Things like “Future Forecast”
I was watching the weather last night and noticed that on this particular station, it’s titled “Future Forecast”. Can somebody please explain what that means?! Isn’t a “Forecast” future enough? How can you have a “future future weather prediction”?
ARRRGHHHH!!
Anyone else have English-Language slaughters or tweaks that just grates on them to hear?
“Dead body” has always made me crazy.
“Up to…” as in “Earn UP TO $1,500 per week!” “UP TO 50% faster/bigger/cleaner/off!”
Sort of renders the whole premise up to 100% meaningless, doesn’t it?
My major dislike is the use of “bring” when “take” should be used. As in " Jump in I will bring you to town". No you won’t. It’s “I will take you to town”.
Bring is from there to here.
Take is from here to there.
This misuse is so prevalent that it’s carrying over to “come”. People are beginning to say “I’m coming on a cruise” instead of “I am going on a cruise”.
Spritle has the ole “good/well” thing going on.
Spritle also has a BIG problem with “should have went”.
“They had the best time at the concert; I should have went with them.”
Spritle also has a problem with “like” being used 5 or 6 times in one sentence, but that’s a bit different.
I hate it when people use “borrow” instead of “lend”. As in, “Will you borrow me a dollar?” This usage seems most common in the Midwest, at least I know I only heard it frequently while living there.
My current word usage pet peeve - the phrase “a lot” (as in “a whole bunch”) being written as one word - “alot”. Second on my blood pressure list - incorrect past tenses like “So I says…” or “My girlfriend come over last night…” and “I seen those guys in concert last year”. Arrggh.
Any time nouns are suddenly turned into verbs. This is particularly prevalent in the corporate world.
“Let’s dialogue on this project over lunch.”
“PeneTrode and FutureDigiTeleCom are synergying.”
Not to mention useless verbiage like “go ahead.”
“I’m going to go ahead and puke all over your shoes.”
Then there’s “outsourcing”. What kind if deranged mother of fuck made that one up?
There are so many more, but I am just too irritated thinking about these abuses to come up with any more.
Listening to BBC radio on NPR this morning I was horrified to hear the reporter describe someone as being “orientated” toward something. Now, I’m a big fan of the continued growth of our language. Sometimes we need new words. Our world is changing and our language needs to keep up with it. But this, I just don’t understand. Adding an extra syllable while retaining the original meaning? Why?
Mine are pronunciations:
My parents pronounce wash with an R in it. “Can you warsh the dishes?” Huh? (This includes the Can/May annoyance also.)
My brother pronounces unfortunately like Onfortunately.
I’m irritated my the mis/overuse of the word “much.” My friends use it constantly. “I’m MUCH hungry,” or “That bluse is MUCH cute!” if someone’s ranting, they might intone, “Gee, angry much?” Or if spending a lot at the mall, “Splurge much?”
My grandmother also puts an “r” in the word “wash.” She also pronounces “dish” with a long “e” which comes out “Could you warsh the deeshes?” Or, “We’re having feesh for lunch.”
Another pet peeve: using the word “go” to mean “say.” Such as, “Then I go, ‘no way!’ and she goes, ‘yeah, that’s how it happened,’ then I go . . .” My guess is that it comes from all of those toys we had as kids that used to intone “The cow goes moo, and the dog goes woof!”
The use of the word “brung” gets to me as well, because, after all, it isn’t a WORD. “Sheila came over and she brung me a couple of videos.”
pre-recorded for airing at this time
As opposed to being recorded in the future?
“Irregardless”
“Nucular” - actually got into an argument with someone who claimed that this monstrosity was the proper pronunciation
“10 Items or Less” - FEWER, FEWER, FEWER!!! (though I have seen some places using “10 Items or Fewer” signs)
“To try and <verb>” instead of “To try to <verb>”
{I’m still out about “enthused” vs. “enthusiastic”. I find myself using the former more often than the latter, though I should probably know better.}
::goes off to let blood pressure return to normal::
I watch alot–whoops, I mean a lot–of sports, and a couple of mine are:
“Time out on the field” or “Time out on the court”. Where else would the time out come from?!!!
In at least every game, there are 5-10 players that are described as “the best in the league”. Seems like nearly every player is the best at one point or another!
Verbifying nouns and nounifying verbs
shiver
‘Drown’ is a present tense verb.
‘Drowned’ is its past tense.
‘Drownded’ is not a word at all. Grrr.
Using nauseous instead of nauseated. I feel nauseated. A smell is nauseous. If I felt nauseous I would be making you sick. Maybe it is one of those things that has become so prevalent it is accepted now, though.
Also - this may not be very obvious in other parts of the country, but my grandmother shops at “Wal-Mark” instead of Wal-Mart and she goes to “Starksville” instead of Starkville. She pulls letters out of the blue to add to words. Alot of country-folk do that, I have noticed.
Then of course there is the infamous past tense of “drag”: drug.
My mother-in-law has her own version of “y’all” - she says “you” for singular and “youze” for plural. I don’t know if this is a Midwestern thing or if it’s her own personal construction.
And then there’s the infamous New England intensifier - “wicked.” “That class was wicked boring,” etc.
I hate it when people use anyways. Very annoying.