I don’t like when people say they aren’t “phased” by something that can be normally bothersome. I guess that means they are part of the anti-moon movement or something.
"Very unique" or “one of the most unique” also bugs me. “He gave the book to myself” makes me wince, as does using apostophe-S to construct a plural word. How can people not understand that last one? DUH.
But the one I notice so often these days, which makes me want to take my business elsewhere, is “Your call will be answered in the order it was received.” That one really makes me cringe, and it seems to be everywhere all of a sudden.
I can’t tell from your location – do you have a British or otherwise non-rhotic (drops syllable-final Rs) accent? In that case I could see what you mean by “orction.”
Otherwise – seriously, you were taught to put a pronounced R in there?
Some of your lost "ed"s have found their way to my county, where the farmers talk of fields being drownded out in huge storms. Darling Mr. Stuff (a former full-time farmer) has stopped using this little gem because he was afraid I would have a stroke. Although he did first point out that “drownded” is more like a superlative “drowned” – meaning really, super, extra drowned – than an incorrect pronunciation.
You lost me on Albany. It’s our state capital (NY) and we pronounce it
“all-binny” too. What do you think it should be? “Al-binny”, with Al as in Al Franken?
If I hear my daughter call it a “swifter” one more time, I will make her dust the entire house every day for a week.
I heard it so often that I thought I might be wrong, so we both looked iin the pantry at the “Swiffer” box. Ha! (she rolled her eyes)
And the next day the grocery list on the refrigerator let us know that we needed a new box of:
Swifters
I mean, come on! You just read the damn box yesterday, and obviously noted the fact that you were WRONG.
I blame my wife. She seems to have passed along the math gene, but as they are my stepkids, I did not have the opportunity to convey my genetic predisposition for language and spelling. :rolleyes:
“Myself” abuse makes me grind my teeth. Sad to say, I have heard it from English teachers. Makes you sad for the future, doesn’t it?
“Hopefully,” as in “hopefully, it will not rain tomorrow.” No, it should be “I hope it will not rain tomorrow.” That one is so prevalent even I have been guilty of it when I have opened my mouth before my brain was firmly in gear.
Another that hasn’t been mentioned is persuade/convince. I was taught that one could be persuaded by another but became convinced from one’s own mind. Is that an outmoded distinction now?
Loose/lose, past/passed, effect/affect and discreet/discrete confusion also irritate me.
slight hijack: how many times did you preview your post in an effort to thwart Gaudere’s Law? ( my answer: 5, and I bet I’ll spot one more in the ten seconds after I hit “submit reply.”)
That reminds me of a friend who was not a native english speaker. She just couldn’t understand the difference between bored and boring so she’d frequently say “I’m so boring.” (meaning she was bored) It never stopped being funny.
But getting back to the matter at hand I’ll have to second the redundancy thing. VIN, PIN, SSN do not need the word number after them. ATM, not ATM Machine.
And one that drives me batty: “I think we played good.” in reference to a musical performance. No, we played well.
Yes! Is this really of Scottish origin? I am starting to hear it everywhere, to the point of questioning my own sanity. The first few times I thought it an oddity. Lately it is becoming more and more common and I had to look up for myself to see if it was a correct usage that I somehow missed in English class. It is spreading.
Hmm…you must live in that OTHER Texas, because I would venture to say not even half the population pronounces it that way.
Realitor and joolery’s famous cousin - athalete.
I know there are many others, that haven’t already been mentioned, that bother me. Perhaps my memory will be jogged when I watch the local news tonight.
Really? I hear it so often. But I do work in civil engineering and with a lot of Aggies. Maybe it’s a central Texas thing. (I’m not from Texas originally which is why I think it grates so much)
I tease one friend (an Aggie) about it and it seems like he’s physically incapable of pronouncing it correctly. He really doesn’t even hear the difference.
One of my cow-orkers uses “in lieu of” when she means “regarding,” and it makes me want to scream. She has also gotten another cow-orker started doing it. Arg.
After that, I think lack of subject/verb agreement is my biggest peeve. It seems to be everywhere now, too.
One thing I noticed here in WI that’s a little weird is the pronounciation of “foliage.” They say “fole-age” instead.
