I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
The BBC has published 50 examples of "Americanisms" its readers loathe. I agree with many of the complaints:
2. The next time someone tells you something is the "least worst option", tell them that their most best option is learning grammar.
7. "It is what it is". Pity us.
9. "Touch base" - it makes me cringe no end.
35. "Reach out to" when the correct word is "ask". For example: "I will reach out to Kevin and let you know if that timing is convenient". Reach out? Is Kevin stuck in quicksand? Is he teetering on the edge of a cliff? Can't we just ask him?
In other instances, I'm not entirely sure what the problem is:
36. Surely the most irritating is: "You do the Math." Math? It's MATHS.
38. My worst horror is expiration, as in "expiration date". Whatever happened to expiry?
And some just make me laugh:
14. I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself. I've never lived nor been to the US either.
The video below hits on one of my other major pet peeves, though -- saying "I could care less" when you mean you couldn't. What are your language pet peeves?
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Oct '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
I nominate to "go missing." What ever happened to "disappear?"
Jul '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Pronouncing the T in often.
Nov '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
I once had a discussion with an Englishman over the correct spelling and pronunciation of the word "aluminum." He ended the conversation by saying "Ken, I believe they call it English."
May '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Every third sentence from soldiers is "It is what its is". I tell my colleagues that its a meaningless tautology; it doesn't tell us anything, other than express the law of identity.
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
This may be in a different category of pet peeves altogether, but I hate it when people use "I" as an object of a sentence, when it should really be "me." For example:
Hate. Hate. Hate. Especially because people who use this construction are under the impression that they're speaking properly.
Sep '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Solitary confinement for the next person to say:
"At the end of the day"
Feb '11
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Why do people say "I could care less" when they mean "I couldn't care less?"
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
The Brits gave us "wait for it," which is one of the more irritating cliches - a verbalization of a comic pause, nothing more. Oh, those stupid Yanks! If only we could go back in time and rewrite classic skits:
Robber to Jack Benny: "Your money or your life."
Benny: "I'm - wait for it - thinking it over."
Granted, many of those "Americanisms" are horrid, but it's not as if we embrace them without complaint. We make fun of them when we want to lampoon the vacuous class.
As Mollie noted, some complaints are baffling: "'Bangs' for a fringe of the hair. Phillip Hall, Nottingham." Have a lie-down and a Pimms #1, Phil; it'll be okay.
Or "My brother now uses 'season' for a TV series. Hideous. D. Henderson, Edinborough." Well, D, if you weren't such a provincial git, you'd know there's a reason for that, since Yank telly series run longer, and don't always end after three episodes, and -
Oh, who am I kidding. English demotic is charming. Ours . . .not so much.
(My pet peeve Americanism: " . . .not so much.")
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Israel: "Why do people say "I could care less" when they mean "I couldn't care less?"
Three possible explanations.
1. The phrase works better when everything's one syllable. Over time "couldn't" lost the second syllable.
2. For some reason, "I could care less" has a sarcastic sting, even though it's untethered from the actual literal meaning, and "I couldn't care less" doesn't.
3. Some vestigial sense of Yiddish irony is at work - "I could care less?" in the shrugged-shoulder sense of positing an absurd possibility.
In order of plausibility, I'd rank them 2,1, 3.
Jan '11
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
"One Tip of a Flat Belly…"
Jul '11
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
"A whole nother..." and "all of the sudden." Those really steam my chops... OH NO ANOTHER ONE!
Nov '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
"Truly unique." No, something is unique or it isn't. There are no gradations of uniqueness.
"Let's circle back" -- as in, "let's circle back to the original discussion," etc. This expression makes me want to hurl.
"Pro-active." The word is idiotic. At least a decade ago, when I last checked the OED, it is not word. As if it's not enough to be active? Or ambitious? Or to be diligent and persistent? Or to attend to one's tasks with great application?
Edited on Jul 20, 2011 at 11:01pmNov '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Diane Ellis, Ed.: This may be in a different category of pet peeves altogether, but I hate it when people use "I" as an object of a sentence, when it should really be "me." For example:
Hate. Hate. Hate. Especially because people who use this construction are under the impression that they're speaking properly. · Jul 20 at 10:14pm
What's even more irritating is when encountering -- gasp -- Ivy League grads who do this. I've encountered it many times. Unbelievable.
Mar '11
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
"Go ahead," as in "Why don't you go ahead and..."
Feb '11
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Robert Lux
Diane Ellis, Ed.: This may be in a different category of pet peeves altogether, but I hate it when people use "I" as an object of a sentence, when it should really be "me." For example:
Hate. Hate. Hate. Especially because people who use this construction are under the impression that they're speaking properly. · Jul 20 at 10:14pm
What's even more irritating is when encountering -- gasp -- Ivy League grads who do this. I've encountered it many times. Unbelievable. · Jul 20 at 11:00pm
Some folks seem to have been taught that "me" is not a nice word. For some reason, football players prefer "myself."
Oct '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Well that just about does it, don't it?
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Well, the "could care less" one is at the top of my list, but... "My bad" I loathe that one. Our home became famous in the neighborhood several years ago when I instituted the rule: "The word "whatever" can be used IN a sentence but not AS a sentence."
Finally, people from the Midwest & East Coast who mispronounce the name of my home state make me crazy. Oregon - there's no 'e" on the end of it, folks. It's not "gone" - it's still there, or at least it was when I was home last weekend. Rhymes with gun.
Edited on Jul 20, 2011 at 11:50pmAug '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
"Least worst" -- Of course it's grammatically incorrect. It is intended to be amusing.
"It is what it is" -- English (or American) for "Que sera sera".
"Touch base" -- Oh grow up. We say this because our national sport is baseball.
"Reach out to" -- This has a legitimate meaning, which is to open up to someone. To use it to mean "ask" is to abuse it.
"You do the Math." "Math? It's MATHS." So what? In American English, "maths" isn't even a word.
"expiration date". "Whatever happened to expiry?" Same here. "Expiry" isn't a word over here.
"shopping cart" instead of "shopping trolley". Yeah, and hood versus bonnet, elevator versus lift, truck versus lorry. I don't know why anyone would be bothered by these national differences.
"I could care less" -- This was originally intended to be sarcastic, in the same spirit as, "Oh, like I really care."
May '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
The Great Adventure!:
Finally, people from the Midwest & East Coast who mispronounce the name of my home state. Oregon - there's no 'e" on the end of it, folks. It's not "gone" - it's still there, or at least it was when I was home last weekend. Rhymes with gun. · Jul 20 at 11:48pm
If it had an "e" at the end it would rhyme with groan.
Anyway, I better not catch you pronouncing the Z at the end of Illinois, Arkansas, or Des Moines.
=)
Aug '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
"'Truly unique.' No, something is unique or it isn't. There are no gradations of uniqueness." Technically true, but people almost always use the word "unique" to mean "nearly unique", since there is very little in the world that is literally unique. So if that's how it is used, then there are obviously gradations of "near uniqueness", and "truly unique" is just a synonym for "literally unique".
"'Pro-active.' The word is idiotic." True. That's marketroid-speak.
"Oregon - there's no 'e' on the end of it, folks." Yes. Tourist says "ARE-a-GONE"; local says "OR-a-gun".