Annoying Words and Phrases

[Guest DrTom]

I'll preface this by saying I am a former English major and current word whore. There are a lot of things I hear and read that drive me up the proverbial wall. (I think they're a lot worse to see in print, since speech is often idiomatic.) I'm going to list the ones that come to mind right now. Feel free to add your own.

 

-- "I could care less." If you could care less, then you bloody well should. Then it might mean something. The correct cliche is, "I couldn't care less."

 

-- "Irregardless." Despite what flaky teachers and professors will tell you, this is simply not a word. If it were, "irregardless" would mean "without without regard." It's a double negative all rolled up into a single word. "Regardless" works perfectly well.

 

-- "A whole nother..." A *what*? Did I miss the meeting when "nother" got added to the language? Notice that "another" works just fine in place of this monstrosity.

 

-- "At this point in time." Whatever happened to "now?" Besides, I think time is comprised of moments, whereas lines are comprised of points.

 

-- "A myriad of." "Myriad" means "a multitude of," and saying "a a multitide of of" is just hopelessly redundant. The word stands on its own perfectly well.

 

Time's running short at work, so I'll have to come up with more later.

[Guest LooseCannon]

I could care less about this sort of thing.

[Guest Incandenza]

I want to bitch slap someone anytime I hear "So, tell us how you really feel" after I've declared my dislike for whatever.

[Guest LooseCannon]

So tell us how you really feel.

[Guest Incandenza]

Lame.

[Guest LooseCannon]

yeah, I feel lame too.

[Guest LooseCannon]

I get very annoyed by the overused phrase "panties in a bunch." Can't people come up with something better than that? I'm also not very fond of the phrase "criminally underrated" anymore either.

 

There're some more that are just semantically stupid or grammatically wrong as well, but I can't think of them right now.

[Guest Kinetic]

I really dislike all of these phrases that are associated with sleazy talk shows, like "don't go there" or "talk to the hand." I'm really disturbed whenever I hear them used in real life situations.

[Guest Kinetic]

I use "criminally underrated" all of the time. What's wrong with it?

[Guest LooseCannon]

It's just starting to get overused I think. I know you could find a more creative way of saying the same thing. And I think you should, before it becomes a cliche. It's not a big deal yet. But it's getting there.

[Guest Incandenza]

The overuse of the word "genius." Anyone who's ever done anything slightly respectable is somehow a genius.

[Guest J*ingus]

Ghetto street slang annoys the shit out of me. For god's sake, at least make up your own nonsense, like I occasionally whobitchyacockoff; don't just blindly follow someone else's "rebellion".

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

in text, misusing your and you're irritates the hell out of me.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

What the hell is wrong with ghetto slang? It's great!

 

Fo sheez(!),

Kotzenjunge

[Guest TheBlurricane]

My most hated phrases:

 

Hellagood

Oh Tag

talk to the hand

 

Any phrase used to inturrupt someone just to be a jackass

[Guest razazteca]

Y'all is used instead of "you all"

 

Ya, is used here in context of "are you ready to go" or "Are you finish"

 

It Be Whos You is the most over used phrase used by school teachers

 

***** as the only scale for ranking wrestling matches

[Guest TheBlurricane]

there's nothing wrong with ya'll.........you all is just too tedious and long to say.

[Guest JHawk]

If you tried to ban "y'all" in the South, they'd have you shot.

[Guest J*ingus]

Y'all is used instead of "you all"

 

Ya, is used here in context of "are you ready to go" or "Are you finish"

Don't ever come to Tennessee then, heh.

[Guest HBK16]

No shit sherlock. After my brother used it in every single sentence it got old

[Guest Will Scarlet]

Words and phrases I dislike:

 

U - There is nothing I hate worse than talking to someone Online, and they pack on the "U's"

 

prolly - I always hated when people spell it that way, instead of probably.

 

bro - I used to have a friend who would say this constantly. "Sup bro." "Hey bro." "F you bro." I hated that word.

 

Sup - What the heck is that supposed to mean? I thought "sup" was a meal or something, but somehow it gets added into slang.

 

Zup - Unnecessary use of "z." I blame Vince Russo!

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Using "of" instead of "have"

 

i.e. "could of" or "should of"

 

Damnit, it's "could have" and "should have"

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Kids don't read. They hear MTV hosts saying "should've" and it sounds like "should of." Incredibly annoying, especially on the Internet - which, for a text-based medium, is curiously attractive to functional illiterates.

 

Another thing that pisses me off is the phrase "I hate when" (or "I like when," or whatever). I've seen this in fucking syndicated columns, for chrissakes. It's also in that song by Deep Blue Something: "And I hate when things are over." Grr. Transitive verbs have an object. How difficult is this to understand? Musicians screw with grammar all the time, just for the sake of a puerile rhyme, and it's very aggravating. I almost put a hammer through the radio when I first heard "Say a little prayer for I." Even "I feel the magic between you and I" gets to me, although I like the song.

 

By the way, Tom, your first example is very grating but it's rapidly gaining currency. I've heard real life cabinet secretaries say "I could care less," as well as actors in otherwise top-notch television dramas. Drives me up that proverbial wall too. "A whole 'nother," on the other hand, doesn't bother me at all. There's plenty of precedence. French adds a useless t to separate vowel sounds: "Quel âge a-t-elle?" "Thine" was used in the same way instead of "thy." In that context, the elision in "'nother" is fine with me.

 

A couple more things: "The exception proves the rule" and "the proof is in the pudding." SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Don't use those expressions if you don't know what you're talking about or I swear to God I'll throw you through a plate glass window!

 

And if I never again have to hear another person mispronouncing or misusing the word "patina" it'll be seven eternities too soon.

 

Our language is the foundation and the ultimate essence of our culture. Its current state of neglect is a damning indictment of our priorities in education.

 

PS. Blurricane, it's "y'all," not "ya'll." The apostrophe comes after the y; there's no a in "you."

Please keep in mind that few things sound sillier than a Yankee trying to say "y'all." Leave this to us Southern belles. For that matter, don't try to say "audacity" either, or I declare, I'll shove my parasol so far up your ass...

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Er, it's behooves, not Be Who's.

 

It would behoove you to get that right in the future.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Cancer Marney]

I would never have guessed that one. Thanks for the translation, Kotzenjunge.

[Guest JHawk]

U - There is nothing I hate worse than talking to someone Online, and they pack on the "U's"

Another one that bothers me is "r" for "are".

 

"How r u?"

 

Coherent enough to end this conversation.

 

If you're too lazy to type out a three letter word without a disclaimer that you have more than 3 IMs going, I have no use for you.

[Guest Dr. Wrestlingphysics]

"I could care less" rather than "I couldn't care less" seems to be an American thing, well, at least for now as it will probably find its way to England soon enough, though I hope not.

 

The your/you're swapping has already been mentioned, and on a similar theme I'd like to add the mixing of there, they're and their.

Come on people, I learned the difference when I was 6, are you more stupid than a 6 year old?!

[Guest Dr. Wrestlingphysics]

I also hate the use of the phrase "Yeah, baby!" ala Austin Powers.

[Guest The Electrifyer]

I just hate people using gay short forms of words. Like "l8r" for "later", 4 for "for", the "u" and "r" thing, there also a million of these gay short forms for words that I hate.

[Guest Dr. Wrestlingphysics]

I h8 dat sort of fing 2!

People can always tell when a mobile phone text message is from me because everything is spelled out the long (proper) way.