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Chundles said:
Please, for the love of all things cute and cuddly. "Write TO me," "I'll write TO you next week."
I've been known to say "e-mail me, text me, message me, or MySpace me". I don't know what to tell you. I like verbing nouns.
 
People using "ask" as a noun annoy me: "it's a big ask". It's a verb, you moron!

Insertion of superfluous "of"s: "it's not too big of a job". This seems especially used in American English.

Similarly, use of superfluous "like"s. That's, like, so annoying.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Annoying, but considered grammatically correct, irregardless. ;)

Actually, and forgive me if someone brought this up already, but wouldn't irregardless be considered grammatically correct only if you used it for its TRUE meaning, which would be REGARDING!!

Regarding
Regardless (negation of regard, regarding)

Therefore, IRregardless, a negation of the already negated form (yay double negatives), would be back to regarding.
 
1. "Let's conversate."
2. "To whom am I speaking with?"

1. I work at a call center and this is said all the time. How did people graduate high school and think "conversate" is a word? For those looking at this post and scratching their head, the word is converse.

2. I know we've all been taught not to end a phrase with a preposition, but it is generally accepted in spoken conversation. I do it all the time. So do most of the people I know, with varying education levels. However, I don't understand people who use the 2nd phrase mentioned above.
To whom am I speaking? - fine
With whom am I speaking? -fine
Who am I speaking to? -fine, though technically wrong
Who am I speaking with? -fine, again, technically wrong
To whom am I speaking with? - Not fine. Must make our customers think we have some real winners working here....
 
Apart from the ubiquitous "Bear with me", I get especially irritated by people confusing "disinterested" with "uninterested", and "bisection" with dissection". But that's just me.
 
"Now don't get me wrong, but...."

When people use the word 'like' in the way:

"What did you have in mind, like?"

When people see you in a corridor or something and say, 'Allright?' / 'Awright?'. I think this is more of a Scottish one. How on earth and you meant to answer/respond to that?
 
And then there's that horrid Australian habit of raising the pitch at the end of a sentence, whether or not it's a question, like.





Present company excepted, of course... :)
 
FearFactor47 said:
When people see you in a corridor or something and say, 'Allright?' / 'Awright?'. I think this is more of a Scottish one. How on earth and you meant to answer/respond to that?

hehe very understandable..
anyway, being Scottish I can tell you that one easily enough.

Person #1- "Awright?"

Person #2- "Awright."

There are variations of course, but this is the simplest response :D
 
FearFactor47 said:
When people see you in a corridor or something and say, 'Allright?' / 'Awright?'. I think this is more of a Scottish one. How on earth and you meant to answer/respond to that?

Heh! I do this all the time. It's my standard greeting. :eek:

Sometimes I say "Hiya. Awright?" though. :p

(And I'm not Scottish!)
 
Regionalisms?

As others have said before, I think the misuse of their, there, and they're is almost unbearable. The same is true for "should of" instead of "should have". I understand that sometimes they really meant "should've", but my mother really doesn't know the difference. I've tried countless times to explain it to her. She still does it wrong every single time she writes it.


Almost everyone in my family, except me, says:

"Worshington" instead of "Washington"
"Worsh the clothes" instead of "wash the clothes"

The ridiculous part is that my grandma is actually FROM Washington, and she says it with an "R" too. Perhaps it's a regionalism here in the Midwest?


I know somebody who always said:

"Bossd to" or "Possd to" instead of "Supposed to"

The scary thing is that he would always argue if you called him on it. He truly believes to this day that his version is the correct one.

Another one:

"10 items or less" instead of "10 items or fewer"

Almost every grocery store here in the U.S. uses this phrase incorrectly on its express lanes. This one first made it on my radar in high school because it was one of our English teacher's pet peeves. Ever since, I can't get it out of my head. I still remember almost everything he drilled into our heads, but the others are mostly punctuation and basic grammar errors rather than blatant misuse of words.

Another regionalism is the pronunciation of the word "route." It irks me when people say "root." I finished undergrad at FSU in Tallahassee and one of my friends (a Tally native) would always think I was so quaint because I pronounced "route" as "rouwt" and "root" as something similar to "rouht". He would insist that the proper way to say "route" was "root" and the proper way to say "root" was "roooot." He also accused me of confusing "root" and "rut." The way I say "root" and "rut" are not even close to being the same, but he couldn't differentiate between the two. I think we were actually both right, as we grew up in different regions. I have a Midwestern (Iowa) accent, and when traveling abroad I am often thought to be Canadian, wheras he grew up in Tallahassee, which is very close to the southern border of Georgia.

