Words or phrases that annoy you (even if you can't explain why) . . .

[usagora]

Here are few that make me cringe every time I hear them:

1. As someone who works with kids, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't use the term "kiddo" or "kiddos" instead of "kid" or "kids". It's not as bad as "doggo" or "doggos" (instead of "dog" or "dogs"), but pretty darn close.

2. "legit" used as an adverb. For example, "I legit just saw Tom Cruise at the mall." As an adjective, I don't mind it. For example, "The email you received was legit" doesn't bother me.

3. "said" used by non-lawyers in non-legal contexts to refer back to a previously mentioned person, place, or thing. For example, "I found a pair of sunglasses I like, so I bought said pair of sunglasses." It just sounds utterly pretentious.

There are others, of course, but those are the top 3 at the moment in my head 😂

Conversely, there are words or uses of words that seem to bother many people that I don't have any problem with. Probably the most common would be the use of "literally" in a hyperbolic sense. For example, "That movie was so amazing, it literally blew my mind." To me, that's clear and obvious hyperbole and doesn't bother me in the least, yet for some reason it sends others into conniption fits. They don't seem to accept that words can have totally different meanings and/or connotations depending on context. You may not like that use, fair enough, but it's not "incorrect". I admit the same about the three words I detailed above--they are common, accepted uses, but I just don't like how they sound.

 

[KaliYoni]

Curate as a synonym for choose. Choosing is something anybody can do. Curating requires a combination of education, training, and taste.

Share as a synonym for announce or publish. Sharing involves the intentional transfer of a resource from one person to another person (or persons), not broadcasting content or issuing press releases.

I'm tired of seeing question marks on simple declarative sentences? I think these question marks often make the actual question unclear?

These may be auto-correct problems but...misuse of to/too/two and advice/advise.

Would of, could of, should of

Using "myself" in all cases due to fear of misusing "I".

Store workers saying "Hi there" at me unless they know who I am. Something about the informality nags at me (perhaps due to all those years studying Romance languages). A simple "Hello" or "Hi" is better to my mind.

More humorous than annoying: "For all intensive purposes", "moran" when intending to call somebody a "moron".

Relentless negativity and incessant complaining about others' behavior.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

"At this point in time"; as my mother used to say (and that phrase annoyed her, also) "what is wrong with "now""?

Ah, yes, "literally"; an unnecessary gilding of something that has already been expressed strongly.

Would of; could of.....yes, I grit my teeth when reading those; of course, this is usually as a result of rendering phonetically a sentence that they had misheard, not knowing what they should have written.

To/too/two, yes, agreed, and also advise/advice.

And then, there is the perennial case of the confusion between their/there......grrrr.

 

[velocityg4]

Friend Group: It just sounds so odd to say. How about gang, crew, pals, buds or simply friends.

The customer is always right: No, that isn't the saying. It's "The customer is always right in matters of taste". It never meant that a customer is allowed to act like an abusive entitled twit. Just if they want to buy something idiotic like a banana yellow blazer and fishnet stockings to wear. Their bad taste is correct. It doesn't matter if they'll look like an idiot.

Slow and steady wins the race: This is rarely ever accurate. It's a complete misunderstanding of "The tortoise and the hare." While I can't come up with as catchy a saying. The basic premise is. Even if you have every advantage. Complacency will cause your defeat before a determined opponent.

 

[chown33]

Friend Group: It just sounds so odd to say. How about gang, crew, pals, buds or simply friends.

I've always liked "unindicted co-conspirators". It sounds edgier.

 

[usagora]

To/too/two, yes, agreed, and also advise/advice.

And then, there is the perennial case of the confusion between their/there......grrrr.

I'm convinced that the vast majority of the time, using the wrong homophone has nothing to do with people not knowing the correct spelling, but rather a simple lack of proofreading. I know this, because I certainly know the difference between all those words, yet I frequently find my brain has told my fingers to type the wrong form.

