Any particular word(s), phrase(s), etc. you particularly despise?

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jarednjames said:
What just happened here?

Verbal jiu jitsu :devil:.
 
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jarednjames said:
What just happened here? Then again, so does the word Ubuntu. It can't even spell it's own name.
:smile:

Danger said:
Unless they are exactly equal in their arrival times, which is physically impossible, we would follow the traffic regulations. The first one has the right-of-way, then the next in line. If there is doubt as to who is next, the one to the right of the first goes next.
If it is unclear as to who was there first, we would sit around for about 5 minutes, and then all drive into a cluster-**** in the middle at the same time. We're polite, but not always overly brilliant.

That's why we invented roundabouts. (Disclaimer: I don't know if we invented roundabouts.)
Unless they're mini-roundabouts, in which case trouble ensues.
Do you have roundabouts in Canada? I gather from The Simpsons they're not in the US.
 
nobahar said:
:smile:



That's why we invented roundabouts. (Disclaimer: I don't know if we invented roundabouts.)
Unless they're mini-roundabouts, in which case trouble ensues.
Do you have roundabouts in Canada? I gather from The Simpsons they're not in the US.

While isolated specimens can be found, they so rare as to render the species ecologically extinct. Iow, they cannot comingle to mate and multiply. Probably a climate thing.
 
Ben Niehoff said:
How about "for all intensive purposes"?

Do people actually say that?

Correct = "for all intents and purposes" isn't it?
 
jarednjames said:
Do people actually say that?

Correct = "for all intents and purposes" isn't it?

People say it, yes, and they insist I am wrong when I correct them. At best they'll concede that maybe the phrase has two equally-correct versions. :\
 
Ben Niehoff said:
People say it, yes, and they insist I am wrong when I correct them. At best they'll concede that maybe the phrase has two equally-correct versions. :\
There are dictionaries and class courses for people like that.
 
Ben Niehoff said:
How about "for all intensive purposes"?

Nice.

I saw "albeit" written as "all be it" once. By an otherwise intelligent person, even.
 
Ben Niehoff said:
How about "for all intensive purposes"?
Oh, that's a good one!
 
OK, one that's always bothered me:

"a myriad of" in place of simply "myriad"

Apparently though, the wrongness of the former is rapidly fading; it has been declared OK to use in myriad sources.
 
Another one becoming quite prevalent is "per say".

However, I think the one thing the drives me the most nuts (aside from what's already been written) is people using "everyday" as an adverb (in place of "every day").
 
As a food lover, I just cringe when ever I hear the term "au jus" misused, which is all of the time.

Au jus is the French term for "with juice", the juice being the natural juices from the meat, as in "roast beef au jus" (roast beef with juice). It is not "roast beef with au jus", which would be "roast beef with with juice".
 
Got, i have got drives me nuts.
 
Ben Niehoff said:
However, I think the one thing the drives me the most nuts (aside from what's already been written) is people using "everyday" as an adverb (in place of "every day").

That would be one of those everyday annoyances, wouldn't it?
 
Hurkyl said:
Literally, when not used literally. :frown:
There's an auto insurance commercial in heavy rotation in which a woman says that when she saw her quote "I literally fell out of my chair." Ack!
 
Evo said:
As a food lover, I just cringe when ever I hear the term "au jus" misused, which is all of the time.

Au jus is the French term for "with juice", the juice being the natural juices from the meat, as in "roast beef au jus" (roast beef with juice). It is not "roast beef with au jus", which would be "roast beef with with juice".

Add to that the fact that most people neglect to pronounce the S in "jus". Just because a word is French doesn't not mean you can just ignore any final consonants.
 
Ben Niehoff said:
Add to that the fact that most people neglect to pronounce the S in "jus". Just because a word is French doesn't not mean you can just ignore any final consonants.

I thought you only pronounced the final consonant if it is followed by a vowel? (Vowel must be in the same word)
 
Back to the subject at hand, as per another thread:

When people use weight when they mean mass. (For example "It weighs 20kg")

I know it isn't such a massive issue in everyday life, what with Earths gravity being fairly consistent and the subject of conversations generally being about an object on Earth, but it really does bug me.
 
Ben Niehoff said:
Add to that the fact that most people neglect to pronounce the S in "jus". Just because a word is French doesn't not mean you can just ignore any final consonants.
Oh zhew is correct in French. Perhaps it's ok to add the s sound at the end in English.
 
People that can't type the word something, and even worse may not even know that the word something exists.

From a Homework question I just saw "I wanted to ask sth".
 
I know a person who says "doggy dog" instead of "dog eat dog", and I though he was an unfortunate aberration until I read a political op-ed recently saying that the the political climate in DC was "doggy dog".
 
When people say,
"We are doing really good" instead of "We are doing really well"

"No offense but..." When what you say is honestly going to irk them
 
turbo-1 said:
I know a person who says "doggy dog" instead of "dog eat dog", and I though he was an unfortunate aberration until I read a political op-ed recently saying that the the political climate in DC was "doggy dog".
:smile:
 
Another one that really sickened me was "disbursed". It was mis-used over and over by a very pompous woman that I worked with. She would say "I disbursed the reports" instead of "I distributed the reports" or something similar. Disbursed means that you have made a payment, especially out of a dedicated fund. Maybe she meant "dispersed" as in "spread them to the winds" which might have been a better commentary on her efforts at properly distributing them.
 
Oh! People who think that the word is "walla", likely because they hear "voilà" constantly mispronounced.

Also. "People that" rather than "people who". Or "women that" or "doctors that". Blerg! Those are all humans, even when you're referring to them by titles. "Doctors who like to jog..."

That one seriously gets on my nerves.
 
GeorginaS said:
Oh! People who think that the word is "walla", likely because they hear "voilà" constantly mispronounced.
Never heard that one...

Walla?

Is the human race regressing to oral learning? Don't people read anymore?
 

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