# Phrases/terms that aggravate the hell out of you

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [October 26, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894 "2020-10-26T02:04:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1113

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/1113 "2022-08-30T19:03:20Z")

</div>

> [@GreysonCarlisle](#):
>
> But I say yes, literally can mean figuratively, and it often does. I literally died laughing!

I strongly resist this, because then we don’t have a word that means “literally.” If someone actually, literally died, how do you say so?

> [@GreysonCarlisle](#):
>
> Hung:  
> Convention holds that things are hung and people are hanged. I don’t see any good reason for the distinction, so I ignore it.

I suppose one could try to argue that there are two separate verbs “to hang” that have different past tenses/participles; but it’s probably not a particularly useful distinction.

> [@GreysonCarlisle](#):
>
> Whom:  
> Personally, I don’t use whom much. I think it’s archaic and overly hypercorrected, and as such, it has little utility in current English.

Once in a while, using “whom” makes a sentence clearer. I’ve seen examples of this, but I can’t think of any right now.

> [@GreysonCarlisle](#):
>
> Lay/Lie

This is one where it really helps to know about transitive vs. intransitive verbs.

A couple I’d add to your list:

**Phenomenon/Phenomena**  
**Criterion/Criteria**  
In each case, the second word is the plural of the first.

**May/Might**  
This one’s tricky. I often see people use “may” where I think “might” would be more appropriate. Years ago I started a [thread asking about this](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-i-may-wish-i-might/410150).

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894)._