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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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Mollie - being articulate can have its drawbacks at times if you try to get too fancy. I was teaching a training class last year. My class was made up of transportation managers - people who supervise truck drivers and mechanics. They were intelligent enough, but when I used the word "superfluous", half of them threw their pens in the air and the other half just sat there staring at me.
Jun '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Jimmy Carter
How about speech that is littered with "yaknow?"
"yaknow? yaknow? yaknow? yaknow?"
Makes My ears bleed.
Every time I hear someone say that I answer in the affirmative or negative. Throws them off every time, because they don't hear themselves saying it.
"Quit interrupting me!"
"Quit asking me if I know?" · Jul 21 at 10:00am
I hate to say it, but in the "Young Guns" podcast, the use of "you know" was ubiquitous and terribly grating. Please, you're all so smart, get rid of that bad habit!
Edited on July 21, 2011 at 9:30pmJul '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
What not to do.
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
EJHill: The Brits have been on their high horse about this since 1943. The worst part of the Yanks, it was said, is that they were "Over Paid, Over Sexed and Over Here!"
· Jul 21 at 5:32am
The Brits were underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower.
Jun '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Someone mentioned how we murder place names (e.g, Or-eee-gon).
We have a place name in Utah that can be used to tell if someone is a native. It's the town of Tooele (about 25 miles west of SLC, south of the Great Salt Lake). Outsiders invariably pronounce it something like Too-lee, or some variation on the theme.
In reality, the first "e" has a short "i" sound and the second "e" has a short "a" sound. So, the proper pronunciation is "Too-il-a."
Since she's from Colorado, Mollie may be able to tell us the interesting way Coloradans pronounce the town of Buena Vista.
Edited on July 21, 2011 at 9:56pmAug '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
"mitigate against"- it's "militate"
Sep '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
True of false:
There is no "cow" in Moscow?
Sep '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
I hate to say it, but in the "Young Guns" podcast, the use of "you know" was ubiquitous and terribly grating. Please, you're all so smart, get rid of that bad habit!
I have to agree, all you young whippersnappers. I was happy to not here "eh?" though.
Edited on July 21, 2011 at 10:00pmFeb '11
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Pseudodionysius: I hate to say it, but in the "Young Guns" podcast, the use of "you know" was ubiquitous and terribly grating. Please, you're all so smart, get rid of that bad habit!
I have to agree, all you young whippersnappers. I was happy to not here "eh?" though. · Jul 21 at 12:58pm
Edited on Jul 21 at 01:00 pm
Pseudo, Pseudo, Pseudo!
I was happy not to here...? And a split infinitive?
Eh tu, Pseudo? :)
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
tabula rasa:
Since she's from Colorado, Mollie may be able to tell us the interesting way Coloradans pronounce the town of Buena Vista. · Jul 21 at 12:54pm
Edited on Jul 21 at 12:56 pm
In this case, you can tell who's native by how authentically they mispronounce the town's name. Usually Byoona Vister or something like that.
I also like "Pwaylo" for "Pueblo."
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Has anyone noticed the trend of people starting sentences -- especially answers to direct questions -- with "So"? I sometimes do this myself. I wonder if it's a tic imported from another language via non-native speakers of English.
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Matthew Bartle: Here's another oddity that seems to have started only recently: "Yeah, no."
It appears to mean "I agree." Not sure how the "no" gets in there.
I'm pretty sure I heard Jonah use this during one of the podcasts. · Jul 21 at 10:15am
Came from a pop culture reference -- I think David Spade popularized it. "Yeah... no" means "no" -- the "yeah" indicates that the speaker has already thought about and decided the question even before being asked, that the question or request is not worth considering. A variant is, "Let me think... NO!" Another is "yeah, let me stop you there."
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
wilber forge
Just watch someone try to pronounce most of the County, Rivers, etc in Oregon, let alone ask directions.. It is amusing how absurd it comes out... · Jul 21 at 11:55am
When I was 6, my Dad took me and my sister up to Eugene so that he could start graduate school. My Mom drove up a month later to join us, She had a lot of trouble in the last couple of miles trying to find Willamette Street: she asked people where it was, rhyming it with "dinette," and they all gave her blank stares. Finally one of them figured she meant the street that roughly rhymes with "omelette."
I had a similar problem the first time I went to visit Katz's Delicatessen in New York City. I asked on the phone what street they were on and was told "Howston." It took me a while to figure out that was the New York pronunciation of "Houston."
Sep '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Jeff Karr
Pseudodionysius: I hate to say it, but in the "Young Guns" podcast, the use of "you know" was ubiquitous and terribly grating. Please, you're all so smart, get rid of that bad habit!
I have to agree, all you young whippersnappers. I was happy to not here "eh?" though. · Jul 21 at 12:58pm
Edited on Jul 21 at 01:00 pm
Pseudo, Pseudo, Pseudo!
I was happy not to here...? And a split infinitive?
Eh tu, Pseudo? :) · Jul 21 at 1:25pm
Do you think I did that by accident or design?
May '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
One pet peeve of mine is when people "correct" things incorrectly, or file complaints against common expressions on a false basis.
For example, in English, a preposition is a perfectly fine thing to end a sentence with.
I do agree that you shouldn't verb nouns. Verbing also weirds adjectives.
Oh, and how about starting a sentence with "What it is, is, it's a .." Just listen to those gears grind with all that double clutching.
Jun '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
tabula rasa:
Since she's from Colorado, Mollie may be able to tell us the interesting way Coloradans pronounce the town of Buena Vista. · Jul 21 at 12:54pm
Edited on Jul 21 at 12:56 pm
In this case, you can tell who's native by how authentically they mispronounce the town's name. Usually Byoona Vister or something like that.
I also like "Pwaylo" for "Pueblo." · Jul 21 at 1:26pm
I'd forgotten the interesting pronunciation of Pueblo. My recollection from my time in Denver is that Coloradans pronounce Buena as two (instead of three syllables). They do that by making the "e" silent and making the "u" long, all of which results in "Byou-na" Vista.
I'm sure every state has a few similar examples.
Jun '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Pseudodionysius
Jeff Karr
Pseudodionysius: I hate to say it, but in the "Young Guns" podcast, the use of "you know" was ubiquitous and terribly grating. Please, you're all so smart, get rid of that bad habit!
I have to agree, all you young whippersnappers. I was happy to not here "eh?" though. · Jul 21 at 12:58pm
Edited on Jul 21 at 01:00 pm
Pseudo, Pseudo, Pseudo!
I was happy not to here...? And a split infinitive?
Eh tu, Pseudo? :) · Jul 21 at 1:25pm
Do you think I did that by accident or design? · Jul 21 at 2:48pm
I've never understand why it's so bad to split an infinitive. Unsplitting them often sounds odd. So I am an inveterate infinitive splitter--and proud of it.
May '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
tabula rasa
I've never understand why it's so bad to split an infinitive. Unsplitting them often sounds odd. So I am an inveterate infinitive splitter--and proud of it. · Jul 21 at 3:40pm
Sometimes a split infinitive has a different meaning from an usplit one, which can be useful:
"I chose quickly to go home."
"I chose to quickly go home."
In one case the choice was promptly made, and in the other the trip home was speedy.
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
As Winston Churchill reputedly said, "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put!"
Dec '10
Re: I Could Care Less About The Queen's English
Pseudodionysius: True of false:
There is no "cow" in Moscow? · Jul 21 at 12:57pm
Well, in the Soviet days, You couuld not get a decent steak.