Fun. I’ve posted about this one before, it irritates me so much. The correct way to say it is “We went to the movies and out to eat - it was fun!” The stupid, suburban white woman way to say it is “I love your blouse! It’s so fun!” “Look at her necklace; isn’t it fun?”
I used to work in a retail clothing store and heard this phrase multiple times every week. I’m not sure if these people have any idea how stupid they make themselves sound. Have they been watching too much Martha Stewart or something?
Free is a noun. It’s the cost of an item or service. For whatever reason, that’s been in place as an idiom for “nothing” for a long long time. “For nothing” would be more grammatically correct, but when you’re talking about payment “free” is an acceptable noun. This is just its weekend job as opposed to its primary occupation as an adjective.
I don’t know, there is a subtle difference between “gift” as verb and “give”, to me. It seems to emphasize the fact that what the person is giving is an actual gift, which if you think about it, isn’t really always the case. Consider giving a disease, or a smack upside the head, or a piece of one’s mind.
Also, gift as a verb has a special meaning in estate tax language, I think. So it’s quite legitimate there.
And what usage of ask as a noun are you referring to? The shorthand of “ask price”, the finance term?
“Dude!” I hate seeing it, I hate hearing it. I’d like to submit an Amazing Race audition tape and promise if I’m picked, you’ll never hear me refer to my partner as “Dude”.
I want companies to stop advertising that they “Specialize in…” then use a long list of services. For example a hair salon in the area *specializes *in:
Can we stop calling every woman who has any complaint or angst about her wedding “bridezilla”? I know, you think it’s cute and clever, but it’s just really oooooooold now. When they have a TV show by that name on WeTV, it’s not a phrase you want to be using anymore.
‘Twenty’ and ‘two thousand’, when naming the year. We’re nine years into the millenium, or eight years for you precisians out there. Either way you’d think that by now we could just start saying the two-digit year number, like we used to in the dear old days of the twentieth century.
I do hear people say “oh-nine” or “oh-seven”, and so forth, but “two thousand” still seems to dominate for years 0 through 9, and “twenty” for years thereafter.
A similar one that bugs me is “I am planning ON GOING to the party.” vs. “I am planning TO GO TO the party.” In an earlier thread, Dopers agreed that either form was grammatically correct but it still grates on my ears.
For whatever reason, that’s been in place as an idiom for “nothing” for a long long time. “For nothing” would be more grammatically correct, but when you’re talking about payment “free” is an acceptable noun. This is just its weekend job as opposed to its primary occupation as an adjective.