 

[usagora]

I just thought of another, but it's not a word or phrase, but rather sentence structure: when people move the verb to the end of a sentence, trying to sound poetic. For example: "Taking one class does not an expert make" (vs. "Taking one class doesn't make you an expert").

 

[Mousse]

Japanimation.👹 As a rabid anime fan, an otaku, it really chaps my hide. If I hear that word at a Comic-Con, I will instantly judge the speaker as a fan of 80's-90's dubbed anime.

PetaQ or pahtak is another word that triggers me🤨, but only if it is directed at me.😉

 

[KaliYoni]

sentence structure: when people move the verb to the end of a sentence, trying to sound poetic

If you've never read this George Orwell essay, you might enjoy it:

" I am going to translate a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort. Here is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account."

Politics and the English Language | The Orwell Foundation

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

www.orwellfoundation.com

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ETA
"3. 'said' used by non-lawyers in non-legal contexts to refer back to a previously mentioned person, place, or thing....It just sounds utterly pretentious."

Similarly, "aforementioned".

 

[KaliYoni]

an otaku

Does the name of Otacon, a video game character, in the Metal Gear Solid series bother you? Just wondering...

 

[mw360]

In no way, shape or form do the phrases "screen real estate" or "piece of kit" have valid use cases where just "screen" and "thing" wouldn't also fit the bill.

 

[gigatoaster]

This.

I hate this expression on forums, it seemed to have appeared recently.

And you do you. As a non-native, that doesn’t make sense.

And “your mileage may vary”. No ****!

 

[cthompson94]

"Buddy" is certainly one for me, I cannot stand being called buddy. Can't tell you why, but when I am at work for example and someone says something like "Hey buddy" it just bothers me.

Also "Vibe" especially how it is used now with people asking if someone or something "is a vibe"

 

[PauloSera]

Here are few that make me cringe every time I hear them:

1. As someone who works with kids, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't use the term "kiddo" or "kiddos" instead of "kid" or "kids". It's not as bad as "doggo" or "doggos" (instead of "dog" or "dogs"), but pretty darn close.

2. "legit" used as an adverb. For example, "I legit just saw Tom Cruise at the mall." As an adjective, I don't mind it. For example, "The email you received was legit" doesn't bother me.

3. "said" used by non-lawyers in non-legal contexts to refer back to a previously mentioned person, place, or thing. For example, "I found a pair of sunglasses I like, so I bought said pair of sunglasses." It just sounds utterly pretentious.

There are others, of course, but those are the top 3 at the moment in my head 😂

Conversely, there are words or uses of words that seem to bother many people that I don't have any problem with. Probably the most common would be the use of "literally" in a hyperbolic sense. For example, "That movie was so amazing, it literally blew my mind." To me, that's clear and obvious hyperbole and doesn't bother me in the least, yet for some reason it sends others into conniption fits. They don't seem to accept that words can have totally different meanings and/or connotations depending on context. You may not like that use, fair enough, but it's not "incorrect". I admit the same about the three words I detailed above--they are common, accepted uses, but I just don't like how they sound.

I wouldn't use #3 while taking myself seriously, but I certainly would in a sarcastic or condescending way.

 

[max2]

Be a man.

There is no such thing. No offense.

 

[eyoungren]

Japanimation.👹 As a rabid anime fan, an otaku, it really chaps my hide. If I hear that word at a Comic-Con, I will instantly judge the speaker as a fan of 80's-90's dubbed anime.

Uhhhhhhh…guilty.

Robotech Macross was my first animated Japanese television show in the form of a soap opera on American television in 1985. I would have been 14.

 

[eyoungren]

"Buddy" is certainly one for me, I cannot stand being called buddy. Can't tell you why, but when I am at work for example and someone says something like "Hey buddy" it just bothers me.

