Annoying misused words?

[watelessness]

Is anyone else annoyed by words or phrases that are incorrectly used, especially in the media? i.e. synchronicity instead of synchronization, enamored by instead of enamoured of, attorney generals instead of attorneys general?

 

[Goldtop]

Oh man, that is something that irks me no end. There are too many to list, and the day is too pretty for me to get myself worked up, but here are a couple of examples:

Using 'axe' instead of 'ask'. A-S-K!!! How can you 'axe' a question???

You hear this one a lot from the CRASHCAR crowd: 'Awesome'. As in, 'My RC Cola - Gatorade - Turtle Wax - Fat Joe's Beef Jerky - West Virginia Dept. of Tourism - Summer's Eve Feminine Hygiene Products - Smokey The Bear/Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires - Chevy Clueless is runnin' awesome today!' It's awesomeLY, Jethro! It's an adverb! Look it up!

Goldtop

 

[László]

So I'm, like, reading this thread on this, like, guitar forum, and people are, like, commenting on words that are misused, and like, I'm thinking, like, how can people be so, like, picky, when, like, everyone is, like, not exactly an English teacher, you know? So, like, I start to, you know, get P.O.'d and then, like, I dunno, I, like, decide to go buy a new bra, and I find, like, this awesome one that, like, looks really good with my Hello Kitty tattoo, and this other woman is, like, pulling it away from me awesome, so I tell her, like...

 

[Goldtop]

So I'm, like, reading this thread on this, like, guitar forum, and people are, like, commenting on words that are misused, and like, I'm thinking, like, how can people be so, like, picky, when, like, everyone is, like, not exactly an English teacher, you know? So, like, I start to, you know, get P.O.'d and then, like, I dunno, I, like, decide to go buy a new bra, and I find, like, this awesome one that, like, looks really good with my Hello Kitty tattoo, and this other woman is, like, pulling it away from me awesome, so I tell her, like...

YES!!! Perfect example. Leave it to you to make me, like, smile. Thank you. :top:

Lloyd/Goldtop/QoC

 

[watelessness]

So I'm, like, reading this thread on this, like, guitar forum, and people are, like, commenting on words that are misused, and like, I'm thinking, like, how can people be so, like, picky, when, like, everyone is, like, not exactly an English teacher, you know? So, like, I start to, you know, get P.O.'d and then, like, I dunno, I, like, decide to go buy a new bra, and I find, like, this awesome one that, like, looks really good with my Hello Kitty tattoo, and this other woman is, like, pulling it away from me awesome, so I tell her, like...

Rele? LOL

 

[John]

I have classmates from college that still misuse your/you're, then/than, or even they're/their/there, which scares me.
"Drive Slow" signs should be revised to "Drive SlowLY."
"I couldn't care less" vs "I could care less." The former reveals that you absolutely do not care, whereas the latter shows that either you do care a bit, or maybe sarcasm, or maybe poor phrasing? :shrugs shoulders:
Also, some of my old classmates still cannot use ironic/coincidence appropriately. Something is ironic if the result is the opposite of what was intended; an ironic event is an incongruous event, one at odds with what might have been expected. A coincidence is a chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected. Last time I checked, those do not mean the same thing, so I'm still not so sure why they interchange those two words.
Also, veering a bit off topic for a moment, the way some of my peers say 'mischievous' irks me. They may use the word at the right time, but by God- when they mispronounce the word, it annoys me. It's pronounced "mis-chuh-vus," NOT "mis-chee-vee-uhs"

Ugh. Rant over for the time being.

Oh man, that is something that irks me no end. There are too many to list, and the day is too pretty for me to get myself worked up, but here are a couple of examples:

Using 'axe' instead of 'ask'. A-S-K!!! How can you 'axe' a question???

Goldtop

That had me thinking of Futurama for a moment. lol

 

[alantig]

"We played good today..." has two. When it's a player, I think "WELL, not GOOD" and when it's a fan, I think "Really? How much did you play?" My daughter HATES when I call her out on that.

 

[John]

So I'm, like, reading this thread on this, like, guitar forum, and people are, like, commenting on words that are misused, and like, I'm thinking, like, how can people be so, like, picky, when, like, everyone is, like, not exactly an English teacher, you know? So, like, I start to, you know, get P.O.'d and then, like, I dunno, I, like, decide to go buy a new bra, and I find, like, this awesome one that, like, looks really good with my Hello Kitty tattoo, and this other woman is, like, pulling it away from me awesome, so I tell her, like...

Oh God, why........

 

[Shawn@PRS]

I have classmates from college that still misuse your/you're, then/than, or even they're/their/there, which scares me.
"Drive Slow" signs should be revised to "Drive SlowLY."
"I couldn't care less" vs "I could care less." The former reveals that you absolutely do not care, whereas the latter shows that either you do care a bit, or maybe sarcasm, or maybe poor phrasing? :shrugs shoulders:
Also, some of my old classmates still cannot use ironic/coincidence appropriately. Something is ironic if the result is the opposite of what was intended; an ironic event is an incongruous event, one at odds with what might have been expected. A coincidence is a chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected. Last time I checked, those do not mean the same thing, so I'm still not so sure why they interchange those two words.
Also, veering a bit off topic for a moment, the way some of my peers say 'mischievous' irks me. They may use the word at the right time, but by God- when they mispronounce the word, it annoys me. It's pronounced "mis-chuh-vus," NOT "mis-chee-vee-uhs"

Ugh. Rant over for the time being.




