You mean as in the famous French folk song that goes:
"Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang voilà voilà bing bang" ?
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Words or phrases that annoy you (even if you can't explain why) . . .
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You mean as in the famous French folk song that goes:
"Ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang voilà voilà bing bang" ?
Whilst out and about today, a long nag I’d been meaning to add to the pile was spotted on some storefront signage: the use of literal-“K” for words which begin with a hard-“C” (an example: “Kreative Kustards & Pastries”). It’s a really bad look, and yes, there have even been times when I’ve spotted the third word in a business name also being a hard-C done up like that. It’s always been in rural stretches during intercity road trips. When people do that, within that geographic context, they’re blowing into a dogwhistle as hard as they can and think most can’t hear the high-pitched whine.
People: don’t do that. Just don’t. It makes you look like a — literal-“c” — clown at best, and at worst, a sympathizer of terrorists.
While I’m also thinking about this, another annoyance is one which, mercifully, has fallen from as frequent usage from its high (or low, have your pick) water mark during the late 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s: that is, spelling a word like “complete” as “““compleat”””.
I don’t care what the rationale is. It makes you look illiterate and it makes me want to pronounce the word as “complee-at”. Nothing screams “I’m almost undoubtedly of a certain cohort and demographic” quite like the wilful misspelling of “-plete” as “-pleat” — replete with all the baggage to go along with that.
People: don’t do that. Just don’t. It makes you look like a — literal-“c” — clown at best, and at worst, a sympathizer of terrorists.
While I’m also thinking about this, another annoyance is one which, mercifully, has fallen from as frequent usage from its high (or low, have your pick) water mark during the late 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s: that is, spelling a word like “complete” as “““compleat”””.
I don’t care what the rationale is. It makes you look illiterate and it makes me want to pronounce the word as “complee-at”. Nothing screams “I’m almost undoubtedly of a certain cohort and demographic” quite like the wilful misspelling of “-plete” as “-pleat” — replete with all the baggage to go along with that.
Where I live, K is an oddball letter. The standard Welsh orthography has no letter K.Whilst out and about today, a long nag I’d been meaning to add to the pile was spotted on some storefront signage: the use of literal-“K” for words which begin with a hard-“C” (an example: “Kreative Kustards & Pastries”). It’s a really bad look, and yes, there have even been times when I’ve spotted the third word in a business name also being a hard-C done up like that. It’s always been in rural stretches during intercity road trips. When people do that, within that geographic context, they’re blowing into a dogwhistle as hard as they can and think most can’t hear the high-pitched whine.
People: don’t do that. Just don’t. It makes you look like a — literal-“c” — clown at best, and at worst, a sympathizer of terrorists.
While I’m also thinking about this, another annoyance is one which, mercifully, has fallen from as frequent usage from its high (or low, have your pick) water mark during the late 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s: that is, spelling a word like “complete” as “““compleat”””.
I don’t care what the rationale is. It makes you look illiterate and it makes me want to pronounce the word as “complee-at”. Nothing screams “I’m almost undoubtedly of a certain cohort and demographic” quite like the wilful misspelling of “-plete” as “-pleat” — replete with all the baggage to go along with that.
What we have is a situation in which when you see a K (e.g. on a placename/road sign), it is often the anglicised version of the name. The Welsh form being with a C. One example: Kilgetty vs Cilgeti.
Not always the case - we do have the town of Knighton with the Welsh being very different, not just a spelling change, Tref-y-clawdd.
My point being that K causes lots of historical and cultural issues.
I’m finding this most annoying also. It is unfortunately quite common in some Australian dialects.
These are valid points I honestly wasn’t thinking about, and I ought to have done the diligence of noting whereabouts I’ve come across these examples.
I’ve lived in Canada for most of my adult life, but grew up in the U.S. The examples I see and have seen where hard-“C” gets “re-branded” into a “K” is on English-language signs.
The example I saw today was in-city and was something like “Krazy Subs” (i.e., the long sandwich). Examples which sport a trio have, almost invariably, been spotted in rural parts of both nation-states (though I honestly can’t think of maybe more than once or twice I’ve come across such on this side of the border) — where English is the dominant, if not only language spoken for business (and often English-dominant at home, as well).
Which is to say: I have no immediate memory of having run across stuff like this in French-dominant parts of Canada (namely, southwestern Québec, in or around Montréal, where I used to live; northern Ontario; or areas in and around Winnipeg). Which isn’t to say it doesn’t come up in these Francophone-dominant areas, but they also didn’t stick in my memory.
As for the U.S., meanwhile (and it has been some time since I’ve spent time on rural roads there, though I did grow up and learnt to drive in the land of “big, long roads out there”* — known as Texas), signs with the words meant to start with C, but swapped with K, in triplicate, reared its head frequently and, sometimes, very blatantly so — as if to telegraph how they won’t do business with you if they deem you as outside their rigid, narrow comfort zone.
Which is their prerogative, but wow, it’s not a good look, ever — no matter the rationale behind it.
* a “love” post reaction to the first person who happens to know or remember where that line comes from (and without using a search engine to cheat — honour system!)
If that's all they say, then that's definitely weird. It seems that's also common while telling a story. The upward inflection implies "Wait, there's more." In that case, I don't find it as weird, but the story should end on a downward inflection. Question marks below indicate upward inflection:
"So I left for work(?) and was driving down Main Street(?) near the restaurant we went to last night(?), and this idiot runs the red light and hits me."
(I'm sure these are mentioned somewhere in this thread but I don't feel like reading it all
"This"
"Same"
"Grok"
Most office space terms, especially "Out of pocket"
And most annoying is people that end any and all of their sentences in an inflection of question.
ie "My favorite ice cream is chocolate [?]"
I dunno, is it? Why are you asking me?
"Grok" is a word invented by Robert Heinlein for his novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" to define a depth of understanding about something that involves your whole mind and body. Granted it is an ugly word, but I haven't heard it much since the early 70's when pretty well every undergraduate was reading and attempting, badly, to "grok" the book's meaning...
The story goes that Welsh changed from using K to C because when they were printing the bible in Welsh, for the first time, they didn't have enough letters K - so changed to use C instead.
But it's long-established now.And it didn't stop KwikSave being a chain of supermarkets originating within Wales. I think they should have been something like Cynilo Cyflym.
Yes, I agree, and this short radio interview makes that point. I do think it’s turning into a habit with some people, and they end almost every (short) sentence with an upward inflection. It’s like their speech doesn’t consist of completed sentences but a never ending enumeration of statements.
It should also be said that in Australia, people trained or experienced in elocution (like lawyers) don’t tend to speak like that.
like!We need a thread for words that we like, even if we don't know why. Instead of "cringe", everything will be "based".
(play on words)
I would think that, spoken by a Jamaican, asking you "What is going on?", it's ok.
Spoken by anybody else is an affectation...
Didn't annoy me until just now.
Possibly because I'd never come across it.
(Do I file it in "words that annoy" or "pending"?)
I delight in that application of the word “extra”, especially since prior to its adoption in this way, the word “extreme” would often be used.
Problem is: the 2000s happened, as did marketing during the 2000s, and thus perma-destroyed the word “extreme” for at least a generation or two. The phonemes comprising the word “extreme”, when repeated ad nauseam, become just as meaningless as the way it was misused and abused in everything ranging from exercise equipment to makeovers to Doritos®. There’s no recovering from that.
In that light, to complain about “extra” being used by people nowadays in lieu of its predecessor, “extreme” — being driven to a linguistic exile in casual, everyday usage — is, well, being a bit extra.
Someone sent me this text earlier today:
wait yo what're you doing rn
I have two problems:
1. "rn" as an abbreviation for "right now"
2. For context, this guy wanted to call me so we could talk—which I'm perfectly fine with—but why not just say that?
He's one of my best friends (so I can't give him too much hate), and it was great to catch up with him, but man, he is annoying when he texts.
wait yo what're you doing rn
I have two problems:
1. "rn" as an abbreviation for "right now"
2. For context, this guy wanted to call me so we could talk—which I'm perfectly fine with—but why not just say that?
He's one of my best friends (so I can't give him too much hate), and it was great to catch up with him, but man, he is annoying when he texts.