'Buddy', 'bro', etc. I'm with you on that. The 'why' for me is down to the speaker automatically assuming a familiarity with me that does not exist - usually as a pretext to get something out of me. Those who use those words in that context also automatically assume they will get what they are asking for and if they don't they are 'justified' in being angry at you (righteous indignation) for not giving it to them. Like I'm the ****** and not them.

I guess that (for me) just goes for any words or phrases that are used in this way on me.

Good morning is innocuous, but I worked with a woman for 14.5 years and she never once meant it. It was solely her intro in demanding something from me - usually in a 'drop everything you are doing right now and do what I want you to do immediately' kind of way.

 

[Herdfan]

I just thought of another, but it's not a word or phrase, but rather sentence structure: when people move the verb to the end of a sentence, trying to sound poetic. For example: "Taking one class does not an expert make" (vs. "Taking one class doesn't make you an expert").

That's just Yoda speak. 😂

 

[Nermal]

One that annoys me is when people use "ecosystem" in non-ecological contexts (e.g. "the iOS ecosystem"). Another is referring to practically everything as a "device" when there are more specific words available.

 

[eyoungren]

1. As someone who works with kids, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't use the term "kiddo" or "kiddos" instead of "kid" or "kids". It's not as bad as "doggo" or "doggos" (instead of "dog" or "dogs"), but pretty darn close.

This one primarily bothers me because I assume 'adults' know better.

My local TV station has a traffic reporter who on air uses this term, either to refer to her kids or someone elses. Her kids are teenagers, and one of mine is 19 - so 'kiddo' is not the right word.

I see it as someone trying desperately to psychologically hang on to that period of time when her children were small. I looked it up once, and there's a whole thing on Infantilization on Wikipedia. She just can't let go for some reason.

Some of the other reporters refer to fully grown adult dogs as 'puppys' or 'pups' and that burns me too. I see it as akin to the link I just posted. I get the idea of diminutives, but…let it go.

 

[Herdfan]

"Buddy" is certainly one for me, I cannot stand being called buddy. Can't tell you why, but when I am at work for example and someone says something like "Hey buddy" it just bothers me.

Also "Vibe" especially how it is used now with people asking if someone or something "is a vibe"

When my daughter was young, she once remarked to my wife that "Dad has a lot of friends named Bud". 😂

And you do you. As a non-native, that doesn’t make sense.

Kind of a pejorative. As in "You can do what you like, but I probably wouldn't."

 

[bradl]

For years (and for some asinine reason they are still using it) what has annoyed me is this "Norcal" speak. adding -a at the end of a word to as an adjective. Hella, Hecka, etc. Then adding in YOLO.. annoying.

I'm beginning to also side with Miriam Margoyles as well with the overuse of the word "like". "she was like, 'I told him what movie I wanted to see...', then I was like 'he saw a different movie?'..." Whatever happened to the word SAID?!?

🤬

Oh, and Obligatory Weird Al.

BL.

 

[eyoungren]

Kind of a pejorative. As in "You can do what you like, but I probably wouldn't."

There's a local casino/resort in Phoenix that uses this as their tagline. The intent is to mean they offer a lot of things to do for everyone and you can be yourself there, so choose them I guess.

But, I can certainly see it as a pejorative.

 

[eyoungren]

For years (and for some asinine reason they are still using it) what has annoyed me is this "Norcal" speak. adding -a at the end of a word to as an adjective. Hella, Hecka, etc. Then adding in YOLO.. annoying.

I'm beginning to also side with Miriam Margoyles as well with the overuse of the word "like". "she was like, 'I told him what movie I wanted to see...', then I was like 'he saw a different movie?'..." Whatever happened to the word SAID?!?

🤬

Oh, and Obligatory Weird Al.

BL.

I was about 13 when Valspeak got big. Moon Unit Zappa and Valley Girl and all that. My wife hates it, but I've always thought it was cool. She likes to mock me over it sometimes.

 

[usagora]

That's just Yoda speak. 😂

Well, that is ok in my book, but otherwise . . .