I don’t know why, but ‘somewhat of a’ is really sticking in my craw lately.
He’s somewhat of a dancer.
It’s somewhat of a good cheese.
I think it’s somewhat of a resonable expectation.
Argh. It’s like, phrases using like!
What turn of phrase is bugging you now?
One that always gets my goat is, “If you get my drift”, followed by wink wink. Hate those inuendos.
There’s a lot of phrases I don’t like, you know what I’m sayin, and many come to mind, you know what I’m sayin, but the one I hate the most and I mean the most, you know what I’m sayin, I can’t really think of right now, you know what I’m sayin?
“Mental telepathy” always makes me grind my teeth. IF there is such a thing as telepathy among humans, yes, it’s gonna be mental.
I read a science fiction book in which the telepathy among aliens was actually physical/chemical, but that was because the aliens exchanged body portions and then “read” the memories and thoughts of each other.
“Needless to say” and “it goes without saying”. So don’t. Or do, but don’t use those phrases to preface what you obviously are going to say.
My problem is that folks tend to pick up phrases (I do too) unwittingly, and then incorporate them such that they don’t even know they’re doing it. One guy ended tons of statements with ‘the whole nine yards’, another said ‘in terms of’
Of course, after noting that, I can’t remember any exact quotes…but they’d say it a lot, and it was annoying.
“Think about it.”
To me it says, “I just told you something that I myself have NOT thought about, but have convinced myself is true. Please make the required leap/lapse in judgement or logic to arrive at the same conclusion.”
Not really a phrase, but I hate the Twitter-related convention of calling people “@Ravenman.”
Get that stupid friggin’ @ out of there.
http://support.twitter.com/articles/14023-what-are-replies-and-mentions
(Didn’t know if you realized it went from a convention for addressing a message in a general-broadcast system, to being an actual function. Now it’s even less likely to stop.)
There is emotional telepathy.
I can tell when my wife is pissed at me without a word from her. 
That does not make me a happy camper. (A phrase I hate)
Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of phrases I don’t like, I mean, and many come to mind, I mean, but the one I hate the most and I mean the most, I mean, I can’t really think of right now, I mean.
The Whole Nine Yards. But only because someone I disliked used it all the time.
Beginning any sentence with “I feel like…” when the person speaking is not referring to:
•a statement of his or her health;
•a tactile sensation or a comparison of one’s health to a descriptor (such as “shit” as in “I feel like shit.”); or
•is specifically talking about emotions.
Opinions are not emotions. There is absolutely nothing wrong with, and no one will be offended by, simply stating an opinion as an opinion. When people start out with “I feel like…” what they really mean is “I think…” or “My opinion is…” Don’t couch your language in touchy-feely emotional statements when you are talking about facts or opinions. This is so pervasive, I’ve heard it on cable news, I’ve heard teachers use this phrase, I’ve heard it everywhere. At least once a day in conversation, someone starts talking about facts or opinions in terms of their emotions.
Example: A bunch of people are hanging out partying together at a beach house. Person A walks into the common room and asks Person B if she’s seen Person C. Her response? “I feel like he’s in the shower.” :smack: Gah!
I firmly blame the parents and teachers of Generation Precious Snowflake, in which everyone is a winner, everyone gets a trophy or a ribbon, there are no losers, and teachers can’t grade papers with red pens for fear of making a child feel insecure about failure. :rolleyes: This “I feel like” bullshit started somewhere around the mid- to late-90s when this generation was taught that stating a firm strong opinion or a corroborative, provable fact could possibly be offensive to someone else and hurt their feeeeeeeeelings. So we all play this game with bullshit, imprecise language in order to avoid hurting the feeeeeeeeeelings of some precious fucking snowflake.
But I’m not bitter.
Dogzilla - you picked a good one - one that gets on my nerves plenty. A colleague (during her job search) was talking to me about an answer to a stock interview question, and her standard was “I feel”. I wanted to smack her upside the noggin. No you don’t feel that the revenue (blah blah) you think. It sounds so unprofessional and I really hate hearing it in a professional environment. with the exceptions as noted above - or lunch preferences (“I feel like having sushi”).
Another one bugging me is “at this point in time”. That phrase never used to bother me, but now I know someone who uses it as their filler almost, and it comes out of his mouth several times during a conference call. I always think that the phrase weakens what he said.
I’m right there with ya on that one, too. Why use all those words when you can just say “now”? Is it really that difficult? I think people just want to sound smarter than they are, so they throw a lot of extraneous words in there, or multi-syllabic words, to make themselves sound all pretentious and shit.
This is my same rant against “utilize.” There is hardly any reason ever to utilize that word. (See what I did right there?) “Use” is so much more efficient. Why waste three syllables when one is perfectly clear?
“Utilize” conveys a sense of proficiency or expertise.
I can’t belief no one has picked on the infamous “i could care less”. Well, if you really could care less, why don’t you work on that and get back to me when “you could not care less”. It demonstrates a lack of resolve in focusing your hatred.
I’m not sure how I feel about “haters gonna hate”. On the one hand it seems like an innocent tautology, but who is a hater ALL of the time? Even “haters” don’t always hate. Perhaps they are generally miserable and bitter human beings, but even then I think it is too much of a generalization. IDK. I’m still working on this one.
I did business extensively with a guy who was a salesman who would pepper his sentences with, “the thing about it is…” or “Here’s the thing…” or “The fact of the matter is…”
What he was doing was giving himself time to phrase his thought with this mindless spacer phrase and it drove me nuts. He was using it in almost every-other-sentence and when I called him on it, he didn’t even realize it was happening.
Just about every breastfeeding thread or convo I’ve ever seen/heard uses the phrase “whipped it out” or “whipped out a tit”. Sure, there’s less than discreet ways of breastfeeding, but come on now.
There’s the other one I was thinking of!