Anybody have Word Peeves?
 

Pals-
I noticed Lake Superior State University has their 2007 list of "banished words" out. Among them, was (from their web site)
HEALTHY FOOD -- Point of view is everything.

Someone told Joy Wiltzius of Fort Collins, Colorado, that the tuna steak she had for lunch "sounded healthy." Her reply: "If my lunch were healthy, it would still be swimming somewhere. Grilled and nestled in salad greens, it's 'healthful.'"

Well now that makes sense to me! Anybody else have any word peeves? Mine - I am getting really tired of all the baby-talk cute words used to describe food. No, I do not want a yummy veggie sammie. The only good thing about it is that it is enough to make me not want to eat it!

Next?

I have several ....
"motivation" used a synonym for magic potion
the free and casual use of the term "starvation mode" ....

In the UK "Healthy" is correct, whereas you US guys with your "healthful" what's all that about?

The most annoying word that I hear most days is "innit" It's the abreviated form of "isn't it" and most Indian-English use it at the end of EVERY sentence.

See when I went to they shop they were like in my face, innit. And so I said he should go do this, you know what I'm sayin' innit?

It's like people used to use "yeah?" at the end of every sentence but it's WORSE because you can only say "isn't it" when you ask or state something IS something. You CANNOT say, "My cat climbed the curtains, isn't it."

:tantrum:

I feel sooooooooooo much better now!

Okay, my old boyfriend's mother used to do this and it DROVE ME CRAZY!! She would say, "The dishes need washed" or "the garbage needs taken out" or "the yard needs mowed" and she would totally ignore the two words, "to be". It used to just drive me NUTS!! I loved her, but every time she did that, it was like she dragged her fingernails on a chalkboard. :mad:

OH and I have more - "not to mention." Why say "not to mention" and then mention whatever it was that you weren't mentioning??

For example: "Come to the big sale at Bonzo's Store! We've got sale prices on women's clothes, men's clothes, accessories and jewelry. Not to mention Baby Clothes!"

You Just Mentioned Baby Clothes!!!

don't get me started......students should not exhibit "Inappropriate familiar behavior",(touching) but get praised and a high grade for acting "Appropriately Agressive"..........

like and goes ...

and he goes ... I don't want fries let's just grab an apple or something
and I'm like so you think I'm fat?
and he like turns red and everything and goes I never said that
and I'm like so angry I can't believe it so I'm like sayin'...

I hate the ubiquitous phrase "less calories, less fat" - it should be "fewer calories, less fat." We need to watch those plural words.

Like Techwife, I also hate the absense of the forms of "to be." The worst is "where you at?" Not to mention (sorry Spinymouse; I just couldn't resist) ending the sentence with an unnecessary preposition.

Admittedly, my grammar isn't perfect, but so many people just don't try.

How about AKS, not ASK....drives me insane.

Susan: Like, were you a valley girl at some point in your life? Totally gnarly!!

I have a woman I work with at the salon and all she does it sell hair product from the time the customer sits in the chair till they leave. And she constantly uses the phrase "and stuff" This is her: "So, do you use any hair product?", Customer: "Well, I use shampoo from time to time." Stylist: "We have a great hairspray that is really light and stuff and it works so well on your type of hair and stuff and you would really like it. It's $14.95, but you should really treat yourself to it because us women always spend all our time and money on our husbands and kids and stuff. Excuse me while I get it off the shelves so you can look at it, Hon." HON is another one that drives me NUTS. And the worst part is she's an absolutely AWFUL hairdresser...totally terrible. She's so nervous her hands shake while she's cutting hair. And she always ends up sitting right next to me, killing any chance I might have of casually mentioning our products on sale. Who wants to talk about shampoo and hairspray after listening to HER prattle on for a half hour, doing the hard sell? It makes me want to grab a big ole bottle of hairspray and put it right where the sun don't shine and say, "there ya go, HON!!":mad:

"don't P*ss up my leg and then tell me it's raining"!....EEEUUUWWWW, if anyone did that, rain is the last thing i would think!

another one, "Don't tell anybody I said this......" (because then they will know I'm a big blabbermouth).

I need to "lose" fat, not "loose" it (it's loose enough, all hangy and flabby, besides wouldn't it then be "loosen" it if you just wanted it looser but not gone). I've been seeing this even in weight loss articles lately, so I'm beginning to wonder if someone has changed the meaning of the word "loose" without my noticing.

My teenagers sometimes use the phrase "my bad" when they have done something wrong. Drives me nuts.

I have always been particular about correct spelling. The other day, I had posted about Oats and how they fill me up. I was so glad I proofread that post. I had typed "feel me up" instead. LOL.

I was thinking this on the way to work this morning!!!

I need to lose weight in order for my clothes to feel loose.

While there are certain times when prepositions just don't work at the end of a sentence; a preposition can be the perfect thing to end a sentence with. This is actually a reworded quote from EB White from the book Elements of Style by Strunk and White. But an unnecessary preposition--you're right about that.

Maybe Susan wasn't but, like, I was, like totally!! Moon Unit, move over!

Okay, my big peeves:
The misuse of the word your for you're (you are).
The misuse of me and I in sentences.

