# Things in English that annoy you. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537 "2010-02-03T16:23:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/41 "2010-02-03T21:34:07Z")
What’s wrong with _chill_? ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/42 "2010-02-03T22:41:16Z")
I didn’t realize the thread was supposed to only be about missing words, rather than personal pet language peeves. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/43 "2010-02-03T22:54:22Z")
I don’t like that English doesn’t have a good verb for (can I say this in IMHO?) fucking, one that you could say in polite company. I’m not 100% sure of the terminology, but I think what I want is an intransitive verb, one that just covers the activity itself. “Sleep with” is too much of a euphemism. “Have intercourse” also has the older meaning of chatting somebody up. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/44 "2010-02-03T23:01:34Z")
I hate how words can have the same spelled endings but be pronounced totally different from one another (rough/through/thorough) or inflections (“Please polish the Polish furniture”, “He couldn’t produce the fresh produce.”) They’re just a pain and make me feel sorry for people who are trying to learn the language. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/45 "2010-02-03T23:02:00Z")
Well, that might be because in typical American culture, one doesn’t explicitly mention sexual acts in polite conversation. “Have sex” is about as neutral as I can come up with, and still people would look at you sideways if you were bringing it up in dinner conversation. –eta, I was responding to delphica, when niko slipped in there. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/46 "2010-02-03T23:21:28Z")
_Mr._ and _Mrs._ aren’t words; they’re half-assed pronuncibreviations. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/47 "2010-02-03T23:26:48Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > My peeve: If warmth is a word, then coolth should be, and so it shall be, and I’m using it. Along the same lines :Heighth. Leng **th** , Wid **th** , Heigh **th** Screw Webster, I like it and I use it. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/48 "2010-02-03T23:30:25Z")
A couple means two. If I order a couple of buns, don’t look at me waiting for me to say how many. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/49 "2010-02-03T23:54:01Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > A couple means two. If I order a couple of buns, don’t look at me waiting for me to say how many. I think many use “couple” as a vague number smaller than “a few”. Especially people getting DUI tickets. My peeve is that we put adjectives before nouns. Even though I am used to it, it seems inefficient. It also means that many automatic sorting engines will put “red car” next to “red house” and nowhere near “yellow car” . ---
**Author:** ![BlakeTyner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@BlakeTyner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlakeTyner)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/50 "2010-02-04T00:07:04Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I don’t like that English doesn’t have a good verb for (can I say this in IMHO?) fucking, one that you could say in polite company. I’m not 100% sure of the terminology, but I think what I want is an intransitive verb, one that just covers the activity itself. > > “Sleep with” is too much of a euphemism. > > “Have intercourse” also has the older meaning of chatting somebody up. This isn’t widespread in usage, and may be a feature of the south Texas AAVE dialect, but I’ve heard “sexin’” used this way. It made it into a song–“Still a Bitch” from Lil Troy’s “Sittin’ Fat Down South” album, circa '98-‘99 or so. That’s the album that spawned "Wanna be a Balla’ ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/51 "2010-02-04T00:43:20Z")
I have one thing to say about English: Fix the %^ĝ£¢©þ spelling! Yes, I know it reflects the historical evolution of the language. Yes, I know that ‘knight’ was originally pronounced like our German counsins’ ‘Knecht’ and reflects our common ancestry in the Proto-Germanic. Yes, I appreciate that our loss of verbal declensions and our drift twords a pure-positional grammar makes English an increasingly-easy language to speak badly and still be understood… and that this is an advantage. But current English spelling is an enourmous drag on every learner. It’s unfit for a world language. I know the number of dialects makes it impractical to have a true phonetic spelling, where every vowel sound is unanbiguously represented, but couldn’t we go halfway and get rid of junk like the ‘k’ and ‘gh’ in ‘knight’? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/52 "2010-02-04T02:01:52Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Fix the %^ĝ£¢©þ spelling! Change your name to Sunspas! ---
