Phrases That Make Me Cringe. Bit of a Rant.

[mofugly13]

I must wholeheartedly agree with being extrmely annoyed with the misuse of the word "literally". In the aforementioned example, like to respond with something like "Wow, there were actual flames shooting out of your mouth?" Unfortunately this doesn't make my point with the misuser of the word, and I get a response like "Yeah, it was that hot!"

I love spicy food but, remind me to never order that soup.

The misuse of there, their, and they're is one that catches my attention on web forums, but since I dont frequent the grammar forums, I dont let bad grammar on the introweb (sic) bother me.

[Michaell]

Here's a few that make me " cringe" or worse

" does anyone remember laughter ? " ( what does this mean? )

" play it pretty for Atlanta " ( like no one outside of At lanta will be buying this live recording ? duh???)

" hey fat fella with your hair colered yella " ( phonetic spelling intetional ...couldn't afford a rhyming dictionary in the 70s? )

saying " axe " instead of " ask " as in "Let me axe you a question " ( I guess you're supposed to respond " Let me " chop " you an answer "

using "cent" as a plural ...as in " your change is 28 cent" ( no it's not. It's 28 [B]cents[/b].....unless you removed 27 of them )

self serve.........no....."do it yourself" serve means someone does it for you.
They " serve " you. I'ts impossibpe to serve yourself. Tennis anyone?

"on sale" instead of "discounted price"......everything is a store is for sale.....so how can some of it be " on sale" ?

" capital " punishment..........for the death penalty. ...what ? is that like lower case and " capital " letters?....sorry....a death sentence is the "ultimate" or " maximum " penalty.....not capital.

************

Where's George Carlin? Didn't he make a career of this?

************

The other thing that makes me cringe ( and is just annoying as h**l" to me ) is people on internet forums who make spelling corrections (or whatever) instead of reponding to the thought or content of a person's post.

What's that all about?

This fabulous inrarnet is a great commmunication device. Spell checcking a persons poste are sort of a waiste. Unless the spellcheccker has some superiourity complex, or just misssed being valedictoriun by a few persentage pointz or someting like dat.

[bluetele54]

..."...it's just that..."...

[dobrodoc]

Corporate-speak in general. Taking ANY word, and making a verb out of it, as the aforementioned "dialoging." And along with "awesome," must come "extreme." Saying, I met with," instead of, "I talked to." And the two I hate worst:
"You see what I'm saying?"
"Arguably, the best..."

[mudbean]

Originally Posted by CatfishStudios

When people say "I could care less" ...wrong.... what you mean is "I couldn't care less" .. the two statements mean entirely different things.

Oops, busted!

Originally Posted by Mike Bruce

"Yous", as in the plural of you.

Busted again, although I spell it with an "e' as "youse" ... and I do it on purpose 'cause I think it's folksy ... whatta dork.

Originally Posted by Unseen

First, this usage is too established to repeal. Like "head over heels," which also doesn't make a lot of sense.

Besides, it can be viewed as being elliptical (part of it implied and unstated): I could care less (but it's not worth the effort)

Colloquialisms are frequently illogical to the point of being ironic, such as "break a leg" (which you would think means you're wishing bad luck, but we know it means the opposite).

Cool! I'll go with it, then.

While I'm up, why is it that I hear even news anchors saying INTREGAL when they mean INTEGRAL ... sheesh.

"His contribution was an intregal part of the whole."

mud

[garytelecastor]

Originally Posted by staxman

This ain't English class, Miss Kresky--it's a guitar forum. Folks come here to relax and chat with "friends", not to take a load of condensing crap.

Uh...I believe the word you were looking for was
condescending.
It is spelled C-O-N-D-E-S-C-E-N-D-I-N-G!
Man....

How about the habit of some people to raise inflection at the end of every sentence, in effect, changing every statement into a question?

[marksound]

Originally Posted by CatfishStudios

Another one that bothers me is Library. Some people say,"Libary". I cringe everytime.

There is an episode of a sitcom in which one of the characters mispronounces 'library'. He apologizes, then follows up by ordering a 'strawbrary' dessert.

