I’m not in Sasaktchewan, but I’ll back you up. I learned kitty-corner when I was growing up, same as my sister. Yet she backs up her daughter saying catty-corner.
I’ll say the fucken thing however I want.
One that’s somewhere between amusing and annoying is spoken, not written: “Six and one half of a dozen or the other.”
One that you’s two bug the crap out of me: “Oh by the way.” As in “I have to pick up my dry cleaning, oh by the way.”
:smack:
When was a senior in high school and president of a particular club, a freshman member wrote me a fairly formal letter airing her many grievances. It was “formally” written but extremely personal. She claimed that I was jealous of her because I would never be “Valid Victorian”, like she would be when she graduated.
No kidding? :smack: (I always thought it was phase.)
I drive my husband nuts when I respond to the question “Why?” with “Cause” (pronounced like “Cuzz”). He always says “That’s not a reason. Or a word.”
Of course he always pronounces “With” like “Wiv”, which drives me nuts. His mom does the same thing, so I’m guessing he picked it up from her.
that’s not too far http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genre
The phrase “dead to (rights/rites)” has thrown me such that I don’t write it. Which is it?
Also, another vote for “catty-corner”, though this is the first I’ve ever considered writing it out.
OK, this is not a misused phrase, but I hate it anyway. “By any chance?”
“Do you have a stamp I could buy from you, by any chance?”
Well, yes, I do, but it’s not by chance. I have stamps because I went to the post office and bought them.
Tee hee!
Slight hijack, but this reminds me of the Pink Toe Shoes story I heard from someone on a different message board.
The poster was once a member of some sort of support group, maybe a substance recovery group or something. One woman brought her pink toe shoes to every session. Every time she recounted her tale of woe, she would hold up her pink toe shoes and bemoan the fact that had her parents not abused her, she would have become a great ballerina. She was over six feet tall, extrememly big boned, and clumsy as an ox. And her ballet shoes showed absolutely no signs of wear.
My absolute favorite misused/misunderstood saying:
It’s a doggy dog world.
Used as the graphic on a local news show, for a story about everyone just being out for themselves!
In the misuser’s defense, a lot of English phrases don’t seem to make much sense in today’s terms, like “cash on the barrelhead.” Maybe people that use phrases like “take for granite” just assume it’s an antiquated phrase.
The one that’s driving me the most crazy lately, probably because I’m watching more news these days than I usually do and hear it quite frequently from people who should freaking know better, is ‘quote unquote’. Uhm, NO! If you’re trying to quote someone by verbally indicating the quotation marks, you say them in the place where you would put them – around their quote. If you write (or type) “”, you haven’t actually quoted anything!!!
The other one that bugs me is so obscure that I’m sure it bothers no one else in the world but me, particularly since the misused phrase has become so commonplace it’s probably considered correct today. But it kind of bugs when people say, “He/She wants to have their cake and eat it, too.” Well, someone can have their cake and eat it, too. What they can’t do is eat their cake and have it, too, because once it’s eaten, it’s gone!
I hold out no hope whatsoever that I’ll ever get anyone to change it back again, so I’ll just have to go on slightly cringing every time I hear it.
ETA: Oh, and add “All the sudden” to misused phrases that make me want to gouge my ears out. :shudder:
On a flyer posted around the building:
Holiday Potluck Dec. 19th
Please bring:
On the plus side, at least it wasn’t “formerly” written. 
A few that annoy me:
Bucu/boocoo (as in, “bucu bucks”). It’s beaucoup!
It peaked my interest. No, it piqued your interest.
I also know someone who says/writes, “It takes two to tangle,” instead of, “It takes two to tango.”
Trust me, John-ruh with a hard J sound, is miles from (zhän’rə) - and you put an extra “o” in pronunciation. 
Add the misuse of ‘then’ for ‘than’ (and vice versa) to my list. I see this one a lot! It’s even rampant here on the Straight Dope, where I would expect the average poster to be much more educated than most. Not meaning to pick on the OPer, but see the title of this thread for an example. That misuse makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Before you know it, I’ll be deaf and blind! 
This was a graphic on the TV news? Oh my.
I can’t believe I’m the 1st to say that points are never mute. It wouldn’t be much of a point if it couldn’t “speak” to you. Points can be moot, however. Drives me nuts when people say mute.
Come to think of it, other than here, I’ve never heard anyone say the phrase “you’ve got another think coming.” They always replace the word with “thing.” Even Judas Priest did it. I suppose it makes sense in its own way, but it’s still wrong.
I’ve just been handed a document that in one part talks about a “themed pneumonic”. I think the author means mnemonic, but this also doesn’t make sense in the context.
This isn’t really a misused phrase but…
No, you cannot AX me a question…if you need something answered ASK me
The only think you can AX is my body if you want to kill me, and I’d probably take that over you saying ax
In my experience, that is so commonly used in that way that I would just call it part of the evolution of language- that sort of joke is just called ‘sike-ing’ among people who know how to talk…
Yes, but I’m fairly certain the point of his joke is that it’s supposed to be spelled “psych,” Urban Dictionary backs me up here.
Psych:
Sike:
Two of which say it’s a misspelling of the former.