There are a number that do for me. Sometimes it's just overused ones like '24/7'. But the ones that irritate me are ones that are just silly or nonsensical. A sampling:
1 - '...AM in the morning.' Duh - redundant?!
2 - 'Minus twelve below zero.' See number one.
3 - 'At this point in time.' Really aggravates me. As opposed to this point in space?? How about simply, 'at this time'?
4 - 'I could care less.' Another duh. Supposed to be 'couldn't' care less.
5 - 'Basically' - 'totally' overused.
6 - 'Irregardless' - Regardless.
7 - 'Thinking outside the box' - see number 5.
8 - 'ATM machine' - see number 1.
9 - 'literally' - misused, as in 'I was literally dying!' (If only.)
And my current favorite:
10 - 'At the end of the day...' - This one gets under my skin. When someone says it, before 'day' is out of their mouth, I interrupt with, 'Night?!'
Which ones do you have??
What expressions (or words) drive you nuts??
Most of the expressions that drive me nuts the most I can't put here...
another...when DH says "You know that", well obviously I didn't or I wouldn't have asked!!
I guess I don't have many---"freakin" kind of gets to me---my sister says "fricken"---that's much worse, & I grind my teeth---my DH always says, "What", because he's never really listening.
My 16yo has about a million expressions that annoy me and it changes week to week.
Like hmm. Well, like, I know there are like a few ... like, you know, words that my kids use like all the time, but I just can't remember them.
I drive them nuts. Say DD#2 is giving me a long involved story about some boy Joe she wants to go to the semi-formal with, and I say does "he go to your school?" And she says "well, like, he goes to like another school." And I say "Like he goes to another school, or he actually goes to another school?" and she'll glare at me. And then I'll ask what his last name is. "Like, his mother name is like Smith and his father's is like Jones so his name is like Joe Smith-Jones." And I'll say "LIKE can you get me the LIKE phone number of Ms. Like-Smith or Mr. Like-Jones so we can LIKE discuss this ?" Rolling eyes and huge sighs.
Oh, that reminds me, my spelling is falling into the black holes in my head. So I'll ask DH how to spell something and he'll say "just like it sounds." Grrrr. I KNOW how it sounds, I just said it, if I knew how to spell it I wouldn't have asked, I would have just written it. Just tell me how to spell the word.
Do you see what I mean?
Bless his/her heart.......(then something negative)
God's going to get me for saying this but........
"hellllooooo"
"I gotcha"
'gotcha'
I don't mean to interrupt but..
Are you doing anything important?
That's not fair
Good ones, rosie.
thanks victor
My favorite is
(although it is just a saying ...)
DON'T SQUAT WITH YOUR SPURS ON!
Ouch!
double ouch!
Being the grammar and language geek that I am, I hate when nouns are used as verbs. I cringe every time someone says "gifted". You didn't "gift" someone - you GAVE them a gift. Also, I got an e-mail the other day from my sister saying she was sending an invite.... another "grrr!" It's an invitation, not an invite! (although, I guess technically that's a verb being used as a noun, lol. Told you I was a geek!)
I also can't stand "ginormous" Ugh. Either say gigantic or enormous and be done with it.
Never liked "my bad" or "true that" either, but I guess thankfully they're passe now. Phew.
I could probably go on forever, but I guess that's enough for now, lol.
Oh, Carrie, at one time for awhile I repeated the word "like" every single time my daughter said it in a conversation with me. I just said it after she did every time. She could not believe how many times she said it - never realized it. I did the same thing with my mother, who constantly says "ya know?". Every time she said it, I said, "Yes, I know" She said I was driving her crazy, and I said "Yes, I know - you do the same to me, ya know?" LOL!
Great thread, Victor, as usual! Fun!
Dee
Oh yeah - 'my bad' is another recent one that is so overused.
Kids' language is a subject for a separate thread - or five.
Good ones, Dea. I agree with just about all.
cool beans
what does that even mean???
well, since English is my second language I make several mistakes and sometimes I just have no idea what people are saying when they use some expressions... but the one thing that gets me is a double negative...
LIKE when someone says "I don't like nobody" and things like this... (Carrie, I could not pass this since it's one that irritates me)...
It's hard for me!
The only thing that really irritates me is the use of expletives!
Jon
"It is what it is" I guess it also is not what it isn't
irregardless (already mentioned)
Use of lots of others to state one's opinion ("Everyone hates her")
To be totally honest with you (suggesting that you aren't usually honest)... lol!! Oh, yes the double negatives are a kicker!
Blah, blah, blah!!! Using blahs in place of words annoys me. I feel if you have something to say, say it and not add a blah to it. Eleanor
I use cool beans a lot cause it's the local coffee shop - Cool Beans!!!
the one that Randy says all the time that makes me grind my teeth is ... we'll see what happens.. he just says it too much
he is going to kill me for saying this but he puts 1 and 1 together.... not 2 and 2
:)
One day my daughter asked me to help her stop saying "like" as much. She was annoying herself. She said " hit me when I say like". So I did. (not hard) again and again and again. It actually got pretty amusing after a while. We were in the car and she couldn't go anywhere.
