It bugs me when people say “the thing is is that” (if you listen for it, you’ll start hearing it… or maybe that’s something that people only do in my area.) (“What the thing is is that…” is fine. But “the thing is is that…” bugs me.)
Also, “just because <blank> doesn’t mean <blank>.” That sentence structure invites one to take “just because <blank>” as a noun phrase which my brain really doesn’t want to do. Just doesn’t seem right. But that sentence structure is very common.
And I’m not saying there’s anything objectively wrong with either of these. Language is weird and complex and beautiful. It’s just fascinating that some commonly-used linguistic constructions just hit some people wrong sometimes.
Edit: I thought of another one. “As best as I can.” “The best I can” is fine, “as well as I can” is good, and “as best I can” is even fine. But “as best as” hurts.
“Going forward” bothers me so much and I have no idea why. It wasn’t used when I was younger, but that’s true for lots of things.
Also “cringe” is pretty annoying.
”Going forward”
Because it’s a management phrase meant for discussions in directing a group that’s been co-opted by peers to make them sound more authoritative than their relative position actually is.
Had a co-worker say this to me the other day about something and I realized that I don’t like being spoken to as a subordinate by my peers.
One thing I try to avoid when I’m writing is when two words repeat. Kind of like your example “the thing is is that.” If I catch myself writing it, I try to rearrange the sentence.
Although a pretty extreme example tickles me: “The cookie he had had had had no effect on his appetite.”
Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.
I hate this, thank you.
I don’t care so much when I’m just listening to people talk, but there’s something about seeing people use needs washed constructs in otherwise normally composed and edited messages that drives me absolutely mad, for some reason. Stuff like “I need paid more to afford to live there.” I first started seeing it on reddit a few years ago, but it seems as though I’m seeing it more and more now, all over the place. It’s not something that is used anywhere I’ve lived, and it’s just jarring to see sentences constantly missing a couple of words. I suppose I expect more variance in spoken language, especially in less formal contexts, but seeing it written is something else.
Agreed, it’s pure laziness, leaving out the prepositional phrase
I don’t think it’s necessarily actually laziness, but rather a failure to change register as appropriate for the medium and context. The Yale link does show that the construct has its own grammatical structure that is followed, so to me, it’s more an error akin to writing, “Yeah, so check this: World War I was started because many countries said ‘You with me, bro?’ and others replied, ‘Yeah, you know it, boy’ but then shit got real when this guy ran up on Archduke Franz Ferdinand and blasted him.” when writing an essay.
That said, it’s painful to read.
I’ve only heard this said by Indian people, so I’ve been assuming that when I see it written online it’s Indians. Per that link it looks like all over the US it’s at least occasionally used. That’s crazy, and I can’t stand it; hopefully this doesn’t become standard.
“As a ________, this is my opinion about a related topic to the field in which I’m in…”
It’s the Internet. No one needs your credentials. People lie about credentials all the time anyways. People cheat through college. It’s a humble brag, nothing more. Just give us your thoughts, not your resume.
Every single career is literally filled with under performing unqualified workers. The Peter Principle will always be around
Edit: i had to fire a licensed physician that wanted to attempt cranial sacral therapy on me a couple months ago. The odds people are incompetent is a lot higher than people think, even among professionals.
In English, I hate both “from where” and the rarer “from whence”. I first found out about the words “whence”, “whither”, “thence” and “thither” (respectively meaning "from where, “towards where”, “from there” and “towards there”) while reading the Lord of the Rings in English. I found these were powerful words that could make many sentences shorter and clearer and that it was a shame they went out of popular use…
But then, I also heard “from whence”, which struck me as far worse because it was redundant and stripped the word of its power. I first thought it was a mistake, but after seing it several times I looked up how it was meant to be used to see if I wasn’t in the wrong and saw that while it had started as a mistake, it came into use several hundred years ago and was used by many famous classic authors, making it acceptable.
Imo, that’s probably what killed these words. I guess it had the merit of being less easily misheard, but when “from whence” and “from where” mean the exact same thing, why bother remembering “whence”?
In my native language, French, I kinda dislike “C’est quoi ?” (Litt. “It’s what ?”, pronounced [sekwa] meaning "What is it ?). It’s a vernacular expression often found incorrect… But I also kinda understand why it exists. The most correct way to ask “what is it” is “Qu’est-ce ?” ([kɛsə] or [kɛs]). It works well when written, but I guess being too short, it can be easily misheard. For example, “caisse” (a large box) is pronounced the exact same way. The other alternative, more common in oral speech is “Qu’est-ce que c’est ?” (litt. “What is it that it is ?”). It might seem too long, but it’s pronounced [kɛskəse], which has the same number of syllables as “What is it”. It is redundant tho, so I understand why “C’est quoi ?”, which doesn’t sound like anything else, rolls off the tongue and has two syllables is winning over, and will probably be the correct way in the future, but it still kinda sounds wrong to me.
