I’ve heard way too much of phrases like “Our family’s had a cabin up north for generations, yeah we go there any more.”
My brain hears a negative, and fills in a “don’t”. The first time I replied with “That’s too bad, why not?”; now I’ve learned to wait and mentally dissect their sentence before I say anything.
Though what I really want to say is “WHAT are you saying? You do know that is not English, right?”
That’s it! It sounds like a negative, but it snot.
Despite multiple attempts to explain it to me, I will never understand why people have a problem with the positive any more, which I use all the time.
“Any more” essentially means, “Now, unlike in the past.”
“I don’t go there any more” = “I don’t go there now, unlike in the past, when I did.”
“I go there a lot any more” = “I go there a lot now, unlike in the past, when I didn’t.”
If the first sentence is correct, how can the second sentence be wrong? “Any more” is being used in exactly the same way in both sentences! It’s contrasting the present state of things with a different state of things which existed previously.
Anymore implies you stopped. I used to do something, but I don’t do it anymore.
This aggravation speaks to me because it’s one of my hot buttons too. I hate it.
EDIT: Apparently there are two different forms: anymore and any more. Also apparently, they mean different things. Two words refers to a quantity (I don’t want any more food.) While anymore refers to time. (We don’t do that anymore.)
One of the synonyms for anymore is any longer, and I think those of us with this peeve read it that way. I don’t think any longer works in a positive sense either: “I go there a lot any longer” sounds just as wrong to me as “I go there a lot anymore.”
I’m surprised the positive anymore is a real regionalism. The first time I heard it, I thought “that person doesn’t understand English!”
The cops and newspeople have adopted the term ‘Sideshow’ for the illegal (and dangerous) street racing and general Jackassery that the kids are doing these days. In LA, they call it a ‘Street Takeover’ which I have no problem with. Very descriptive. But fucking ‘Sideshow’ sounds like a nice happy little gathering. Meanwhile, people are gettiing killed, and perfectly good cars and tires are being abused. Stoopid, and I hate it!
Kids, stoopid, and cars. A trifecta of latent miscreantism. Just add in some women to show off for, some recreational substances, and let the “fun” begin!
Not that young me didn’t participate in more than my share of illegal street racing late into the L.A. night. But we had the “good sense” to do it in closed industrial parks far from residential or commercial areas where non-participants might be affected. Besides, there were fewer cops where we went. And even more fortunately: far, far fewer vid cameras.
I am a Kansan and I tend to put an “r” in words, like the university I attended Wa"r"shburn University. And the street it is on is the same name, and I warsh my clothes.
Some accents leave out R when it is in a word. I knew a gal in basic training whose surname was Bardecker. She pronounced it Bahdeckah.
We had a friend who switched the R from her last name to her first:
Donnar Sylvestah.
(Donna Sylvester, of course)
I’m starting to get really irritated by any ‘news’ reports that include the expressions “but some say”, or “but some believe”. For one thing, these statements are ususally completely undocumented as to quantity or the qualifications of those holding the contrarian view. The expressions are also completely inane, since there are always some crackpots around who will deny any otherwise inarguable fact. The expressions seem to be used only to generate interest from some false sense of conflict.
The reporters seemingly do it because it works – I can’t dispute that – and that irritates and depresses me.
Some say the earth is flat!
100% this.
Another unpleasant reportorial trick is to claim that something is “growing”—as in headlines such as ‘Growing Concerns that Democrats Will Lose Every Midterm Race’ or 'Increasing Doubts that Biden Can Get Anything Done’ and the like.
Never is there any evidence presented that these claims have factual support of any kind.
For some reason, the word “bespoke” kinda irks me. I’m not sure why, it’s just that I never really noticed it being used until 5-10 years ago. I could swear everything used to just be “custom” or “custom-made” before. It’s possible that after I learned it I succumbed to the Baader-Meinhof effect, and now I hear it everywhere and it just inexplicably needles me a tiny bit.
Would you like to go back to everything being “artisanal”?
But I’d say “bespoke” is even more “full of one’s self”.
Yeah, “artisanal” has kind of died down a bit, hasn’t it? I’m pretty sure I still hear it often enough, but not as much as I used to about ten years ago or so. It became kind of a parody of itself with its ubiquity, though.
I know why it irks me - because people who use “bespoke” often don’t know what it means and use it as a synonym for “custom-made” which it really isn’t. Everything that is bespoke is also custom , but it doesn’t work the other way around.
Can you help? Like I said, I’m not that familiar with the word except as I’ve noticed recently. Merriam-Webster online gives the first definition simply as “custom-made.” What’s the differentiation?
“Custom-made” would include a suit or dress made from a pre-existing pattern adjusted to a particular person’s measurements or furniture where the buyer chooses the fabric and finish for an existing design and the furniture is produced only after it is ordered,
Bespoke clothing is not made from a pre-existing pattern that was adjusted. The tailor makes a new pattern from scratch based on the client’s measurements which allows a more precise fit that adjusting an existing pattern. Bespoke furniture would be a newly designed one-of-a-kind piece.
I think I’ll snap the next time I hear “Teach the controversy” or “You have to respect both sides”.
Heck, for over a decade now if someone starts off “Some say…” I expect to hear them introducing the Stig.