**Author:** ![Bacon\_Salt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Bacon\_Salt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bacon_Salt)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/53 "2010-02-04T02:16:50Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > What’s wrong with _chill_? Well, warmth always has a positive connotation, as coolth would by association. Not so with chill. However, I do agree that coolness serves the intended purpose. > [@delphica](#): > > I don’t like that English doesn’t have a good verb for (can I say this in IMHO?) fucking, one that you could say in polite company. I’m not 100% sure of the terminology, but I think what I want is an intransitive verb, one that just covers the activity itself. Boink? Do? Shag? How polite are we talking here? As for what about English annoys me? That the people over _there_ are pronouncing it _all_ wrong. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/54 "2010-02-04T02:30:06Z")
> [@Bacon\_Salt](#): > > Boink? Do? Shag? How polite are we talking here? I was going for anything “not slang.” There are tons of good ones that are slang, but I just feel like there should be a more clinical term that isn’t an auxiliary verb. I don’t even know why this bothers me – it’s not like I find myself talking about the Horizontal Mambo all that often – but it does. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/55 "2010-02-04T02:56:17Z")
Copulate? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/56 "2010-02-04T03:36:55Z")
> [@](#): > > “Thou” was the _informal_ pronoun (like the French “tu”) and “you” was the formal one. “I thou thee, thou traitor!” > [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Also no shortcuts for aunts/uncles who are, um, \*‘legally’ related, and those who are simply married to a ‘legally’ related aunt/uncle. Relatives’ terms are crazy, cross-linguistically. Many languages use kin terms that are completely different from those used in English and other European languages, which follow a pattern known as [Eskimo kinship structure](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinship_terminology). For example, cousins on one side will be considered relatives and the other side not, or male cousins on the father’s side and not on the mother’s side, or the same word will be used for brother and male cousin or for mother and aunt, etc., etc. Some languages have separate words for just about every conceivable relationship. (Before my brother got married, his future wife’s brother’s wife’s mother told my mother, “When Theo and Jen get married, there’ll be a word in Yiddish for the relationship between you and me!”) Some of the more sedate differences from English: in French, step-relatives and relatives-in-law are both _beau-_ or _belle-_, so that a _beau-frère_ can be either your brother-in-law or your stepbrother; in Swedish (or is it Norwegian?) there are different words for paternal and maternal grandparents (_farfar, farmor, morfar, mormor_); and in Chinese there are different words for older and younger siblings. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/57 "2010-02-04T03:43:32Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > I suspect that dialect prejudice against the Southern dialect is why it doesn’t get more widely adopted. Maybe so, but I have heard Africo-Americans from all parts of the country use “y’all”, so apparently it’s not such a big deal in that culture. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/58 "2010-02-04T03:56:23Z")
What I love about English is that there’s all these subtle signals to throw out, or listen for, that can say gobs about the speaker, the effect the speaker’s trying for, and the just plain skill with communications the speaker possesses. One can listen for these signals and decide how one’s response might be modified to put the original speaker more at ease, or truly bamboozle the original speaker - whatever the intended effect is. (Hah. I found a place to use the word “bamboozle”.) But back to the original request: God would seem to be an entity beyond gender, most religions claiming that God created gender and sex in the first place. In English, we can only call God “her,” “him,” or “it.” I don’t like any of those choices. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/59 "2010-02-04T04:08:46Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I have one thing to say about English: > > Fix the %^ĝ£¢©þ spelling! > > Yes, I know it reflects the historical evolution of the language. Yes, I know that ‘knight’ was originally pronounced like our German counsins’ ‘Knecht’ and reflects our common ancestry in the Proto-Germanic. Yes, I appreciate that our loss of verbal declensions and our drift twords a pure-positional grammar makes English an increasingly-easy language to speak badly and still be understood… and that this is an advantage. > > But current English spelling is an enourmous drag on every learner. It’s unfit for a world language. I know the number of dialects makes it impractical to have a true phonetic spelling, where every vowel sound is unanbiguously represented, but couldn’t we go halfway and get rid of junk like the ‘k’ and ‘gh’ in ‘knight’? Agreed. The spelling system really is atrocious, and I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for non-native speakers. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537/60 "2010-02-04T04:21:22Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I think many use “couple” as a vague number smaller than “a few”. Especially people getting DUI tickets. I’ve always taken “a few” to mean “three or more”. “A couple” is _always_ two. I don’t think we can restandardize spelling unless we restandardize pronunciation. Imagine reading a thread with posters from Boston, New Delhi, Melbourne, three parts of London, and New Orleans, all spelling phoenetically. I don’t wanna have to wade through that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-in-english-that-annoy-you/527537.md?page=4)