Posted on 05/29/2007 2:17:17 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Readers have responded in their thousands to The Daily Telegraph's call to select the worst phrases in the English language.
Since our invitation was issued in February, more than 3,000 of you have submitted personal inventories of the damned, containing the phrases, aphorisms and clichés that irritate the most.
High on the list of grievances was the increasing use of slang, poor grammar and the incorporation of Americanisms into everyday speech.
Many of you shared frustrations over the misuse of "forensic" and "literally", while management jargon such as "downsizing", "brainstorming" and "thinking outside the box" also received plenty of nominations.
The Daily Telegraph has responded with its own compilation of annoying phrases, and She Literally Exploded: The Daily Telegraph Infuriating Phrasebook is now available on Amazon.
Here is a selection of your comments so far:
"It's not rocket science". Rocketry is engineering, not a science. - Tony
The phrase "up close and personal" was irritating to start with and has become hackneyed and meaningless e.g. I went on a river trip and was thrilled to get up close and personal with a crocodile - Margot Lang
I can't stand "to die for". Nothing's that good and even if it was, you'd be dead and wouldn't be able to enjoy whatever it was. - Vivsy
"Pushing the envelope" always conjures up for me some ridiculous scene in a mailing room or post office. - Nigel Brown
Why, when someone famous dies, do tributes always "pour" in? Also, when a plane crashes in the sea, the media is quick to remind us that the waters are always "shark-infested". - S.Winrad
Only £1,999.99. - P.H.Heilbron
"This door is alarmed". Is it really frightened? - Alan Lawrence
The infuriating rising inflections at the end of sentences that make everything sound like a question? - Steve Grant
I hate being addressed as "hallo there". My name is not "there". And why have all the cookery books and frying pans disappeared? What is a "cook" book and a "fry" pan? - Susan Byers
When the waitress plonks the plate in front of you and says, "there you go". Where do I go? Where's there? - Ken Clarke
"It will be in the last place you look". Well of course I'm not going to continue to look for it when I have found it. - Tom Batt
I never heard it pronounced with “th”. I wonder if that’s a regional pronunciation.
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My dad and grandad said that one. I think It was poor grammar that was once common many years ago. Read a tom sawyer novel and you will see all kinds of poor grammar that you will never see today.
width, length, and heighth...the three dimensions of any object in a three dimensional world.
Same here.
also: further and farther.
Spigot is not pronounced “Spikot”.
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...of course not...it’s pronounced “spickit”. :)
“”Unnamed co-conspirator””
That one too....lol Or better yet, “unindicted co-conspirator”
Those are always tough to call, but I try to use “farther” meaning a physical distance and “further” meaning something more abstract, like an idea or concept.
I live in NJ. 99% of the population here has the same attitude. They’re a bunch of control freaks who can’t run their own lives, but insist on running everyone else’s.
Normally, “affect” is a verb and “effect” is a noun. It seems so many people misused “effect” as a verb that it came into popular usage, but they certainly don’t mean the same thing at all.
To “affect the outcome” means to have an impact on it.
To “effect an outcome” means to produce a result.
Aren’t those both verbs?
If you can find the ones you like online, order a gross of them, like a friend of mine used to do. That way, he had them at his fingertips wherever he was - telephone, breakfast table, bathroom, car, bedroom - and they were cheap, cheap, cheap. As was he - but rich, rich, rich.
Because if you COULD care less, then that implies that you must care about it at least a little.
Yes, I said *normally* one was a verb and one was a noun, but people started using the noun as a verb, like a lot of the words we’ve been discussing here - and now it’s accepted.
I think my insurance would pay for the eye exam and glasses, but I’d have to drive up to Fort Dix, and I’m too lazy. So I just buy them at drug stores, flea markets, or wherever I run across a pair that looks good.
Trying to find the right pair of glasses isn’t what bothers me. It’s these controlling sales people who refuse to understand that I want what I want, not what they tell me I should want. One of these days I’m going to ask one of them a question, they’re going to give me a straight answer, and I’m going to fall over from a heart attack.
"Same here. . . .also: further and farther"
Struggle, yes. Do you get it right?
yitbos
I Don’t know. I’ve found sources that claim further and farther are perfectly interchangeable. So I gave up years ago.
Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer (papain) was what I used to use - except the one time I accidentally put Accent in the kit and MSG is *not* what you want, lol. Love Benadryl spray for lots of uses, though!
We who have swum with the sharks and barracudas understand these things!
Still, to my North American ear, whinge has such a delicious Monty Pythonesque ring to it.
Yes, I think I dropped the ball there. It would have read the same without it. And should it have been “among”, anyway? Hey, I’m working on it - it’s been a long, long time since I studied grammar.
“Farther” is an adjective while (whilst?) “further” is a verb, is it not?
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