Hi Geezer
What expressions (or words) drive you nuts??
How about an annoying gardening one - 'moist, but well-drained'!
Good one Victor/Roxanne...I have trouble with "bright shade".
How about full sun/part sun.
I have part sun/full shade all over my (here's another one I swear I would never use, even though I say ginormous all the time) YARDEN!
How about full sun but moist soil???
=swamp?
Part sun vs part shade.
Hi punk! (Deb)
Thought of another one - 'As the crow flies.' What's wrong with, 'In a straight line'? And are we sure crows fly straight? Or straighter than other birds?
As a finch flies? They move up & down, so it would be longer.
hummmm . . . the only adults my children ever address as "Mr." or "Miss" or "Mrs." were teachers. Everyone we knew called each other by their first names - except relatives who were Auntie Sue or Uncle Jack, or Grandma Dorthy, etc.
My children were still expected to be respectful of others. What I did not want was the kind of obligatory obedience to adults that led to abuse of children. At the time when my children were growing up, the news was filled with stories of sexual abuse of children by teachers and priests (somehow this was revealed in Canada a decade before it became an issue in the States). As a consequence, I wanted my children to be empowered to act - and one way was to eliminate that sense of adults having special privilege.
It was probably an over-reaction on my part - but I grew up in a world where blind obedience to adults was expected - no questions asked. And every authority figure was to be complied with - no exceptions.
Have you read the stories in the Hartford Courant about the sexual abuse by the doctor in Hartford a few decades ago? Only one mother complained to the hospital, & was basically ignored---this man abused thousands of young children.
Ugh.
Many of my lingual pet peeves have already been mentioned, but I can't resist casting another vote for
"it is what it is" and "irregardless".
I'd like to add:
"whatnot"
"I need you to know"
"let's parking lot this for now"
"where are you at?"
"towards"
A lot of things athletes say in interviews. Example - Reporter: "How do you feel about the way the team played tonight?" Athlete: "I mean we went out there and gave 110% but that wasn't enough. It is what it is, you know? We've just got to get back out there and take it one day at a time and then at the end of the day we'll see where we're at."
And when ironic and literally are ironically and literally misused.
GS, Great entries (I hate corporate speak like "lets parking lot that for now") but I must ask why you don't like "towards"?
"Towards" is just a nit-picky thing. The proper usage (as I understand it anyway) is simply "toward".
I never even heard of "let's parking lot that for now". Guess I've been lucky so far....
Neither did I. maybe because I'm not in the corporate world.
This message was edited Jul 9, 2009 11:24 PM
I am in the corporate world & there are many phrases or words that jar my ears.
I haven't heard parking lot used as a verb...yet...but since some concept or thing "drives" an outcome, I'm certain there is a need to park it at times. (rolling my eyes........................)
I find acronyms irritating & severely lacking in their ability to communicate ideas.
Word!
'In your face' is also overused, though I sometimes use it myself. Is the opposite, 'Up your ***'???
Since English is my second language that started in the first grade till it ended when I was in college, I never learned about some of the colloquialism and expressions some people use in this country.
I was never shy to ask if I could not understand what has been said during a conversation causing a few times embarrassment to some speakers with him not speaking up nor any one else offering an explanation when finally my husband said, "I will tell you later"...:-)))
Least fav from my 7th graders---"This sucks!"
Tell it to the hand .... or did someone else already say that?
I hear alot of "quote unquote" in conversation where there is not anything being quoted with finger or hand signals. I never asked why. Has anyone else noticed it or is it a regional thing?.
my mother always says she is going to Walmarks not Walmart she also says gooses not geese no matter how many time I correct her her response is well thats how I say it. Well it's wrong!!!!!
When I was home schooling my daughter (second grade) she got into an argument with my mother about the gooses
I had to settle it and my mothers response was no one likes a smarty pants and thats how I say it. (I wanted to strangle her!) Geat influence on my children.
What-cha-ma-call-it - when they came out with the candy bar, I was young my mother took us children into the store and said we could pick out a candy I told her I wanted a what-cha-macall it, she asked me three times and I answered the same she smacked me and told me now I would get nothing before the lady behind the counter told her it was a candy bar.
Never knew that was a candy bar.
I don't like to hear double negatives also 'he don't' instead of he doesn't
Where I grew up many people say sangwhich. Worse yet, the plural of you as yous.
GS, Of course! Move toward the light.
Now you're opening a can of worms, Dave. Mispronunciations are another category entirely! Queens English is not the Queen's English.
One I never liked, though many, if not most, Italians use it, is 'gravy' instead of 'sauce.'
Torriesmom,
A lot of us use quotes to designate a sort of so-called status (eg "real" men). When I lived in FL, I found they over-used quotes where I couldn't figure out their intended meaning (eg we sell "quality" used cars). To me this contradicted what they were hoping to achieve.
You mean like Florida 'voting', Dave?
Another gardening one - 'hand-pollinating', gives me pause (whatever that means).
Victor, That always struck me as funny too. I think it is a regional (region of Italy or region of America the Italians moved to) thing. We always said sauce. We also don't ever put onions in it.
But I will save pronunciation for a future thread
Good one!
'I took umbrage'.
Steve Allen used to say, 'I took umbrage. Then I took a cab.'
Umbrage is so odd that I actually like it. Uncouth and crotchety too. (Crotchety = too much crotch?)
This message was edited Jul 11, 2009 10:51 PM
True. 'Taken aback' is a strange one too.
See, I like all those old, odd words! I was "taken aback" when my 16-year-old son (who by the way, is rather crotchety!) used the word "hence" the other day. But I did not take umbrage.
Hee hee. You're lucky if that's all he is at 16!
'Believe you me' irritates me.
Oh, speaking of uncouth, I always wonder about words that don't seem to have a corresponding opposite. If one is uncouth, can one be couth? If one is ruthless, can one be ruth, or ruthful?
I suppose that's for another thread too.
Oh, and I know pronunciation is also for another thread, but we have a long-standing joke in the family, based on a long-ago conversation on pronunciation, and now we all say "sausage sandwich" as "zauzage sangwich". Dave just reminded me of that.