One saying that would drive me insane was one of my co workers could never say ‘to be quite specific’. It would always be ‘to be quite Pacific’.
:smack:
Another one that irks me is saying something is “a hard road to hoe”. There is no road that requires hoeing. It’s “a hard ROW to hoe”, which makes much more sense.
I think this is related to my current pet peeve, using “I” when “me” is correct; e.g. “John gave some apples to Joe and I.” I have a number of otherwise good writers on my LiveJournal friends list who do this, and I cringe every time I see it. I can only guess that people who use this think that “I” sounds more correct, or perhaps that “me” is too casual. Wondering which to use? Take the other person out of the sentence: Would you say, “John gave some apples to I?” I certainly hope not, because that would be WRONG.
Another multi-peeve: “Yay or nay?” No, it’s “yea.”
“Yea, I understand what you’re saying.” No, it’s “yeah.”
If everyone could get that right, I would say, “Yay!”
My Aunt Karen was a secretary whose boss made the same error. Mr. R would dictate a letter and incorporate a phrase such as “the document I pacifically requested”. Aunt Karen often wished she had the guts to ask: “Don’t you mean Atlantically, Mr. R?” Adding to the humor of the situation, the employer in question was A&P – the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company!
By the way, although you can metaphorically “cut the mustard”, you do not (unless in a case analogous to the “Go passed the oak tree” scenario postulated by SSgtBaloo) “pass mustard” if you succeed. Rather, you pass muster.
So, what are you doing with poor Chester’s drawers? What is he wearing under his kilt?
Ahh, the good old Atlantic and Specific Tea Company!
There’s another message board I frequent where there’s this guy who cannot spell the word “and.” I’ve read every single post he’s ever made, vainly searching for one instance of his spelling it correctly, to no avail. He spells it “an.” E.g., “I bought bread an milk an cereal an cookies.”
How on earth can someone not know how to spell “and”? It can’t be a typo or momentary lapse as he’s never once spelled it right. I understand that “and” can sound like “an” if one drops the “d,” but has he never seen it written and realized that he’s been spelling it wrong?
More annoyances: people who want to be “discrete” with their relationships and people who have problems that “phase” them.
Doesn’t anyone read? How can people miss this kind of stuff?
I was going to complain about this, but there’s already been a flurry in support of “…another thing coming…” (which makes perfect sense, even in the example Q.E.D. uses above), which I was brought up on.
Quit being such a pre-Madonna.
http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifyuhvnrthnkcmng.shtml
“If you think that, you have another think coming” means “You are
mistaken and will soon have to alter your opinion”. This is now
sometimes heard with “thing” in place of “think”, but “think” is the
older version. Eric Partridge, in A Dictionary of Catch Phrases,
gives the phrase as “you have another guess coming”, “US: since the
1920s, if not a decade or two earlier”. Clearly “think” is closer
to “guess” than “thing” is. The OED gives a citation with “think”
from 1937, and no evidence for “thing”.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=have*2+7&dict=A
(informal) If someone has another think coming, they are mistaken:
If you expected him to pat you on the back, you had another think coming.
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861739855
“have got another think coming”: used to say that somebody is mistaken (informal)
If he thinks I’m going to help him he’s got another think coming.
http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?o=3001&service=en-de&query=coming
There seems to be an equivalent phrase in German, and I’m betting a hundred dollars it says it translates as “think coming”. German speakers?
I believe this settles it.
I hope I’m not gonna slap my forehead when someone answers this question, but what is “it’s feast or phantom” an incorrect rendition of?
Feast or famine
Feast or famine.
My personal pet peeve is one that is generally limited to the public sector:
According to my current client, we just started a new Physical Year here in Florida. :smack:
BlueKangaroo may have gotten in first, but I added an additional comment, so there. 
One incorrrect spelling that I first saw about 10 years ago – and attributed to someone’s poor education – has been cropping up regularly, I’ve found, among the supposedly educated: “payed” for “paid.”
Zakalwe reminded me that the secretary of my father, an attorney, always spoke aloud about the county’s Physical Court, despite often having to type documents referring to the Fiscal Court. This I could never figure out.
That reminds me of when someone, during the California recall election, described Schwarzenegger (probably accurately) as a social liberal and a physical conservative.
My friend does this all the time, especially on message boards and in text messages etc. It’s not that she doesn’t know how to spell, apparently, she just likes to ‘spell how she speaks’. Whatever… :rolleyes:
Argh! Yes! The misuse of “myself” is reaching epidemic proportions.
“If you wish to discuss this further, please talk to either John or myself…”
What? You want me to talk to yourself? And what form of body-swapping technology do you have that permits this? :smack:
P.S. Not to flog a dead horse, but how can the people who grow up with “another thing coming” (an understandable mistake) not have a huge :smack: moment when they first hear the correct “think” form, which is listed in all major English dictionaries and which makes so much more sense? I have tried and failed to comprehend this…
[QUOTE=Captain Roscoe]
My friend does this all the time, especially on message boards and in text messages etc. It’s not that she doesn’t know how to spell, apparently, she just likes to ‘spell how she speaks’. /QUOTE]
I cood by that if this gy speled lik this but he duznt. He spels farely wel. Wel, a good number of misteaks but overal ok. No wurs than haf the haf-illiturat pepul hoo post on mesaj bordz (not this bord, uv corse!) Its just that won word, “and.”
Sometimes I want to reach through my computer and shake him.
Because its not a rule its an idiom. And its changing. The dictionaries may have it one way but they soon will change as the language changes. From my part of the country I have never heard the think version and I doubt I ever will. And don’t go quoting the OED at me, I don’t speak English I speak American dammit . If you don’t think that language changes then you have another thing coming.
Yeah. let’s just allow anythng to fly in the language, no matter what.
Some causes are completely lost, like the pronunciation of “Wednesday”, but I’m putting my foot down on “another think coming” and “naseated” meaning “sickened” and “nauseous” meaning “sickening”.
What we have here is the difference in attitude that I’ve met before.
Friend: Isn’t it nice to get around people who don’t care about how you or they talk?
Me: NO.