A before u
“A university” sounds fucking weird to me. It melds into a single syllable. University doesn’t start with a consonant unless you have a strong accent.
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Huh, how do you pronounce it? I would say “a university” because in my head it’s “yoo-ni-ver-si-tee”
ew-ni-ver-si-tee
yoo- sounds so weird and unnatural to me
That’s how it’s pronounced in an American accent, so saying “a university” works for about a third of a billion people.
If it blends in your accent use “an university”
The letter w. Absolutely unjustified existence vhen v can be used instead. Also referring to people as pupil. Nothing else in English sounds as bad. Like, there isn’t even anything fundamentally vrong with it. It’s just bad.
Vhile ve are at it, Chadus, let’s get rid of the letter u as vell. It is redicvlovs to have so many letters to keep track of vhen a covple can do dovble dvty as consonants and vovels alike, as the letter y does. Actualli, let’s do avai vith “y.” And “j” too for simpliciti. “I” mai vork iust as vell in both iobs.
That’s vhere yoo are vrong. Replacing u vith v overemphasizes the letter vhen it doesn’t deserve it. I propose oosing dooble o as a replacement instead.
Dont you mean: doooble o?
The over usage of “that” on news broadcasts.
“It’s that time of ___!” (Insert day, week, year, fall, spring, summer, etc)
There are many countless examples. It’s like nails on a chalkboard every time I hear it
“Next weekend” “Next Friday” etc. Wherein they use “Next” to mean “the one after” rather than “the soonest interval in which it will reoccur”
If it is Wednesday and you say “Next Friday” I will immediately think of two days from now, not 9 days. I also especially dislike it because if feels like on a whim that it’ll change. for some “next weekend” will be in 5 days if it’s Monday, or 10 days if it’s Wednesday! What the heck people??
I hate the ambiguity in that too. My usual goto instead is “the coming Friday”
Or Friday next week for… You know… The next week’s Friday
On a Wednesday I would use “This Friday” or just “Friday” to describe 2 days away. Using “next” in the context you’re describing seems weird to me.
If it’s Wednesday, “Friday” or “this Friday” would describe the day in 2 days. “Next Friday” would be 9 days away. I think it’s clear and have never had an issue with people not knowing which day is being discussed. Maybe people around here are more consistent about it than other areas?
That is always confusing to me. If I am on a bus stop: “This bus” doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t exist yet. Next bus, is the next occurance of event “Bus”.
If it’s Wednesday, the “this Friday” doesn’t really make sense. There doesn’t exist a Friday in Wednesday, that you call this. Next Friday however is quite clear - it’s next occurrence of event “Friday” on the timeline, so it’s the one in two days.
Ok but if you’re at a bus stop, and the bus is just coming round the corner into sight, you can say “this bus” even though it’s not parked up yet.
Same thing with this Friday. If it’s close enough to be in mind, you can use this.
I use it to mean and all these arguments lead me to the following conclusion.
But yeah, I read a lot and was trained as a kid to be a walking factoid dispensor so I can seem pretentious.
Isn’t it generally used to mean the opposite of that? “Despite what I just said, I hold or will present the following apparently contrary position,” more or less. Like if you spent a couple of paragraphs talking about the excellent cinematography of a film and then followed it with “That said, I didn’t actually enjoy it. I found the protagonist insufferable.”
I can see it used that way. Yes, but then I’d think there’d be an obligation to explain why the proceeding arguments trump the previous ones if it’s not obvious. With that said is certainly a bridge from one part of an argument to the next.
When discussion leads to another question, it raises the question.
To beg the question is to invoke a presumptive, circular argument.
And yet, now it’s to beg the question, even on the US Senate floor by boomers who should know better.
I’m guilty of this, and for some reason “the dishes need doing” in particular tickles my brain. That one doesn’t even make sense with an infinitive!
IME that’s only really a thing among non-English speakers
Nope. Native US English speaker born in Ohio and a lot of the region into Appalachia uses this construction. IIRC it came from Irish and/or Scottish folks that settled there.
I’m driven insane by the use of “itch” as a verb in place of scratch. ‘He itched his leg.’ Bleh!
“On accident”… That doesn’t even make sense. You do something “by accident”.
I mean, to me it doesn’t really make that much sense one way or the other. Genuine question, how is “by” being used here? What are other examples of it being used this way?
By chance or by design would be other examples. Your question prompted me to look into the origins of the phrase and it appears to come from Latin.
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/pardon-the-expression/by-accident-vs-on-accident/
Well I don’t think there’s any in English I mind, but I cringe about a ton of things in my native language.
However you did make me think of one expression.
You’ll never hear “it did didn’t it?” the same way again.
