# Ways in which you are annoyingly pedantic
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 1, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676 "2024-04-01T14:12:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/81 "2024-04-02T16:49:05Z")
I’m reading a novel right now, Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois. At one point 2 characters have this exchange:
“Oh, so you need _de_tritus.” (Character is in the book publishing business, I believe an editor.)
“I thought that was pronounced _deTRYtus_. … I suppose I’ve never said it aloud.” (This charactar is in theater, historically somewhat unreliable.)
Made me question whether I had always been pronouncing a word I kinda like and use regularly incorrectly. (I haven’t.) And then, made me wonder exactly what they were trying to have the characters communicate. This exchange came out of the blue on page 264, with no follow up on the next 5 or so pages I read before going to sleep.
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/82 "2024-04-02T17:30:21Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#):
>
> You mean a lab **ou** r representative? Because a lab **o** r representative would pronounce it with a “z.”
Ha Ha. As a Brit, I realise that the majority of posters here are US (at least I think so)?
But having lived and worked in the US for a long time, my idioms tend to fluctuate between British and US sometimes.
How do you pronounce a “z” anyway? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/83 "2024-04-02T17:31:39Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#):
>
> How do you pronounce a “z” anyway? 🙂
“Zee,” of course. None of that “zed” silliness.
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/84 "2024-04-02T17:35:19Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#):
>
> “Zee,” of course. None of that “zed” silliness.
True, it’s the only way to make the ABC song rhyme easily.
Hmm… is there a way to pronounce any other letters which would provide a rhyme?
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/85 "2024-04-02T17:43:19Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#):
>
> True, it’s the only way to make the ABC song rhyme easily.
While we’re on that topic, are there any equivalents of the ABC song in other languages?
Greek, Russian or Chinese, for example?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/86 "2024-04-02T19:40:36Z")
> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> and some prescriptivist grammarians picked it up and decided it was a rule.
This is probably the thing I am annoyingly pedantic about (meta-pedantic, I suppose) - I deeply dislike it when people enforce non-rules as if they exist (one I keep seeing is that the verb and tense of an answer must match that of the question), when people correct the pronunciation of a speaker of a different dialect from their own, or when people fight a prescriptivist stance in a battle that was already lost decades or centuries before they were born.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/87 "2024-04-02T20:43:49Z")
Not to be pedantic about “decimate”, but I can’t understand why people are pedantic about the meaning of a word which hasn’t meant what they want it to mean for hundreds of years.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/88 "2024-04-02T21:25:08Z")
Shows everyone how knowledgeable they are.
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/89 "2024-04-02T21:28:19Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> Use of apostrophes to make plurals irritate me.
I saw a meme once that said it like this: An apostrophe does NOT mean “Look out, here comes an s!”
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/90 "2024-04-02T22:00:23Z")
“We will be landing momentarily.”
So I guess I’d better plan to get off the plane quickly, before they take off again.
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/91 "2024-04-02T22:36:21Z")
And then there is “without further ado…”
Aren’t those words, by definition, unnecessary further ado? 😉
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/92 "2024-04-02T23:14:04Z")
Announcements from flight crews are often unnecessarily wordy:
“At this time…” You know, “now” means exactly the same thing. Why are they using three words when there’s a single word that would work just as well?
“Tampering with, disabling, or destroying the lavatory smoke detectors…” Doesn’t “tampering with” pretty much cover everything? Disabling and destroying are just more extreme forms of tampering.
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/93 "2024-04-03T02:07:18Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#):
>
> “At this time…”
Another of my favorites. I get a kick out of when at work I ask people if they have anything else to add before a proceeding is closed. I bet over 80% of them say “Not at this time.” What are they thinking? THIS is THE ONLY TIME THEY GET! 🙄 What is wrong with a simple “No”?
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### Author:  [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/94 "2024-04-03T02:22:14Z")
Oh god - you’re one of _ **them** _. No wonder the world is going to the dogs.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/95 "2024-04-03T03:00:49Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#):
>
> Announcements from flight crews are often unnecessarily wordy:
>
> “At this time…” You know, “now” means exactly the same thing. Why are they using three words when there’s a single word that would work just as well?
I wonder if the wordiness is deliberate—like it takes two or three words before people really start paying attention?
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### Author:  [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/96 "2024-04-03T03:48:48Z")
I suspect it’s legalese - “well, I wasn’t _tampering_ with it.”
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/97 "2024-04-03T11:31:41Z")
Maybe not dedantic, but it seriously pisses me off when people only respond to parts of an email.
I’ve got a crystal clear bullet pointed (or numbered) series of questions. The responder only answers 3 of the 6.
So I have to keep whittling it down and ask again. Today this will be my fouth email to this guy. It’s work related and serious stuff.
I could have been done with this yesterday GRRRRR.
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### Author:  [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/98 "2024-04-03T11:58:02Z")
Why “utilize” when “use” means exactly the same thing? Two wasted syllables intended to make one sound smarter than they are.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/99 "2024-04-03T12:05:44Z")
Generally speaking, I get annoyed with people who botch common sayings and/or use the wrong words.
Decimation instead of destroyed is one.
The biggest one that’s making me grind my teeth lately is “hone in” No, it’s “home in”. Honing is something you do to a blade, homing is finding one’s way somewhere, like a homing missile. And I’m starting to hear this more and more.
And I don’t know if this is pedantic, but I get really aggravated when people use the word “resources” in management-ese to refer to people. They’re _people_, not mere resources along the line of binder clips, gaskets, and tubes of sealant.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/100 "2024-04-03T12:40:50Z")
I’m pedantic when it comes to measurements and units:
50Ω. Wrong. Should be 50 Ω.
With very few exceptions, there should be a space between the number and unit.
And when it comes to temperature, I see it written incorrectly _most_ of the time, and it drives me batty:
23C. Wrong.
23 C. Wrong.
23°C. Wrong.
23° C. Wrong.
23 °C. Right, finally!
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