[O- Fender]

Someone mentioned corporate-speak. That has been bugging me lately. I recieved an "interoffice memo" about the need to "have a face to face meeting" to "dialogue" to "attain" a solution for the "current ongoing situation". The actual memo had a lot more words but you get the idea. I guess "Let's get together and figure out how to fix the problem" is too easy.

[HoodieMcFoodie]

Originally Posted by garytelecastor

How about the habit of some people to raise inflection at the end of every sentence, in effect, changing every statement into a question?

Over here we call those people "Queenslanders".

The one that I hate is the over use and inappropriate use of the word "obviously". Sometimes the thing being stated is not obvious.

[Dean Gray]

I don't know if this is happening in the U.S.A., but over here there has been a change in the way a television network announces the company that has sponsored a particular program.

e.g. "This program .........brought to you by (Ford Australia/Coca Cola/whoever)

Well.. This program IS brought, this program WAS brought? Which is it?

I don't have a college education but it seems to me this is not a complete sentence. The advertisor saves a few dollars by not having to record two commercials, one for broadcast during the program, and one for afterwards, and the entire population becomes a little bit dumber as a result!

This one does annoy me, because it is intentional misuse of language, broadcast to the public, by people who should know better, for the purpose of saving money.

There, I feel better now!

[Ricky D.]

Originally Posted by Mike Bruce

"Yous", as in the plural of you. When I brought this up on another forum I received some interesting mail.

Mike Bruce

Should be you-uns.

[goldtopper]

Just a few-

Pork- NOT a verb!
Axe- wanna not get a second job interview? Axe me how....
Basically- when used repeatedly in a sentece, along with You Know- ie:
Well, basically, you know, we was eating, and, you know, basically, we was full, but I thought, basically, this is enough to save, so basically, we put it in, you know, the fridge."

[Fendrcaster]

From Wiki:

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the execution of a person by the state as punishment for a crime. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital origins from Latin capitalis, literally "regarding the head" (Latin caput). Hence, a capital crime originally was to be punished by the loss of the head.

[SixStringSlinger]

Originally Posted by casterway

Okay. I do have one that drives me crazy. I'm a machinist. One of our measuring tools is called a Vernier caliper. Pronounced Vern-yay. Not Vern-e-er. Rhymes with Perrier, Messier, DuMaurier, etc.

And while we're on the subject, any calipers that DON'T have a Vernier scale, are either Digital calipers, or Dial calipers, not Digital Verniers.

Crap, I've been screwing up a bunch of words lately...

[ne4tt]

I detest the label "Americana", as a catch all for any music that is not pop music.

"Pre-selling", "pre-owned".

Idjits, "Pre" means "before", I.E. Pre Historic: before recorded history.

"Grow" your bizness.

"Win-win"

"Warm and fuzzy feeling"

"World-Class"

There's more that stick in my craw, but experiencing a "Senior Moment".

jamie

[djinn1973]

Inkpin in place of Ink Pen
And using the letter "D" in place of the letter "T" e.g. "May I have a glass of wader please?
Also, when ever some one confuses the abbreviation e.g. exempli gratia for i.e. id est I want to scream...

[byrdbrain]

I have no use for the phrase to hate on someone or something.
I also cringe when some obnoxious @** concludes a totally unnecessary
and insulting comment by adding just sayin'.

[Michaell]

wiki

thanks for the " origin " on "capital" punsihment

still makes me cringe!

lol

[dobrodoc]

Newscasters saying,"....was BRUTALLY murdered last night."
As opposed to what? HUMANELY murdered?

[David Barnett]

"Let me speak on this."

[StratDal]

"Gibsons are better than Fenders."

[Dan R]

I have noticed many people using the nonsensical phrase " yeah/no" in conversation these days. I hear it nearly everyday. They start the sentence with yeah/no, then say whatever they are trying to express. I even heard some pundit on TV say "Yeah/no, I agree." What? If you agree, why did you use the word "no"? I'm sorry, but that just makes someone sound like an idiot. What's sad is when some stupid expression is accepted, it seems to never go away. People, it's either yeah or no, not both!

Dan R

[giginthesky]

"what have you". i was at a meeting years ago and this woman was speaking. she was using that term so much that, halfway through, i started counting. i lost track after 52. wtf does "what have you" mean anyhow? oh well, counting how many times she said it kept me awake through the meeting.