I’ve noticed the following usage by a number of members of this board, and I expect it’s not just limited to the Dope. I can’t recall hearing anyone say this, although it probably happens.
"A friend of mine’s car…"I don’t get why this is used instead of “My friend’s car…” Is there anything grammatically correct about “a friend of mine’s”? I’ll withdraw my objection if it is acceptable. But I still won’t like it.
“The boss and myself” or “My brother and myself” or " <insert person> and myself"These all sound awkward to me. They also don’t sound correct, but it could just be me. What’s wrong with " <whoever> and me/I (as appropriate)" Maybe myself * is used by someone who isn’t sure whether it should be me * or I? Or is it a regional thing?
"Basically…"Oh how I hate how that word is overused and misused, although I have to admit I don’t see it written as much as I hear it. It appears to have become a verbal crutch. I was in a training class at work and over a 4 hour period, the instructor used it 157 times. Yes, I counted because it was the 5th day of the class and I couldn’t stand it any longer - I had to know…
I expect I overuse certain words or phrases, but I try to be aware of how I communicate. Be more like me, dammit! No, wait, this isn’t the pit. So I encourage you to share your language irritants.
Several of my freinds are teachers. Three of them teach English. So, I guess by osmosis, I have become conscious of my grammar and usage, and yes, incorrectly used phrases or words do grate on me.
Did you know “supersize” is now in the dictionary? But I digress. Supposeably, is one that irks me. But I think what causes my hackles to rise the highest is there seems to be more errors in the typed word than in the spoken one. Isn’t that what SpellCheck is for?
I think I’m guilty of doing that in conversation at times.
I can’t think of a situation where it would be appropriate to use a reflexive pronoun, like ‘myself’, in a compound. If you need a plural first person reflexive, shouldn’t it be ‘ourselves’? In any example I can come up with, the compound would use either the nominative or objective, depending on usage; as you said, ‘myself’ in these cases would be either ‘I’ or ‘me’. You could get it all in a sentence such as “My friend and I built that hotrod ourselves”. Or maybe “My friend and I built my friend’s car ourselves”.
I can’t object too much to “a friend of mine’s car,” though I would probably choose to recast it in formal writing. It’s well known that we can apply the possessive clitic “'s” to noun phrases (the King of Sparta’s daughter – she’s the daughter of the king, not Sparta), and it’s also true that “a friend of mine” differs in sense from “my friend.”
“and myself,” like many unfortunate turns of phrase, is pompous and wrong at the same time, and should therefore die. It’s for people who can’t remember whether to use “and I” or “and me” in each sentence. Actually, using “and I” in all contexts (as opposed to where appropriate) is almost as bad.
Bolding mine. I agree 1000000000%. What drives me batty about it is that this is the simplest thing to remember – all you have to do is finish the sentence. She is taller than I (am tall) vs She took a picture of (remove Sally) and me. I just never understood how this could be so hard. Meh.
A local radio newsreader always states that people are “accused with” a crime, rather than “accused of” a crime. Accused with murder, accused with arson, etc.
It’s sort of annoying, but the newsreader does admit to being dumber than a bag of hammers, having majored in Communications.
I often (but probably not often enough) stop and delete when I write “A friend of mine…” simply because it’s redundant. It’s assumed, if not otherwise stated, that the friend is question belongs to me. Otherwise I’d say “A friend of my husband” or “A friend of the Queen”. I suppose, based on the, uh, parallelness of those phrases, that “A friend of mine” isn’t wrong, exactly, it’s just more words than there needs to be.
Oh no - my future son-in-law wants to major in communications… :eek:
What really amazes me about newsreaders is how often they seem to have no clue regarding pronunciation. This morning on TV, a woman was interviewing a couple of chefs about “Indian coo-sine” - if you don’t know how to say cuisine, maybe you shouldn’t be talking about it on the air, ya think?
**rosie ** - I agree with you about supposeably - a verbal fingernail on the blackboard of life… or something.
matt, I’ll grant you the *King of Sparta’s * comparison (how magnanimous of me, huh?) but making *a friend of mine * a possessive still grates on me. Plus, as has been pointed out by others - more words than are needed.
I use ‘basically’ all the time. I’ve even used it in a paper, and the prof crossed it out, and I still use it. :o
Bad habits are hard to break. At least I don’t say ‘like’ all the time. Most of my classmates do. One of my profs said he had a paper where some guy wrote ‘like’ all the way through.
There’s another one that just occurred to me: “You guys.” Specifically, when there is a group of men and women (perhaps in a restaurant) and the waiter/waitress will ask: “So, is there anything else I can do for you guys?” GAH! My husband and I get this all the time.
*You * is singular as well as plural. That means it can be used to address an individual or a group. An alternative could be “Is there anything else I can do for either/any of you?”
As a court transcriber, I am constantly appalled at the verbal tics people use. The worst are the people who use a variety, in succession: “I mean, like, you know, he went to the, like, you know, store, you know.” We’re talking well-educated people in high-level job, too, who really and truly should know better. I’ve seen people use “you know” as many as seven times in one single sentence, which turns even the simplest language into total gibberish when you try to read it on paper.
“Guys” is rapidly hurtling toward a gender-neutral meaning. I’ve seen people call a group consisting solely of women “you guys”. The same does not apply to the singular “guy”, which retains an exclusively male definition.
Two midwesternisms that make me want to join Al Qaeda:
“Come with” used as its own article. “I’m going to the store. Do you want to come with?” ARRRRRRRRRRRGH COME WITH WHO!?!??!
and
“Needs ____-ed” as its own thing. “That bathroom needs cleaned.” “That car needs washed.” I hear incredibly educated people do this and it makes me want to cut their tongues out.
Anyone remember Bruce Williams, the crotchety old call-in advice guy on the radio? He would ream out at least a couple of callers a night for the excessive use of “basically.” Still, they kept calling and peppering their queries with it. That was probably one of the reasons he was so angry the last few years before he went off the air. I think it must be a regional thing since the callers usually had some kind of Southern or lower Midwestern drawl. I’ve heard “basically” only rarely since his show went off the air.
The one that bugs me is the misuse of “whenever.” Again, I don’t tend to hear it much around here but it’s becoming more common on courtroom shows such as Judge Judy and seems to come out of the mouths of those whose street education has taken precedent over their school education. “I saw him whenever he slashed my tires,” someone might say. How many times did you see him slash your tires? Once? Ahhh, then the word you want is “when.” :smack:
A woman was interviewed on TV about the people who broke into her house and shot her.
She kept referring to the one who shot her as “the gentleman with the gun”. I’m not Miss Manners, but it seems that some things put one outside the boundaries, including [ul][li]Not RSVP-ing to a wedding[]not sending a thank you note when one receives a a gift, and []gunplay.[/ul]Especially without a formal introduction.[/li]
Regards,
Shodan
Would you prefer “y’all?” Me, not so much.
I think one of my pet peeves is “surely” in response to anything. There is one…person who sits near me at work, and I hear her on the phone answering “surely” constantly. I just want to walk over there and strangle her with the phone cord everytime. I don’t know why, but when I say “I’d like to place an order” I’d much rather hear “ok,” “okely-dokely,” or even “so the fuck what?” than “surely.” It just grates my nerves.
