Words or phrases that drive you mad

biscit

anamenottaken wrote: »

Decimate originally meant to reduce by a tenTH.

There was a good joke delivered by John Sim in Doctor Who that explained that. Hang on someone's bound to have written it down, I'll google it:

The_Master wrote:

The Master: I]To Lucy[/IShall we decimate them? That sounds good, nice word... decimate. I]To the Toclafane[/IRemove one tenth of the population!

celyn90

"domestic goddess"

Anyone can make cake or switch the hoover on. You are not a goddess unless you really wander round wrapped a sheet and can turn yourself into a kiwi fruit at will. I will be impressed if you can bring down a plague of locusts. I will not be impressed with you making a prawn salad.

I also hate getting letters or emails where people list their qualifications after their name. I am sure you are truly truly unique; just like everyone else I run into on a day to day basis.

biscit

kathleenryd wrote: »

Slight diversion but this bugs me - whenever someone orders a pint of beer in the Rovers Return they get a pint - but of what? Beer, lager, bitter, cider. They're not all locals. The bar staff never ask.

Bitter. "A pint" (usually) means a pint of the main bitter in the north, unless you specify. A pint of lager is a pint of lager, even if you're a regular. It's like beer usually means bitter in England outside of the South East, when lager is a type of beer. This is English as it is used, not a misuse of the language.

Tiddlywinks

Another vote for the annoying 'should of' and could of'.

Also, people now seem to drop the letter 'n' from the end of words when writing and I worry now that they really believe that it is 'an' instead of 'and' or 'havin' instead of 'having' etc.

Oh, and what about 'Mom' instead of 'Mum'?

I don't know why I read threads on this subject as they only make my blood boil :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.

kathleenryd

biscit wrote: »

Bitter. "A pint" (usually) means a pint of the main bitter in the north, unless you specify. A pint of lager is a pint of lager, even if you're a regular. It's like beer usually means bitter in England outside of the South East, when lager is a type of beer. This is English as it is used, not a misuse of the language.

What about a pint of mild or guiness?

celyn90

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

I don't know why I read threads on this subject as they only make my blood boil :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I'm reading it because I now know it's not me, it's them

All of them.

dzug1

kathleenryd wrote: »

Using 'sat' instead of 'sitting'. It's often people you would think were educated and literate that make this mistake.


K

or even 'I was sat sitting'

Wogan used to send that up

dzug1

savvyme wrote: »

People who say "Critique" instead of criticise and also "sexualize" or "sexualisation" are used a lot. These are made up words surely!!!! :mad:

critique is a valid word, but it's a noun, not a verb

dzug1

hansi wrote: »

what about could of and should of instead of could have and should have

Agree - but to be fair it's instead of could've and should've. People think they are being a bit posh by unabbreviating them and just show themselves up instead.

biscit

lovebargainshatewaste wrote: »

The grammar and spelling issue gets to me too. English isn't my first language, so if I can do it, why can't the natives do it?

It's the attitude that reasonable spelling, and the use of paragraphs is an obscure and difficult skill only within the reach of those who went to posh private schools or who are super intellects. Rather than in the reach of most people who can be bothered. The attempts to define a basic set of everyday skills as something that is highly intellectual and heavily specialised actually offend me.

I mean sure, everyone makes the odd typo, but there's a difference between writing the odd wrong word and consistently writing a stream of gibberish with every second or third word wrong, that reads like it was spoken to you at a bus stop rather than written down.

I feel sorry for people with genuine reading disabilities such as dyslexics, we shouldn't be giving their benefit of the doubt to people who really don't deserve it.