In America, We Say 'ERBS'! X Has Some Language Fun With Our Favorite British TERF, J.K. Rowling

The old joke is that America and England are two nations separated by a common language.

Both countries like to make fun of the fact that the other country's words sound silly, but since we're American, we are right, as always. It's the British words that sound silly. We still don't know what a lorry, jumper, nappy, lift, toff, or trainers are. All we know is that we would never ask an English person for a cigarette using their word.

Beyond those differences, the two countries also spell and pronounce some of the same words differently, and that's where one of our favorite Brits in the world comes in.

Earlier this week, J.K. Rowling was just doing her thing, dunking on men pretending to be women, in this case, one of her favorite crybullies, India Willoughby.

India, a fan of a woman-hating, gay-hating, authoritarian regime? Colour me astonished. pic.twitter.com/KeyyETQq35
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 22, 2025

Maybe Willoughby should move to Iran if he loves it so much. See how that works out for him.

But one of the people replying to Rowling tried to make fun of her for her spelling of 'color.' It was kind of unnecessary and petty, and it earned a Community Note.

You’re an author. You should know how to spell COLOR correctly smh
— Wryly82 (@Wryly82) June 22, 2025

But if you know Rowling, you know she has a great sense of humor and likes to use it on X. She responded to that troll with her own counterattack against Americans and 'herbs.'

I’ll spell ‘colour’ ‘color’ the moment Americans stop pronouncing ‘herbs’ ‘erbs.’ https://t.co/BbfKMSu0qm
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 23, 2025

We're not going to get technical here, but lots of words have a silent H. Rowling would know that even if she didn't spend 'hours' researching the topic.

However, what ensued was a pretty funny series of replies from Americans having a go (as the Brits would say) at Rowling for her country's language and traditions.

Just remember, Ms. Rowling. We kid you because we love you.

Ma'am, the first shot at Lexington setting off the American Revolution was all due to redcoats insisting we pronounce aluminum as "aluminium"

We refuse to bend the knee to British wordsmithing under the thinly veiled "it sounds more classically Latin" pretense.

Good day. https://t.co/6c09sChupk pic.twitter.com/DmwrjcciCz
— Guy (@GuyIsReborn) June 24, 2025

It was never about the Tea Tax. It was all about that superfluous 'I.'

https://t.co/XVVYeVM7pO pic.twitter.com/tqKWHKtkfd
— OfMiceandMatt (@breadstickzzz) June 24, 2025

HAHA. That's an old joke, but always funny.

NOW PRONOUNCE “DERBY” https://t.co/GFnoNhQ5iv
— Jonathan Greenberg (@JGreenbergSez) June 24, 2025

The last time we checked, Britain, that word was spelled with an 'E,' not an 'A.'

While we're at it....why do y'all pluralize "math?"

"Jolly good fun, old chum, we get to do our maths homework now!"

Even autocorrect was like, "WTF??" when I typed "maths" just now. 😂
— CarolinaConservative3 (@1776Carolina3) June 24, 2025

Right? Math is hard enough without making it necessarily plural.

How do you pronounce this letter: z
— BlabberingCollector (@BlabberingC) June 23, 2025

As Bruce Willis would say, 'Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.'

Spelling differences notwithstanding, I was shocked to see you DON'T use the Oxford comma.
— JoEbY-X (@_joeby_x) June 24, 2025

Uh-oh.

Nope, we're not getting into that one. Wars have been started over the Oxford comma. Bloody, endless wars.

as soon as you pronounce it "hello" instead of "ello" https://t.co/ymNf43je3O
— Patrick Neve (@catholicpat) June 24, 2025

That's a good point. Many British dialects (like Cockney) drop the 'H' from all sorts of words. Rowling may want to look in her own backyard before attacking us colonials again -- which didn't go well for England the last time they tried it.

No. As an American, we will never start speaking wrong, or British, same thing.

The world will conform to the correct way, the American way.

There is no second option.

Thank you for your attention to this matter! https://t.co/SRtQiwlIWb pic.twitter.com/noh7ftZNNF
— The Dark Crusader (@DarkCrusader909) June 23, 2025

Well, there it is. The definitive authority has chimed in. And the British can like it or they can get some of Trump's MOPs dropped on their libraries.

Beyond words, some Americans had a few other choice words for staples of British culture.

Sometimes I stay awake at night thinking about how poison has a warning label on it saying "do not eat" but British food doesn't.
— Ordnance Jay Packard Esq. (@OrdnancePackard) June 23, 2025

English food is not ... well, it's not good. Even many Brits acknowledge that.

At least you're not speaking German. Thanks to us.
— Jacob Airey (@realJacobAirey) June 23, 2025

And never let them forget it!

Okay, but can we at least agree that the French are just terrible?
— The Conservative Alternative (@OldeWorldOrder) June 23, 2025

LOL. Finally. A moment of mutual understanding.

It was all in good fun, and Rowling gave as good as she got in many of the exchanges on the posts above.

In the end, there were no hard feelings because we love Rowling for her principled and relentless fight against 'gender ideology.'

I’ll forgive JK for this assault on American linguistics ONLY BECAUSE she knows what a woman is and she wrote the greatest books since the Bible. https://t.co/XnVABBlIcA
— Jake Cox (@GOPJake) June 23, 2025

High praise for the Harry Potter series (we would have gone with J.R.R. Tolkien), but we'll allow it.

If Rowling ever wants to know why Americans are the way we are, however, all she has to do is ask 'General Washington.'