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On clumsy glass UI input, “rn’ is a mess quicker and less fraught with making errors than “right now”.
Same goes for a slew of other shorthand combinations invented out of necessity, (no) thanks to the proliferation of the glass UI for handheld communications (thanks
Excellent post and you have made some very good points.
It strikes me that this is part of the vocabulary "inflation" that seems to be applied in order to stress further the intensity of whatever it is you wish to describe.
I remember in the 1990s the term "arch" arrived in politics - as in "arch enemy", "arch rival".
Now, quite apart from the obvious observation - which is to ask just what exactly is wrong with "rival" or "enemy", - these are perfectly good and quite descriptive nouns already - it (above all when it becomes wide used, and then, overused, as is the temptation when others casually use it) is that it serves to devalue language and weaken the use of certain words.
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I hear you, empathise with you, and completely agree with you.
I didn't even know that "rn" - to me, that is, or that means, "registered nurse" - was supposed to stand for.
It is neither clear nor obvious - thus, not understood - unless already known.
If you wished to signal that you wanted someone to respond "right now", the meaning could have been (at least) inferred had someting on the lines of "rt nw" been written, instead.
Oh, yes.
Glass UI, no, no, no.
I loathe them, - no, not detest, or dislike , but passionately loathe them - and loathe the physical experience of writing (sorry, attempting to write) on them. A horrid experience, one that makes the most language-loving and literate individual regress to a sad and sorry state long preceding literacy.
I don't like either, but "extra" sounds far worse. I prefer to simply say what it is--someone being overdramatic, fussy, etc. "extra" or "extreme" by itself isn't very descriptive imo. Too vague.
Whilst out and about today, a long nag I’d been meaning to add to the pile was spotted on some storefront signage: the use of literal-“K” for words which begin with a hard-“C” (an example: “Kreative Kustards & Pastries”). It’s a really bad look, and yes, there have even been times when I’ve spotted the third word in a business name also being a hard-C done up like that. It’s always been in rural stretches during intercity road trips. When people do that, within that geographic context, they’re blowing into a dogwhistle as hard as they can and think most can’t hear the high-pitched whine.
People: don’t do that. Just don’t. It makes you look like a — literal-“c” — clown at best, and at worst, a sympathizer of terrorists.
While I’m also thinking about this, another annoyance is one which, mercifully, has fallen from as frequent usage from its high (or low, have your pick) water mark during the late 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s: that is, spelling a word like “complete” as “““compleat”””.
I don’t care what the rationale is. It makes you look illiterate and it makes me want to pronounce the word as “complee-at”. Nothing screams “I’m almost undoubtedly of a certain cohort and demographic” quite like the wilful misspelling of “-plete” as “-pleat” — replete with all the baggage to go along with that.
New ones to add to the pile: one being a tech neologism, and the other a pronunciation peeve de-luxe…
The tech neologism, yielding the concatenation “phablet”, is such a train wreck. [Thinking back to the convergence of PDAs and mobile phones, I’m relieved the tech world didn’t start using neologisms like “PDAphone” (pronounced “PEE-duh-foan”) or “phonDA” (“foan-DUH”) or even “palmphone” ( 🤦♀️ ).
Anyhow, I lack the equipment to move aside the “phablet” train wreck, so onto the pronunciations.
This one is a regionalism in the U.S., principally down in the south. The pronouncing of words like “temperature”, “aperture”, and “mature” with not a phonetics of -choor, but instead with -tour.
I was reminded of this rude sound (for me, in the same family as fingernails on chalkboard) not too long ago whilst watching a YT clip from, I think, Tennessee. The person speaking said “temperature” as “TEM-puh'-tour” (it was, audibly, more like “TEM-puh-tooooour”). I shrieked audibly.
I skipped the rest of the clips and had to close the tab, then and there, to suppress the urge to do something rash which I’d regret later. Having grown up in Texas, one would hear this structure of pronunciation from people some two or more generations my elder. Evidently, this nightmare style of pronunciation has leapt over from Silent and Greatest Generation speakers from those regions, over to the mouths of late-Millennial and Gen Z people.
Good lordt, whyyyy…