According to the dictionary, "root" has two possible pronunciations, one was his way, the other was mine (roōt; roŏt).
 
skunk said:
And then there's that horrid Australian habit of raising the pitch at the end of a sentence, whether or not it's a question, like.





Present company excepted, of course... :)

Wanna know a secret? We only do that to annoy you guys.
 
InsiderTravels said:
Another regionalism is the pronunciation of the word "route." It irks me when people say "root." I finished undergrad at FSU in Tallahassee and one of my friends (a Tally native) would always think I was so quaint because I pronounced "route" as "rouwt" and "root" as something similar to "rouht". He would insist that the proper way to say "route" was "root" and the proper way to say "root" was "roooot." He also accused me of confusing "root" and "rut." The way I say "root" and "rut" are not even close to being the same, but he couldn't differentiate between the two. I think we were actually both right, as we grew up in different regions. I have a Midwestern (Iowa) accent, and when traveling abroad I am often thought to be Canadian, wheras he grew up in Tallahassee, which is very close to the southern border of Georgia.

According to the dictionary, "root" has two possible pronunciations, one was his way, the other was mine (ro?t; ro?t).

We pronounce root and route the same unless talking about how something is transported. For example, "the parcel was routed via a new route" wuld have the first "route" pronounced "rowt" and the second pronounced "root," surprisingly we don't get them confused.

Same as if somebody asks if I want chips - I always just know if they mean chips from a foil bag a la your Smiths Crinkle-cut or hot chips. We know, it's like when someone's watching you, you just know they're watching you.
 
Lau said:
Heh! I do this all the time. It's my standard greeting. :eek:

Sometimes I say "Hiya. Awright?" though. :p

(And I'm not Scottish!)

Lol! How do people respond when you ask them this? I end up saying something like , 'I'm ok!' lol.
 
FearFactor47 said:
Lol! How do people respond when you ask them this? I end up saying something like , 'I'm ok!' lol.

Heh.

I think they usually say "Hiya" or "Awright" back. :D

I shall bear in mind in the future that it's percieved as annoying by some, and try and think of a less inane greeting. :p
 
Lau said:
Heh.

I think they usually say "Hiya" or "Awright" back. :D

I shall bear in mind in the future that it's percieved as annoying by some, and try and think of a less inane greeting. :p

What annoys me about it is that I don't know what it's asking! It's like, are you asking me how I am? Are you saying hello? Is it a question? My god, it really confusing lol.
 
FearFactor47 said:
What annoys me about it is that I don't know what it's asking! It's like, are you asking me how I am? Are you saying hello? Is it a question? My god, it really confusing lol.

I would say I intend is as a "Hello, hope everything's ok with you, and if you want to tell me what's going on or how you are that's great, but if you'd rather not, that's fine, and, well, hello"

But I can see how "Awright" might not be the best way to convey that. :D
 
"Hopefully" to begin a sentence, when "I hope" is the intended meaning. This one has become so common that few probably realize that it's an incorrect usage. In fact the renegade "hopefully" is now so common, some argue that it has become an acceptable usage. Still, it will always make a thumping sound on my ear, especially when it's used by educated and otherwise articulate people. At best, it's a crutch word.
 
Lau said:
I would say I intend is as a "Hello, hope everything's ok with you, and if you want to tell me what's going on or how you are that's great, but if you'd rather not, that's fine, and, well, hello"

But I can see how "Awright" might not be the best way to convey that. :D

very well explained :D
 
I listen to the MacWorld podcast, and when introducing the first segment the guy on that says everytime, without exception, "without further ado ..."

My boss punctuates almost every sentence with "basically ..." (I've found myself consciously not saying "basically".)

"It stands to reason that ..." usually used to introduced a stupid, irrational, and bigoted idea, usually gained second hand from some hateful shock jock.
 
"cajones" --> People say 'cajones' improperly when they are refering to 'cojones.' Which means balls. "He's got some cojones." Instead people say "He's got some cajones." Cajones is a desk drawer. Get your Español correct people! It's the improper vowel sound that bugs me a little bit.

Cojones = Balls

Cajones = Desk drawer
 
plinden said:
My boss punctuates almost every sentence with "basically ..." (I've found myself consciously not saying "basically".)

Good call. That is annoying, and unfortunately, contagious. Basically is the new "like, uh."

Another is calling everyone "guys." Waitresses seem especially prone to this. "How are you guys doing? Can I get you guys some more iced tea?" I have restrain myself from blurting out, "Us guys are fine thank you, and us guys would like some more iced tea!"
 
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