Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum OT - Irritating Words, Phrases and Sayings

My son likes to use this one on me:

"And your point is....???"

As in I tell him that he has wet clothes in both the washer and the dryer, and he answers "And your point is...???"


I also hate "like", as in "I like went for my walk this morning, and it was like raining, so I like had to like jog through some puddles, and I like got me feet wet...."

I am offended much by OG's veiled reference to me when she says "we butcher". I know she means me. I do not butcher the language, I allow it to breathe and grow. This here attack on those of us who actively expand the words and their meanings keep everyone on their toes.

"My bad" makes sense if you think about it. I am taking ownership of the "bad". It's mine. It does not mean I am wrong, just that I own it. It's my bad and not yours.

I ain't gonna put up with that there reference to me. I'm gonna ching my bling and use the cha-ching to hire a stategist so's I can respond in a more better way.

Nope, I'm not gonna calm down.

This is not a threat, it's a promise. It may sound like a threat but nope, it's not...

Whatever....

Firstoff, I had forgotten about this over-used word. This is probably the word that I find most annoying in listening to young people talking.

Secondoff, how about 'Well, all things being equal,...'. I'm not really sure what this means when people use it in debating pros and cons.

Lastoff, what is your response to the greeting, 'What's happening?'. I've always thought this greeting was void of intelligence although I did like one reponse; 'What it is.' I think this is indisputable.

I can not help but think about the person in the 1500's who was young in 1560 and heard the extreme changes in the English language by 1600.
English has always gone through evoulution. The hip hop kids have just made more.
Remember that no one had ever heard of the term "flaming"unless it was with a weapon (flamethrower)or "flaming idiot."

Many here have already touched on some of the phrases that irritate me, but here goes...

"So I go...and then he goes...and then I'm like WOW"...

This quote sounds like nothing more than a bunch of words thrown together that have no connection to each other in whatever context the speaker(s) may have intended to convey. These phrases came from that whole "Valley Girl" era, which was thankfully rather short, but like disco, its effects linger stubbornly. Valley girls (at least when I was growing up in the San Fernando Valley) were not real people, but instead a mean-spirited stereo-type of the rich "dumb blond" image. There are people who fit that stereo-type, but they are not necessarily women, and they don't all live in the San Fernando Valley. But even if the stereotype was accurate, why would anybody WANT to emulate this sort of dreck?

Another phrase that fits the subject of this thread is "I'll be honest with you...". As jasperkeys mentioned, was the person uttering this phrase LYING up to this point in the conversation?

The term "actually" IS vastly overused.

That is enough for now (ACTUALLY, I seem to have run out of things to complain about).

Tony

It irks me when people speak of "growing" inanimates...like a business.

relatively new: "____ it up" where there is not actually an "it"

For example, I saw this on the Ritz crackers box: Ritz it up!

Ugh!

I am also a stickler for grammar, but alas.

Edit: Oh my, I used "actually" and didn't even realize it. It is grossly overused and I'm helping the cause.

Like, for real!!

What up wit dat?

Especially coming from an “OG” :p

I could probably come up with a million of these given that I work for a university. Two that come to mind are:
"we don't want to set a precident" - meaning the answer is no but we have no policy to back it up.

"It's the least I could do" - well thanks for nothing-next put a little effort into it and show me you care-LOL

I used to say "you know what I'm sayin'" a lot but I am trying to stop.

I can't stand watching the news because of all the BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Fortunately with the increasing popularity of text messaging many of these annoying phrases with be replaced with just a few simply letters-YKWIS

I agree absolutely about the annoying and meaningless use of the word 'like' but it appears to be so deeply entrenched in the language of young people that I fear it is here to stay.

