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

[T Coma]

We don’t use kilometres for distance in the UK, we use miles and we drink pints of beer and ale. Other than that, well done, do you feel better now 🤣.

Thanks for reading. It doesn’t matter what word you use though does it? One can still travel kilometers even in the UK, and hey, 4 pints in at Ye Olde Pub, perhaps celebrating your soccer team’s win, and you’ve technically consumed around 2 liters? What’s key in the above of course, is the spelling. I’m glad you at least acknowledged that by replying with the French version. 😉

And thank you for asking, I did feel better!

 

[usmaak]

I have friends who do not know or understand when to use ’s, so they use it on every plural word. Kitten’s, dog’s, person’s... I’ll occasionally say, kitten’s what? And I get a glassy eyed stare of incomprehension.

 

[Daimos0]

The below picture….
Instead of saying
The picture below…

 

[rm5]

@Daimos0 I would only use "the below picture" if I was writing a paper or something! I would never use that in casual conversation.

Another one that irks me is "fire," as in "That's fire!" (I'd much rather hear "That's awesome" or "That's great")

 

[Nermal]

@Daimos0 I would only use "the below picture" if I was writing a paper or something!

I'd hope that you'd say "the following picture" (or similar) in that case!

 

[Nermal]

I use a meal delivery service and they regularly put words in the wrong order. "Put chicken on plate and sprinkle over sesame seeds". That means to somehow sprinkle the chicken onto the sesame seeds, even though the chicken is already on the plate.

 

[usagora]

@T Coma You're far too reticent. I wish you'd open up a bit more about this topic. 2500 words is all you could contribute? Come on, friend, don't hold back.

Although I don't agree with all your peeves, I must admit I don't recall ever seeing "verse" used as a substitute for versus/vs. I'll have to be on the lookout for that.

 

[Realityck]

Speaking of words that annoy you:

People that use filler adverbs to start off a conversation which add nothing to the conversation. The most common one that people get addicted to using is "basically", but some will do the same using "essentially" or "actually" repetitively too. You might hear someone using these all the time when they talk.

It's like pretending to be an expert explaining something to others using these three words. It's a hard habit to break for some that use these words profusely and get told its not helping their status at all.

 

[usmaak]

@Daimos0 I would only use "the below picture" if I was writing a paper or something! I would never use that in casual conversation.

Another one that irks me is "fire," as in "That's fire!" (I'd much rather hear "That's awesome" or "That's great")

Might as well add “lit” to the list.

 

[Clix Pix]

Getting right to the heart of the matter, if someone wants to communicate effectively, at least with me, they need to use words, not some stupid gif or video clip or emoji.

 

[usagora]

Getting right to the heart of the matter, if someone wants to communicate effectively, at least with me, they need to use words, not some stupid gif or video clip or emoji.

They're not mutually exclusive. In written communication, emojis can be very valuable to communicate what your tone, facial expressions, and other body language would normally communicate in person.

 

[Clix Pix]

I don't do emojis or Memojis or whatever..... If you can't find the language, the actual words, to express clearly to me whatever it is you want to tell or ask me, well, that's your problem, not mine. So if you wonder a week later why you haven't gotten a response to your cartoon-character emoji-filled text or email, you'll just have to check in again and maybe this time try to use real words.... You might actually get a response then!

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

First, here's a big THANK YOU to the OP for posting; this is a topic that unfortunately can really get under my skin. I don't remember which publication featured this recurring year-end article -- something like "Words that need to be retired for 2003," or whatever year it was at the time. I miss those articles. They, and my list below, include trendy words, overused words, outdated words, incorrectly used (or spelled) words, and I'd add incorrectly pronounced words too. While I'm far from a verbal perfectionist, I am a fan of the proper use of language, including understanding vocabulary. One of my favorite possessions is this wonderful unabridged second edition of Webster's Dictionary -- all 2300ish pages of it -- in its lovely, ridiculously tiny font. I inherited it from my grandmother, after it spent an actual lifetime in a hallowed spot in her house, second in reference, size, and value only to her Bible. It now resides in our home tavern, where it is consulted regularly in case of lexical interest or dispute (pint glass for scale).

View attachment 2145360
(Aside - where in the world am I going to find a book cover specialist to replace the 55+ year-old leatherette and plastic custom cover? There aren't too many bibliophile curiosity shoppes here in central IN.)

• Ecosystem - I know it's a convenient way to describe all of your techie devices, "Oh, I live and work entirely in the Apple ecosystem," but you know what? It is just not right. Yeah, yeah, everybody knows the prefix eco- comes from a Greek word for "house" (duh!) so in some way ecosystem just means "parts of a system that are from the same manufacturer," but, hmmm, no. Ecosystem as a word popped up after "ecology" which referred almost exclusively to a branch of BIOLOGY regarding living organisms and their environment. You know, like the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. (Also something-something in Sociology about humans and resource distribution or some such.) There are no biological Apple Inc. organisms (yet) so you don't get to claim ecosystem. Find a more appropriate word. By the way, if you ever said something like, "I'm agnostic to the OS of my work ecosystem," I... well..., I'll just go ahead and say it: **** you. I hate you.