I'm sure I could find some more, but those are my two biggest peeves.

What a great idea for a thread!

I have a huge number of wordy pet peeves. But my biggest of all time is misspelling a word so badly it turns into another word. Homonyms trip a lot of people up. Some of it I can understand, like principle/principal and stationery/stationary. But there were several posts on other boards about a "security breech" which happened on some website or other. Really, y'all saw security's butt?"

Then there's a local one that annoys me greatly. I listen to the Spurs game on the radio, and always at least once during the game one of the announcers will proclaim "That's a Manu Trace!" At least, that's what it sounds like. The man actually means "très", or three. It took me a very long time to figure out what the heck they were talking about; you'd think guys in San Antonio could pronounce that word correctly!

ETA: The HEBs around here (they're a grocery store) actually have "10 Items or Fewer" on their express lanes! They're the only ones I've ever seen get that right!

I also hate when people get they're, their and there consfused. I mean, I learned that in fourth grade.

No, I was never a valley girl. I was preppy and whatnot.

I'm a big fan of the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books by Rex Stout. The character Nero Wolfe (who is an eccentric genius), hates the use of the word "contact" as a verb. In one of the books, he burns a dictionary because it says that "contact" can be a verb. I don't know why this has stuck with me (and certainly language has evolved since the books were written so that now it is perfectly acceptable to use "contact" as a verb), but now I try to avoid using the phrase "contact me..." It's actually harder to avoid than you'd think.

I'm definitely guilty of using the words "like" (as a modifier, not in place of the word "said") and "you know" far to often, e.g., "this chili is like really spicy, you know"--both add nothing to this sentence and make me sound somewhat illiterate). As a 38 year-old, you think I'd have excised this annoying pattern from my speech but I catch myself saying it all the time.

In writing, I hate to use the word "get." It's fine when speaking, but when I'm writing something I try to find a word that is more descriptive. I also have issues with the use of the word "handle" as in the phrase "the software program doesn't handle that..." I'd much rather say "the software program doesn't support that..." I don't know why it bothers me so much, there's nothing wrong with it.

And the phrases "in order to" or "in order for." The "in order" is never necessary. For example, "In order to clean the floor..." can be "To clean the floor" and "In order for the water to boil" can be "For the water to boil." The "in order" is just unnecessary extra verbiage. I work with attorneys, however, that INSIST that you can't leave out the "in order." Drives me nuts.

And I'm with kaplods on the use of the word "loose." At least according to the two online dictionaries I use, "I need to lose weight," is not an appropriate use of the word. It should be "I need to lose weight." But most of the time I think this is just a spelling error--people don't know how to spell "lose" or they know how to spell it but accidently type an extra "o"; it's easy to do and spellcheck won't catch the error.

IRREGARDLESS IS NOT A WORD!!!

I feel better. Thanks. :D

My kids use "my bad" also, instead of ooops, I made a mistake, I actually caught myself saying it the other day. Oops, my bad.

I can't stand shut up. I think this is something my mom put in my head. We were never allowed to use it at home. We could get away with lots, but NEVER saying shut up. It IS very disrespectful. I freak out when my kids say this to one another.

I also hate when people say "Victoria's Secrets". There's only ONE secret, no need to pluralize it.

This also happens A LOT with Great Adventure. People say "Great Adventures" It's one big adventure, not many advenures. Drives me crazy.

Double negatives!

"He doesn't know NO difference"

So what you are saying is he really does know the difference???

"I don't have nowhere to be". So you really do have somewhere to be?

It's just enough to drive me insane.

This doesn't bother me, but I have thought about it a lot more since I heard it:
"I don't know why on earth I would say 'losing weight'. When I lose something, I promptly go looking for it."

I have a few work related peeves...

1. My boss uses ALLOT instead of A LOT. He'll write an email to the VP that looks something like this: "We received allot of calls yesterday and booked allot of meetings." And since he says it's in spellcheck, it's okay to use it. Duh!

2. I'm a mortgage broker and I work for a REVERSE Mortgage company. I hate it when I hear people on the phone in this company call it a REVERSED mortgage! Ugh!

3. And the worse one of all...when people run out of things to say and end up saying "Whatever.." to everything!

4. Already mentioned, but worth mentioning it again: IRREGARDLESS is NOT a word!

5. Filler words to gap sentences annoy me. Things like "Umm" and "Like" and my boss's favorite "and so on, and so forth". There's just no need to add that!

6. Also mentioned, but worth mentioning again: GOES instead of SAID. "He goes to me..." "So, she goes.." Where are all of these people going???

7. I'm Italian and I HATE it when I hear non-Italians say "Ciao" to end a telephone call, especially in a business environment!

8. These 2 are from my nieces and I put an end to using both of these pretty quick: "Yo" and "My bad". Neither have any place in the English language.

ME and ???? did something, said something, went somewhere, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Why have we suddenly started teaching our children to always put themselves first? This has become so common, it sounds strange to most people when the proper "??? and I" is used. (However, don't forget it is "??? and me" when used objectively.)