One of my pet hates is the use of the word 'upfront' in a variety of different circumstances. Newsreaders and journalists no longer use phrases such as 'in readiness for', 'in preparation for', 'in advance of'. In financial circles, we no longer appear to have 'arrangement fees', 'commitment fees' and so on, simply 'upfront' fees. At the State Opening of Parliament in London, the Queen reads a speech written for her by a speech writer for the incumbent government. Sadly, the standard of English used is declining steadily. A few years ago, the Queen was obliged to use the word 'upfront' in one of these speeches. She did so with great dignity but it was clearly not a word she would have chosen to use.

In our news reports, people are no longer shot, but 'gunned down'. Why use two words when one describes the situation precisely?

I accept that the language has changed throughout history and will continue to do so but some current usage is ugly and downright irritating.

F and T,
'like' - I fear it is here to stay.

As a teenager every other words we said was like. "So like I went to the mall and like I got this like shirt it's like wicked cool and like" I am 39 now and I still say it but not nearly as much. Is there a suppport group or that?
Another word that was very common that I managed to quit saying was "der" that implies something someone said or did was stupid.

There is also "no sir" that apparently is not commonly used in other areas. My friend who moved from New England to California get teased for saying it.

Does anyone else notice that the news will repeat what they just said when report a story. They will announce the story then tell a whole story repeating what they just said but filling in some more details. After a while I start tuning it out - and dont get me started on the weather reports. It takes them twenty minutes to let you know there a 50% chance of rain. The real kicker is when the envening news will report what the weather was that day. Well DER like I already knew that.

Arrrggghhhh!! Obama just asked "How do we grow the economy" in his press conference!!!!

Phooey.

- When someone says "I don't mean to offend you, but..."

Ok, if you don't deliberately set out to be offensive, then you wouldn't say anything at all to the person. Instead they stick a disclaimer before the offending statement in a hopeless attempt to 'soften the blow'.

- The other one isn't actually a statement or phrase, but simply when people "umm", and "ahh", and "emm" when they are mid-way through sentences and thinking of what to say next. I prefer if instead of verbally making noise, just have a quiet pause without sound

i.e I was looking at today's figures and --ehhhh--, they look pretty good. I spoke to the --ahh-- manager and he --ummm-- told me to give you the news.

I always remember a speech by Colin Powell (I'm not being political here!), where he spoke for a good 30mins without a single verbal join between words. He didn't use notes either - every single word and sentence was concise and flowed straight from him. It was brilliant to watch!

A few of my non-favorites:

"Breaking news" - is this as opposed to "Old news"?

I'll see your "like" and raise you an "I'm all"

For bonus points use them together, as in:

"He's like 'really?' and I'm all 'duh' and he's all 'oh yeah' and I'm all 'whatever'"

I always wanted to play this during a long meeting:

http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/bullshit/

'Not to change the subject but...' That one always stands out for me as the subject is about to be changed.

'Just grab the bull by the horns.' What does this mean? I mean, I know what it means but is this really a good thing to do with a bull?

"The fact of the matter is..." is another that irks me. The phrase is completely devoid of content.

"You know" is another phrase that is often thrown in throughout one's speech. I often want to say, "no, I don't know what you want to say, so instead of saying 'you know', why don't you tell me!"

Kymber, I am with you on the news these days. If they could just cut out those teaser headlines before they break to commercials, they can give us an extra 15 or 30 seconds of real news, which we sorely need. As for the weather report, not only do they tell you what the weather was for the day, they even read out the temperatures for all surrounding cities when the chart is right on the screen. Argh!

How about "breaking news" when they don't have any information, yet they still manage to go on for about half an hour about it informing us that they will let us know when they know what it is. Of course this usually happens during your favorite tv show.

Another irritating misuse of a word...THEY.

"They" refers to more than one person. Yet, we now seem to always refer to a single person as "they". I assume it is one way to try to speak in gender-neutral terms (rather than specifying "he" or "she"). But "they" has always referred to more than one person until recently. Now, one person is "they". That just seems strange and out-of-place to me.

Tony

"to all intents and purposes"

especially when incorrectly spoken as

"for all intensive purposes"