Firstly, love the dictionary. If you can't find someone nearby to re-cover it, you have two options --

1. Use the internet to find a well-regarded book restorer. Don't forget that many libraries have and in-house book restorer/re-binder.
2. Learn how to do it yourself, although a 2,300 page book might be a bit advanced for a beginner...

As for Ecosystem. As a trained (and once practising) ecologist, I have an affection for the word, but I see your point. I suggest replacing Ecosystem with Biocenose,* which means the same thing, for scientific usage. I like to use the term Ecosystem for computer technology systems. For example, when I write something in LaTeX, I usually use a smart editor, running inside a Unix-like operating system, on an Intel-based computer. That Techno-Ecosystem consists of the Markup language, the editor, the OS and the hardware. Change any one of those and the whole system changes.

Similarly, when one uses a Microsoft application (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc) MS tries to constrain you to stay within the MS Ecosystem (Operating system, Applications, inter-application communication, etc, etc).



* Although, I cannot help sounding it out in my mind as 'beeoseenose', pronounced with a Mauritian-French accent, as I first heard it from a lecturer with a very heavy French accent.

 

[usagora]

I don't do emojis or Memojis or whatever..... If you can't find the language, the actual words, to express clearly to me whatever it is you want to tell or ask me, well, that's your problem, not mine. So if you wonder a week later why you haven't gotten a response to your cartoon-character emoji-filled text or email, you'll just have to check in again and maybe this time try to use real words.... You might actually get a response then!

Alrighty then. Your wording ("emoji-filled") suggests it's not the use of emojis per se, but rather the over-use of them. In my previous post (which your post here was obviously meant as a response to), I was referring to using emojis effectively to communicate what tone and body language would normally communicate in person. I certainly hope you're not ignoring written communication from people simply because they might include a few emojis that are being used in the way I describe.

 

[Clix Pix]

Actually, I think this discussion has done me a favor....got me to thinking about something in more depth and having a flash or two of insight....

In the meantime, not to worry, of course I don't ignore messages that I receive, I do actually respond to them in words even if I didn't understand what the emojis meant. Fortunately I don't get that many text messages or emails which have a lot of emojis in them in the first place, so usually communication does follow through anyway!

 

[T Coma]

@T Coma You're far too reticent. I wish you'd open up a bit more about this topic. 2500 words is all you could contribute? Come on, friend, don't hold back.

Although I don't agree with all your peeves, I must admit I don't recall ever seeing "verse" used as a substitute for versus/vs. I'll have to be on the lookout for that.

You probably won’t see “verse” as a substitute for “versus.” You’ll have to be on the listenout for it; it’s a trending spoken fail. I probably hear it once every day or two, depending on how many podcasts I consume.

 

[usmaak]

How about “sorry not sorry”. That one annoys me.

 

[usagora]

You probably won’t see “verse” as a substitute for “versus.” You’ll have to be on the listenout for it; it’s a trending spoken fail. I probably hear it once every day or two, depending on how many podcasts I consume.

Don't remember ever hearing it either. Odd!

 

[Nermal]

"Verse" was common in my area in the 90s, but I haven't heard it recently.

 

[usagora]

"yup" and "nope" instead of "yes" and "no". Comes off as very smug. I know I've been guilty of this before! "yeah" and "nah" are only slightly annoying in comparison. I guess they don't sound as smug because they end with a vowel sound, which make them sound less dismissive.

 

[Gregg2]

"Verse" was common in my area in the 90s, but I haven't heard it recently.

It's a generational thing, I think. My son picked it up from friends in elementary school, I guess. But I recently heard it on TV from a sports broadcaster. It's just one of many words to have a syllable dropped. I think it's symptomatic of verbal laziness.

Then we could talk about dropping the verb "to be" that's become common in some places. (I'll not be more specific.)

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Getting right to the heart of the matter, if someone wants to communicate effectively, at least with me, they need to use words, not some stupid gif or video clip or emoji.

I don't do emojis or Memojis or whatever..... If you can't find the language, the actual words, to express clearly to me whatever it is you want to tell or ask me, well, that's your problem, not mine. So if you wonder a week later why you haven't gotten a response to your cartoon-character emoji-filled text or email, you'll just have to check in again and maybe this time try to use real words.... You might actually get a response then!

Oh, bravo, well said; very well said.

Anyway, I'm in complete agreement with these sentiments and have been known to give (pained) voice to them, myself.

 

[usagora]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I hate it when people try to sound cool by saying "negative" and "affirmative" (instead of no and yes) in normal conversation as if they're engaging in some sort of official radio communication 🙄

 

[rm5]

@usagora Oh god, I hate that, too! Good point! You know in some cars where you can do voice commands, and in the "help menu" it will show the "radio standards" for the letters (alpha, bravo, etc.)? What you mentioned reminded me of that for some reason...

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I hate it when people try to sound cool by saying "negative" and "affirmative" (instead of no and yes) in normal conversation as if they're engaging in some sort of official radio communication 🙄

And then there is "negatory"...