I agree . . . I think "loose" instead of "lose" is simply a spelling or typing error . . . they probably say 'lose' just fine.

Lately, I am fed up with "innovative" and "state-of-the-art technology!"

I also do not like the word vomit (I prefer puke).

So call me crazy. :dizzy:

LOL I was looking to see if anyone brought that one up. Just had this topic on another board of mine about two days ago. It's a Judge Judy/Mathis/Maria (insert favorite courtroom show here) favorite.

[QUOTE=meowee;1543727]ME and ???? did something, said something, went somewhere, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. This has become so common, it sounds strange to most people when the proper "??? and I". Why have we suddenly started teaching our children to always put themselves first?QUOTE]


I actually started thinking that this had become grammatically acceptable. I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the meaning in that!

Not only is the English language getting slaughtered more and more, but spelling is at an all-time low. Mom and I (Me and Mom? LOL) are always seeing mistakes. There is a local commercial that has a misspelling in it. We've pointed out the misspelling of biscuits on a Bob Evans advertisement and the improper West "Viriginia" (someone went a little overboard with "I") on a local restaurant placement. From someone who has spent many years proofreading, it's just something we do. And it should have been something a co-worker did before she sent out a 2,000+ mailing that said "West Virginia Society of Certified Pubic Accountants". And only one of the 2,000+ members called about it. ROFL!

The biggest one for me is same difference! UGH!

"I have new shoe's today" or similar misuse of the apostrophe in plural situation. Oh really, and how exactly did your shoes come to OWN today?

Of course, I realize did my own peeve in a post the other day. For some reason that I cannot comprehend, during pregnancy (both times) I lose the ability to spell homonyms and become an apostrophe abuser. I guess I am not healed yet.

It dives me nuts when the opposite occurs. I think "? and I " has been drilled into our heads so much that people use it when it SHOULD be "and me". I caught my husband incorrectly "correcting" the grammar in one of my daughter's books when he was reading to her.

Which leads me to my number one pet peeve which has surpassed all others---BAD GRAMMAR in children's books. ARRRRRGGGH.

Was anyone else's school curriculum like this? My English classes deliberately focused more on writing style than grammar and spelling; this preference was clearly stated in middle school, but the trend was apparent in my elementary and high schools as well (with the exception of perhaps 2 teachers). At the time, I didn't mind it; creative writing was fun and grammar was boring. However, during the last semester of my senior year of college, I took a basic grammar class as an elective to prepare myself for "the real world" and I learned so much that I felt I should have learned long ago.

I used to rely on the old "well, it sounds right to me" method regarding grammar, which brings me to another word peeve that I don't believe has been mentioned. This mistake had always sounded fine to me, but now I hate when subjects don't agree. For example, "someone forgot their book." "Someone" is singular; "their" is plural. It should be "someone forgot his or her book." I cringe when I hear this mistake and am mortified if I catch myself making it. Although I can understand the difficulty people have when there's no specific gender and having to use both "his and her" or just choosing one to use. I wish we had a singular word that applies to both the masuline and feminine.

Subject- verb agreement....that one doesnt bother me so much, but it is a big problem if you ever want to take GMAT or other entrance exams. I see companies doing it all the time in press releases and I see journalists doing it in the newspaper.

"IBM corporation announced today that THEY are going to ...." No. Corporations are singular. IT announced, not THEY.

"Neither nor" and "either or" are singular to. Neither Jerry nor Jimmy IS coming. Not ARE.

I will confess I am a lot sloppier with both grammar and punctuation online than I am in real life. I am usually typing with one hand while nursing my baby and I get laaazy!

The one that just kills me is "it's" used as a possessive.

It's means "it is"; the possessive is its.

I think that has to be the most frequent grammatical error on the Net although there are many others that bug me.

Two things that really get me.. One is a proper word, but for some reason I just hate it.. The other is one of the most abused grammatical errors of all time..

1. Monies - The plural of money.. "We have monies set aside for that project." I know it's a word but I just hate the sound of it.. It never sounds right when it's used..

2. Towards... The word is toward. There is no such word as towards...

Thank you.. Vent done.. :lol:

My brain completely shut down during both of my pregnancies so don't feel bad!!!

Actually, "towards" is a word and can be used interchangeably with "toward." See http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/toward.html.

I know this one is often a typo, I've noticed that I myself have done it, more then once - to and too. To meaning, going some place, getting something done - I went to the grocery store to buy some grapes. and too, meaning a lot- I ate too many grapes.

As far as I'm concerned,ciao can be used as a "hello" or "goodbye." Wikipedia states so,too!:D Right here.

What irks me the most is when I see a spelling error.For example, the other day I was reading a forum where people were talking about cash withdrawals.EVERYONE misspelled the word "withdrawal." EEK! It just really bothers me!

I think she just meant that it bugs her when people who aren't Italian use that particular Italian expression...

The Pope himself can say so, but in a professional environment I would disagree, it just sounds wrong. We don't use other languages to say goodbye or hello, why use Ciao? I'm in Canada, and we're a bilingual country, but I've yet to hear anyone answer the phone with "Bonjour" or end a conversation with "Au revoir". That would make more sense to me.