Language fails that make you angry

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KingNothing
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These are the misuses of our language that REALLY bug me:

- Misusing "literally". People say things like "I literally have a million things to do."
--- No, you do not.
--- To deal with these people, I usually say things like "I hear you, I figuratively have a project due Wednesday", or "I figuratively have to go to the bathroom."

- Borrow vs Lend.
- Pronouncing 'etc.' "Eck-Cetera". I absolutely despise this and all who do this. I have noticed that 100% of the human resources staff at my place of work does this.
 
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Reminds me of this:

literally.png
 
Using "fail" in the sense used in this thread title is a major one.

The correct word is "failure".
 
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expresso instead of espresso
 
Ivan Seeking said:
You're a little high strung, aren't you. :smile:

A "little" high strung?
 
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The post could also be "language fails that make you mad" as in crazy?
 
jtbell said:
"Like" instead of "say", as in "He was like, 'I got to go to class next period.'"
Yeah, how do you explain that to a foreigner trying to learn English?
 
micromass said:
Reminds me of this:

literally.png
Bwuhahaha! Oh yeah!

KingNothing said:
- Pronouncing 'etc.' "Eck-Cetera". I absolutely despise this and all who do this. I have noticed that 100% of the human resources staff at my place of work does this.
What is the correct way to say it? "Et-setera"?
 
Ben Niehoff said:
Using "fail" in the sense used in this thread title is a major one.

The correct word is "failure".

Actually, this raises an interesting point. In linguistics, there is an ongoing debate beteen descriptivists and prescrpitivsts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_linguistics

language constantly evolves. For example, there is little doubt that the english of Shakespeare's time is very different from modern english. Of course there was never a point at which group of people to decided to "update" the language. This occurred via small and gradual changes.
As words take on new meanings or uses, more and more people understand what is meant by the new usage or word. At what point does that new usage become an "official" part of the language?

I would argue that "fail" and "literally" are different cases. "Fail" is a specific extension of the word, making "fail" usable as a noun with specific syntax. The new meaning flows from the previous meaning. In the case of "literally" someone is using the implied literal meaning of the word as a form of hyperbole, while actually using the word to mean its opposite. This is different, because it's not a particularly coherent use of language. In other words, unlike "fail" the meaning is not clear, and it reduces rather then enhances the range of possible lingual expression.
 
For all intensive purposes.

lolspeak in general. omg wtf ur lmao derp etc >.>
 
Adyssa said:
For all intensive purposes.

lolspeak in general. omg wtf ur lmao derp etc >.>

"all intensive purposes" is a great one!

I once heard a mom say about her son's bad behavior, "I'm going to nip that in the butt before it gets out of hand!"
 
KingNothing said:
These are the misuses of our language that REALLY bug me:

- Misusing "literally". People say things like "I literally have a million things to do."
--- No, you do not.
--- To deal with these people, I usually say things like "I hear you, I figuratively have a project due Wednesday", or "I figuratively have to go to the bathroom."

- Borrow vs Lend.
- Pronouncing 'etc.' "Eck-Cetera". I absolutely despise this and all who do this. I have noticed that 100% of the human resources staff at my place of work does this.

"they were loosing the battle." I literally read that in a book ("The Hinge Factor").
 
"I seen him at the pool." :grit teeth:

In a myriad of ways. : vision fading:
 
vela said:
When people hyper-correct and use I instead of me.

"The dog followed Sandra and I around the house."

That one bothers me as well. Who would say, "The dog followed I around the house?"

Where are you at? *cringe*

One should never end a sentence with the word at. :P
 
DaveC426913 said:
In a myriad of ways. : vision fading:
In English, the term "myriad" is most commonly used to refer to a large number of an unspecified size. In this way "myriad" can be used as either a noun or an adjective.[1] Thus both "there are myriad people outside" and "there is a myriad of people outside" are correct.[2]

Merriam-Webster notes, "Recent criticism of the use of myriad as a noun, both in the plural form myriads and in the phrase a myriad of, seems to reflect a mistaken belief that the word was originally and is still properly only an adjective... however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun myriad has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton (plural myriads) and Thoreau (a myriad of), and it continues to occur frequently in reputable English."[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad
 
Here are some common mistakes people make in conversation.

reed - read. You read a newpaper, not reed it. That would be like rolling it up to look like a clarinet and playing on it.

red - read. You read a newspaper, not red it. That would be like taking red paint and covering what should be black and white all over. Except the Sunday funnies.

red - wreadte. You paint a newspaper red, not wreadte. That's not even a word.

write - right. You write a letter, not right a letter. Unless the letter was tilted.

wrote - rote. You wrote a letter, not rote it. That doesn't make any sense at all.

Please be more careful in your speech in the future in order to avoid these misunderstandings.
 
I'm surprised nobody has brought up:
You're vs. Your
Their vs. There vs. They're

Also, I hate it when people put an 'a' in the word 'definitely'.
To quote a comic from theoatmeal.com, "If you put an 'a' in 'definitely', you are definitely an a-hole".
 
How about when "definitely" turns into "defiantly"? This one always reveals who is relying on spell- and grammar-check, as neither one will catch this mistake.
 
Ben Niehoff said:
How about when "definitely" turns into "defiantly"? This one always reveals who is relying on spell- and grammar-check, as neither one will catch this mistake.

I can forgive that slight mistake if it is due to a long string of text and a person merely overlooks it. I cringe more when it is spelled definitely
 
m-w has a couple good lists of this sort of thing
http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-commonly-confused-words-vol-1/flaunt-flout.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-commonly-confused-words-vol-2/flush-out-flesh-out.html
 
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D4V1D said:
I'm surprised nobody has brought up:
You're vs. Your
Their vs. There vs. They're
The one that really used to bug me is its vs. it's. Now I've become numb to it.

Misspellings don't really bother me, but some do mystify me, like taunt instead of taut. I guess it's not really a misspelling. Some people think taunt means taut.
 
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