That had me thinking of Futurama for a moment. lol

This got me thinking. If the idea behind growing an "ironic mustache" is to make the wearer look like a D-bag, then they have succeeded. So in reality, there is no irony there at all.

In all seriousness. Your comments about 'mischievous' could be chalked up to the speakers local dialect. Some folks add syllables to particular words and remove syllables from others. Listen to a Brit say Aluminum or Lithuania. Al-you-min-ee-um? Lithi-you-ania? Or some folks from the south will say "Tee-in" when saying the word Ten. People in Maryland tend to over-pronounce the long "O" sound. I don't know how to spell it phonetically, but if you've ever heard it, you knohw what I mean.

 

[John]

This got me thinking. If the idea behind growing an "ironic mustache" is to make the wearer look like a D-bag, then they have succeeded. So in reality, there is no irony there at all.

In all seriousness. Your comments about 'mischievous' could be chalked up to the speakers local dialect. Some folks add syllables to particular words and remove syllables from others. Listen to a Brit say Aluminum or Lithuania. Al-you-min-ee-um? Lithi-you-ania? Or some folks from the south will say "Tee-in" when saying the word Ten. People in Maryland tend to over-pronounce the long "O" sound. I don't know how to spell it phonetically, but if you've ever heard it, you knohw what I mean.

I would have to agree with the dialect part, since only my peers from the Southern part of the US have ever used that sort of pronunciation on a consistent basis. I suppose some things regarding the Southern US dialect still throw me off, despite living here/having classmates who lived here all their lives.
And yeah, I understand what you mean about the long O sound/how people from Maryland and some of my peers from the New England area tend to do that.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

, I, like, decide to go buy a new bra, and I find, like, this awesome one that, like, looks really good with my Hello Kitty tattoo, and this other woman is, like, pulling it away from me awesome, so I tell her, like...

Sorry about that Les, but I thought it would totally look better with my Spring Break 1998 dolphinicorn trap stamp. :girl:

 

[László]

Listen to a Brit say Aluminum or Lithuania. Al-you-min-ee-um? Lithi-you-ania?

Shawn, in Britain the correct spelling for the substance we spell, "aluminum" is "aluminium." So they're pronouncing it correctly. In fact, both spellings and pronunciations are regarded as correct.

In a similar way, Lith-you-ania is actually correct pronunciation of the "u" in that word in British English. "Lith-uh-wania" would be regarded as incorrect. There is actually no "w" in the word, yet we in America pronounce it as though there is one. And the most interesting bit of this is the fact that the Lithuanians don't call their country "Lithuania."

The correct name for the country is "Lietuva."

In a similar way, we don't call Germany "Deutschland," which is what they call their country. We use a form of the word the Romans used instead, "Germania," which comes down to us as "Germany." Why? Well, England was a Roman colony from the first century until about 410 AD, and a lot of Latin is still present in the language.

English is of course a patois (creole) language, made up of several languages, including German, Latin, Old French (very Latin-like in its earliest form), with a smattering of Greek terms and word endings. Old and Middle English spellings and pronunciations were unlike anything we hear now, yet some late medieval spellings persist. This is why words like "though" are pronounced, "tho" instead of "thouckh."

The Danes ruled part of England for long enough that England had special legal traditions for regions they controlled ("the Danelaw"), and it's theorized that their form of Germanic tongues also influenced English. Remember also that Saxony is part of what we now call Germany. The Angles were also German, from what is now Schleswig-Holstein. Interestingly, there was a war involving Prussia to free both areas from Denmark when the proto-German state was a group of alliances, sometime in the 17th C.

It's interesting how languages evolve.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

My lady says granite instead of granted, it's mostly cute when we are getting along.

 

[11top]

I find it annoying when people repeatedly start sentences with "again," when there was no previous statement that the "again" references.

I also find it surprising how many say or write, "I wish I was" or "If I was," instead of using the correct verb, "were."

However, I must admit that I'm shocked and appalled when I proofread and see the number of times I write "their" instead of "there" or something equally stupid. :flute:

 

[Shawn@PRS]

It's interesting how languages evolve.

True Dat.

For better or worse, the internet has change language. I don't really mind the changes, but I have to admit that I am annoyed when someone sends me an email written in the form of a text. "RU", "Thnx", etc. I know most of those emails are sent from a smart phone, but it still gets on my nerves.

 

[Blackbird]

True Dat.

For better or worse, the internet has change language. I don't really mind the changes, but I have to admit that I am annoyed when someone sends me an email written in the form of a text. "RU", "Thnx", etc. I know most of those emails are sent from a smart phone, but it still gets on my nerves.

ur so rite. i h8 that.



When someone says "that's on a whole nother level."

 

[Jester]

Mute point instead of moot point.

 

[Shultzie]

Mute point instead of moot point.

Say again?...

 

[justmund]

Brought and bought
Seen and saw

I will admit I thought "for all intents and purposes" was "for all intensive purposes" up until a few years ago!

 

[Jester]

Say again?...

http://grammarist.com/usage/moot-mute/

Another variation at .27 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLwYpSCrlHU