# Yanno, yanno pisses me off! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 3, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853 "2006-02-03T16:32:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/1 "2006-02-03T16:32:46Z")
Today was the umpteenth time I saw someone on these boards use “yanno” for “You know”. This pisses me off. I’m not from the States and to me “yanno” looks like it should be pronounced with a short “a” and not a “schwa”, so it sounds like the name of some Greek sheep herder or something, and it just screws up my parsing of any posts using “yanno”. So cut that crap out right now. And while I’m at it: it’s not a “sammich” or “mmmkay” either. You should all be shot! (PS. I’m German, so your internal voice should say that with the appropriate bad Nazi accent!) ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/2 "2006-02-03T16:37:34Z")
Yanno, you oughtta just shaddap and have a sammich, mmmkay? ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/3 "2006-02-03T16:47:55Z")
> [@Mycroft Holmes](#): > > … so it sounds like the name of some Greek sheep herder … This board is littered with these conventions. I don’t think that it will change anytime soon. So… watch where you step. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/4 "2006-02-03T16:48:05Z")
> [@Mycroft Holmes](#): > > so it sounds like the name of some Greek sheep herder or something, and it just screws up my parsing of any posts using “yanno”. Yeah, but he writes some great nonoffensive soft rock. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/5 "2006-02-03T16:59:35Z")
It could be worse, wot-wot. ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/6 "2006-02-03T17:03:46Z")
Wow, finally! A Pit posting that made want to use the :rolleyes: smiley. ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/7 "2006-02-03T17:10:44Z")
You’re just mad because he pitted your cousin. ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/8 "2006-02-03T17:13:39Z")
Almost forgot-- 😉 ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/9 "2006-02-03T17:33:58Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > Yanno, you oughtta just shaddap and have a sammich, mmmkay? This is the pit. You don’t have to say mmmkay. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/10 "2006-02-03T17:45:04Z")
> [@Mycroft Holmes](#): > > I’m not from the States and to me “yanno” looks like it should be pronounced with a short “a” and not a “schwa”, so it sounds like the name of some Greek sheep herder or something, and it just screws up my parsing of any posts using “yanno”. I _am_ from the States, and I concur with this completely. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/11 "2006-02-03T17:51:07Z")
You want we should prolly stop using dese woids or wha? Gimme a sammich and shaddup, awreadys. Jeebus and all. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/12 "2006-02-03T18:11:00Z")
wha ev ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/13 "2006-02-03T18:26:02Z")
What about “Fucko off”? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/14 "2006-02-03T18:27:19Z")
I’m a born American, and it always takes a few seconds before I can figure out WTF “yanno” means. I wouldn’t mind if people stopped using that. And “sammich” is just goddamn idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/15 "2006-02-03T18:35:14Z")
What, is it too hard to type “y’know”? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/16 "2006-02-03T18:45:41Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > And “sammich” is just goddamn idiotic. It’s just a way of representing the word as hastily pronounced by some people. English was already chock-full of example before “sammich” came along. What about “gonna”, “gimme”, “hafta”, “gotta”, and so on? ‘Sammich’ is likely used more when the person is going for a humorously juvenile affect. German actually has the same sort of orthographical tricks; sometimes in stories you’ll read “ham” instead of “haben” (have); there are other similar examples which I can’t remember now. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/17 "2006-02-03T19:15:02Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > It’s just a way of representing the word as hastily pronounced by some people. English was already chock-full of example before “sammich” came along. What about “gonna”, “gimme”, “hafta”, “gotta”, and so on? ‘Sammich’ is likely used more when the person is going for a humorously juvenile affect. Yeah, there’s a lot of people going for a humorously juvenile effect. It’s not really all that humorous, though it certainly is juvenile. I just don’t like these cutesy unnecessary literal spellings - especially since, while “sammich” is apparently used in some dialects, the use of the term on the internet (and around here in particular) seems to be far more common than its use in real life. And the distinction between “sandwich” and “sammich” (one apparently being a better food than the other) is something that I’m quite certain doesn’t exist in real life. It’s a sickeningly cutesy affectation used only on the internet (I dread the day people start deliberately incorporating this baby-talk sounding word into their speech). “Yanno” is even worse, since its spelling _doesn’t_ (as people have pointed out) actually suggest the pronounciation of the word. Everyone knows that “you know” is pronounced /j@ 'nou/ - it’s pronounced that way and exclusively that way as far as I’ve ever heard in any but the most carefully articulated speech. “Yanno” is completely unnecessary, since we already know how you pronounce “you know”. Comparing it to established usages like “gonna” and “gimme” is ridiculous, as (1) those are well-established spellings and (2) they exist for the purpose of distinguishing a casual usage from a formal one. “Yanno” serves no purpose that way, since it’s a confusing and far from well-established spelling, and there _is_ no distinction to be made between different registers in the pronunciation of “you know”. If you need some spelling to play up just how oh-so-casual you are, you can use the long-established “ya” for “you”, but there’s little point in doing that either. I just find these cutesy internetisms annoying. They’re distracting, they’re excessively precious, and they’re hard to read. Some internet acronyms are useful (though they sure get overused as well) but these internet spellings are hard to read, overly cute, and they betray that the user spends far too much time on the internet picking up specialized spellings. ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/18 "2006-02-03T19:34:40Z")
Does anybody else have the Frank Black song “Llano Llano” going through their head right now? ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/19 "2006-02-03T19:36:26Z")
Oy, vey, **Exacalibre** on his sammich kick again. I was horrified the day I realized I said sammich (and it takes a lot to horrify me), but now I say it and write it because it annoys a few people I know… and some people I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853/20 "2006-02-03T19:47:31Z")
> [@liberty3701](#): > > Oy, vey, **Exacalibre** on his sammich kick again. > > I was horrified the day I realized I said sammich (and it takes a lot to horrify me), but now I say it and write it because it annoys a few people I know… and some people I don’t know. I guess I don’t see the value in being deliberately annoying to others. 😕 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanno-yanno-pisses-me-off/342853.md?page=2)