I hate it when people use IMO, BFF and other text message shortenings (abbreviations??) in verbal speech. I rarely text message but my kids do it all the time.
your call is very important to us
actually I was calling to ask, is your refrigerator running?
David, like "all the OTHER kids" ... wear eyeliner in 2nd grade, why can't I?
Kassia, "like" is a perfectly valid word in English, and the way you used it is the correct way to use it. In fact your English is good compared to some of the kids we're talking about. "Like" usually means similar but not necessarily the same. So if you say "something like a bush would look good there" you're really saying, "something similar to a bush but maybe not a bush, maybe a dwarf tree or a shrub or a large perennial or maybe a bush would look good there." If DD says "the teacher assigned like three people to my team" were they either people or robots or iPhones? Or there were 3 or maybe 2.6, 2.7 or 3.4 people? It's the second use were complaining about.
I'm pretty good about me/I and who/whom but the one that's just starting to elude me is me/myself.
IREGARDLESS!
There ain't no such stinken word, "regardless" of what they think.
Although I do have to say my favorite was when I was at an ice cream stand and was behind a women and her daughter. The mother was buying her an ice cream sundae as a treat for completing high school. When asked if she would like nuts on her sundae she replied, "No I don't want NO nuts."
Chuck
This message was edited Jul 2, 2009 9:08 AM
like is big on my dislike list - my daughter's use it all the time - think i will start repeating it every time they say it - i like that idea :)
but is another word i try and drop from my speech and written messages - it can only mean something negative - a business consultant pointed it out to me years ago - it can usually be replaced with "and" or simply dropped
the last is "organic" - i was in a business presentation showing some product designs and the customer picks up the product and says "this is a very organic design i think this well sell". well we did not disagree with him therethey were buying, (dropped but) when we got in the elevator to leave i asked the two guys i was with - can someone explain what the heck (replaced expletive) an organic design is? - we had a pretty good laugh at that - just someone trying to sound knowledgeable
Eye doughn't no watt yawl our crighin' 'bout, butt eye h8 wen thay doughn't typ write.
On TOP of all that mentioned above!
And split infinitives!
I think proper spelling and grammar is not stressed enough in school now. My daughter is dyslexic, so she has a partial excuse, but most of her spelling errors are phonetic so you can figure out what she is saying. Now she's into text message slang which I find really annoying.
Did anyone here have to diagram a sentence when in school? I guess they don't have to do that anymore.
willie are you talkin about my typing?!? fingers do not move as fast as the brain can't tell you how many times i "type" was when i meant to type saw - gets by spell check everytime.
I've mostly broken the kids of this one 'it's gay' I hate that one!
Split infinitives are not illegal as we were taught in school.' Me and Jane' drives me crazy. No they don't diagram anymore so don't know where words belong or why. My computer doesn't like it when I use an 'understood' pronoun as a subject--tough luck, machine.
Not talking about typos, per se, (yours included, Bill) but intentional bastardization of proper spellings, usages (or, lack thereof) .... e.g., shortcuts.
Although, technically, not proofreading one's typing is also a shortcut ... but an infinitely more forgivable shortcut!! I know all about the necessity of time management!!
What ever happened to "If something is worth doing at all, it is worth doing right" ????
(and, I did hem-'n-haw as to whether to include the ??? within the quote, or outside the quote)
This is a funny and interesting thread. I have a list of words/phrases that annoy me as well; but, you know, what truly annoys me is that said words/phrases enter the Merriam Webster dictionary and doesn't that mean their usage is acceptable?
Also, if you go back 100, 200, 1000 years ago, wouldn't people be having this discussion citing words/phrases that today we consider absolutely correct? It's an evolution, I guess.
Just think, "you da man" and "wassup" will become cultured English one of these good ole days....
Add to this the phenomenom of texting: "I'll c u 2morro". Also add globalization, with chinese using slang english words shorted for texting and with a chinese foundation (and vise versa) yikes! I'd better talk to you until I lose my voice and before we can't understand one another! lol
This message was edited Jul 2, 2009 9:37 AM
It absolutely drives me up the wall when people refer to something or someone they deem stupid as "retarded". it is so insensitive .
One of my favorite old sayings is one my husbands uncle Bibba used to say when someone was flying low “dead men don’t fall out windows “ Isn't that a hoot.
laura
DUDE
lolol...dude
dude is another joann - and callin people brother too
Some ofyou have used the words 'I hate' seems hating is the ultimate how one feels about something that does not do the word any justice. Hating is such a powerful word
Hate might be too strong a term.
Annoying might be closer Maria.
I read this thread and realized I have used many of these terms.
Some of them are old expressions and the OMG,LOL,etc
as well as other text terms are new.
Its the world we live in people.
Suck it up and deal with it.