Words that drive you crazy...

[zil]

... everyone needs a slap.

Like this?

[Jedi_Nephite]

The word "epic" is overused in my epic opinion.

 

Also, usage of the words "ginormous" and "guesstimate" needs to stop.  There is enough suffering in the world as it is.

[Laniston]

"Kinda" really bothers me.  It's the new "like" for this generation except it's a qualifier and it diminishes everything that comes after it. 

 

Using it properly is fine, but used excessively or in the wrong situation is very annoying to me.

 

2 examples:

 

a: (from an interview with a game designer for some game) "It's a kinda super kinda attack."

 

b: (from when I first picked up on how out of hand "kinda" is getting) "Joseph Smith kinda saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and they kinda called him to be a prophet."

 

EDIT: I should point out that I found myself using "kinda" much more frequently than I should.  This prompted me to try and get a handle on using kinda, and now I notice it much more.

Edited December 4, 2015 by Laniston

[Guest]

I actually copyrighted the word "ginormolossalantuan".

[mirkwood]

I thought trigger meant this.

 

 

[SpiritDragon]

I don't love texting abbreviations and find them particular reprehensible in actual conversation. Why would you actually say LOL or L - O - L instead of "you know / like" actually laughing. I've encountered people doing this more than once and IMHO FWIW I say NIMBY to it all.

[SpiritDragon]

I thought trigger meant this.

 

 

Maybe we need to put trigger warnings in all the gun free zones.

[David13]

I don't really have any anymore.

Tho' the way some of these kids use like 18 times in each sentence can drive me nuts.

My neighbor had one.  Articulate.  To join together at a point.  To form a joint.  The joint is the articulation.

He was always rankled when he heard that one.  He couldn't accept that one.

Of course, then, I tried to wedge it into many a sentence.  I still don't think he's over it.

dc

[Vort]

Did you ask him to articulate his objections?

[Palerider]

I remember visiting a cousin in Mississippi ......as they were telling me something ...the phrase they used was ..."it's uppie yonder ". I looked at her and asked ......where is that ??

[dahlia]

Here in the Midwest or the part I live in .....lots of people when speaking will say warsh for wash. They will spell it the right way but when speaking and they pronounce the word wash they put a R in it.

I'm from the east coast and saw 'warter' or 'warder' for water.  I just saw something the other day about Philly-speak and saying 'wooder ice' (Philly speak for an Italian ice), so that's kinda close. I'm in the Midwest now and cannot even pronounce water with a broad 'a' the way they do it here.

 

Words that bug me:  sack for paper bag, carmel for caramel, and mischievious for mischievous. There's no 'i' after the 'v' folks.

 

There are many times I've had to refrain myself from getting in someone's face and yelling, "English, #*$(# - do you speak it?" (R rated movie reference, so some of you may not know it, but you know you want to smack somebody upside the head and say it, you know you do.)

[bytebear]

I can't even.

[zil]

I can't even.

Can you odd?

[Guest]

OH speaking of which. . . there is something that drives me absolutely nuts, and that's this recent trend making adjectives into nouns. "Choose your happy", for instance. 

 

No. 

[JojoBag]

Any form of swearwords.  It makes my skin crawl.

[Jamie123]

"Monies" (plural of "money"). This follows the same rule as monkey/monkies, but you can't have "a money" the same way that you can have "a monkey" can you?  

 

The same thing is true with "water" and "waters", but somehow that doesn't bother me - probably because it appears in the Bible. The word "monies" has always looked and sounded naff to me.

[Capitalist_Oinker]

One of the most overused and useless words in the English language.

 

"Affordable"

[Guest]

"Monies" (plural of "money"). This follows the same rule as monkey/monkies, but you can't have "a money" the same way that you can have "a monkey" can you?  

 

The same thing is true with "water" and "waters", but somehow that doesn't bother me - probably because it appears in the Bible. The word "monies" has always looked and sounded naff to me.

 

This is an acceptable linguistic device.  

 

To use an "indefinite mass" type noun (such as water) as its plural is shorthand for "bodies of water".  Thus "the many waters" means "the many bodies of water".  A similar shorthand is used for "monies" meaning "quantities/accounts/types of money".

 

Such shorthand is used in formal writing for centuries.  This flexibility has been noted by some linguists as one of the strengths of the English language.

[bytor2112]

Global warming, climate change, green, democrat, hillary...............

[SpiritDragon]

Back on the somewhat related topic of annoying pronunciation - I dislike Schedule said Shedule as if the c blended in and didn't make a hard C "K" sound. I'll never understand how leftenant is drawn from lieutenant and I don't care for mature being said with a "t" in the middle - in this case it should soften into a pleasant sound more closely resembling a "ch" it just hurts my ears to hear it said maT-oo-er instead of macheur.

 

What a language - we can spell fish ghoti - the gh sound from enough (and tough etc.), the o sound from any number of words (lets say Clinton) and the ti from motion gives us the sounds for fish.

[zil]

Back on the somewhat related topic of annoying pronunciation - I dislike Schedule said Shedule as if the c blended in and didn't make a hard C "K" sound. I'll never understand how leftenant is drawn from lieutenant and I don't care for mature being said with a "t" in the middle - in this case it should soften into a pleasant sound more closely resembling a "ch" it just hurts my ears to hear it said maT-oo-er instead of macheur.

 

What a language - we can spell fish ghoti - the gh sound from enough (and tough etc.), the o sound from any number of words (lets say Clinton) and the ti from motion gives us the sounds for fish.

You should probably avoid the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Africa...hmm, maybe just most of the world outside the US, and maybe Canada. :)

 

I don't see how you get a short i out of the o in Clinton (that o is an uh sound - schwa - at least, where I'm from).  I guess some parts of the US must pronounce that name Clintin.

[LeSellers]

I don't see how you get a short i out of the o in Clinton (that o is an uh sound - schwa - at least, where I'm from).  I guess some parts of the US must pronounce that name Clintin.

In the book The Child Buyer (the first place I know where "ghoti" is used for "fish"), the model is "o" from "women".

Lehi

[Sunday21]

There is no /t/ in "often", just as there is no /t/ in "listen", nor in "whistle".List => listenWhist => whistleOft => oftenOne wonders why those who pronounce "often" incorrectly don't, consistently, say "combing".When Webster wrote his "Blue-backed speller", he changed the spelling of a lot of words. Examples include "often" for the existing "offen", and "det" which he changed to "debt" so as to preserve the connection to the Latin debit. But no one pronounces it "debt".Lehi

There is a t in often where I live! By the way, Toronto rhymes with Donna. Don't get me started on Ottawa which has a d and not a t.

[LeSellers]

There is a t in often where I live!

So, how do Torontans pronounce "soften"? With a /t/ or just /f/?

The pseudo-sophisticated "often" so grates on my nerves that I cannot hear it without a shudder running the full length of my spine.

Further, the inconsistency of "often v. "soffen" really makes me shiver with incredulity.

Lehi

Edited December 7, 2015 by LeSellers

[Scovy]

"Tender Mercies"  Ever since Elder Bednar gave that talk its been way overused in just about everything.  Call me grouchy but members using in every context of their life and ordeals, it doesn't have that much meaning to me anymore.