm known as mumbo occasionally shortened to mumb. 😀

😁mumbo jumbo?

Kate1949 Wed 07-Feb-24 15:28:22

I've never understood why people think mom is only American. I am 74, born and bred here in Birmingham. I have never heard anyone say mum only mom, although as people have said, mum is what's on greeting cards.

NotAGran55 Wed 07-Feb-24 15:18:51

Are there greetings cards with Mom or Mam on them anywhere in the UK 🤷🏼‍♀️ ? Or any where else in the world for that matter?

MiniMoon Wed 07-Feb-24 15:13:05

I'm a Cumbrian lass too, although I now live in Northumberland. My mother was always called Mam by my sisters and me, but I am Mum to my DD. My DS usually calls me Mother.
As for grandmothers, I had a Nana and a Granny.

MaizieD Wed 07-Feb-24 13:28:32

I’ve been following a thread where the OP is English but used the word mom and it’s been assumed that they are not from the UK and so people have told them they should seek advice from someone in their own country.

The problem is that the same letter in a word might be pronounced differently according to accent. As pointed out earlier, in some US accents what they spell as 'mom' would be pronounced 'marm'. Unless everyone used the International Phonetic Alphabet,where one symbol spells only one specific sound, no-one reading the word would have any idea of how the writer pronounces it.

nandad Wed 07-Feb-24 13:02:03

Exactly sodapop. There is no consistency, a friend from Lichfield calls his mother mum. Scottish cousins call theirs mom.
And to the poster saying if it’s relevant to say what country the poster is in they will say, the thing is they don’t. Too often on here and on MN a post will get lots of responses and helpful advice given only to find that the poster doesn’t live in the UK and so the advice isn’t that helpful. I’ve been following a thread where the OP is English but used the word mom and it’s been assumed that they are not from the UK and so people have told them they should seek advice from someone in their own country.

BlueBelle Wed 07-Feb-24 12:43:48

I grew up using plimsolls moved higher up England and they became pumps then more further west and they were daps

Ziplok Wed 07-Feb-24 12:41:50

There, not their, sorry.

sodapop Wed 07-Feb-24 12:41:10

For all those people who say it doesn't matter, this pedant's corner and it matters to us

Ziplok Wed 07-Feb-24 12:41:08

You are incorrect nandad in your assumption that only Mother or Mum are the correct forms in Britain to address your female parent. Their are regional differences, of which “Mom” is one.

Grandma70s Wed 07-Feb-24 12:40:45

When I was too old to say Mummy my mother wanted me to call her Mother. It seemed too formal to me. She wouldn’t have allowed Mum, so I avoided calling her anything. My brother called her Ma, which I don’t think she liked but didn’t argue with.