Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

Yeah, that one really sucks but it seems to have died down, or at least I hope it has

How have I never opened this thread? I'm almost afraid to bookmark it out of concern for my blood pressure.

I listen to a fair amount of radio, mostly KCRW (LA-based NPR affiliate with assorted other music and talk programming). And I watch PBS Newshour lol (your mental picture of me is most likely entirely correct at this point).

Yeah, so I am finding that "Yeah, so" is frequently used to kick off the answer to an interview question. Happens a lot, right, and what also happens a lot is people inserting "right" into their answers as though looking for some sort of affirmation from me, who is sitting across the country from this person, right, alone in my car.

And yeah, so the problem is is that I am now employing these phrases in my own speech, right, and am thus annoying the shit out of myself.

I took a public speaking class in school once where if you said any of those place-holding type of words during a speech, all your classmates would shout the word back at you. I think that cured me of using any of those things forever.

My boss says "Yeah, no" every other word.. I'm told this is a California thing

Think there was an entire thread about "yeah no" wayyyy back

A few minutes ago I was queuing in a shop and the woman at the till called her customer "love" and in his reply he called her "duck" (he was from Derbyshire, Im guessing by his accent + use of "duck").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1BOBK8iBQU

My boss says "Yeah, no" every other word.. I'm told this is a California thing

― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, March 17, 2022 11:11 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Think there was an entire thread about "yeah no" wayyyy back

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, March 17, 2022 11:31 AM (two days ago)

I am from California and say this ... not every other word though.

And yeah, so the problem is is that I am now employing these phrases in my own speech, right, and am thus annoying the shit out of myself.

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, March 17, 2022 11:02 AM (two days ago)

Some of this has to do (i suspect) with the interview format, and potentially that the people speaking aren't in the same room.

So the "Yeah" functions to denote that the second person has heard and absorbed the first person's question.

The "so" functions as if part of the goal of the interview is to consistently fill time with information (or entertainment). Like they are taking turns telling a story. Except it isn't a story, it's a conversation, but imagine instead that these two people (interviewer and interviewee) are telling you the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Person 1: Goldilocks went to the first bed and it was too hard for her?

Person 2: Yeah, so then Goldilocks went to the second bed and it was too soft, right, and then Goldilocks went to the third bed, right, and it was exactly what she was looking for

The "right" is less about affirmation and more of a "I am assuming that you heard and understand what I just said, and now I am going to move on to the next step in my argument"

"executive visioning session"

I took a public speaking class in school once where if you said any of those place-holding type of words during a speech, all your classmates would shout the word back at you. I think that cured me of using any of those things forever.

This is a The Day Today sketch! Starting at 1:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rguQFPnPIYc

Hahaa yeah it was just like that. This could very well be a common technique in public speaking training. It works!

at the end of your executive visioning session one of the participants chimes in:

"excellent stuff"

somebody else says:

"great stuff"

"visionary stuff"

^ ty

i wd simply say "yr words, usages, and phrases annoy the shit out of me"

Have we covered "100 percent!" yet

hate it, however i love just 'hundred' as an affirmative i.e. the verbal translation of 💯

xxp - i find that the people that say that to me have a tendency to not actually understand what I'm saying

that seems very plausible

“it’s giving (x)”

bad not good imo

or just "it's giving"

terrible

but back to the office, let's look at "the laydown"

why do americans say (for inst) "i didn't have that good of a time" instead of just "i didn't have that good a time", is that considered correct grammar even over there

also "i wish i would've done [x]" instead of "wish i had done [x]"

fuckin' barbaric

"y'all" when used by non-Americans

Even worse when Irish people do it, considering we have our own term!

archduke eduard of austria sez:

Are y'all beginning your novena for the Pope's consacration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25?

— Eduard Habsburg (@EduardHabsburg) March 16, 2022

Habsburgs should limit their twitter presence to telling James Morrison's wife that he should be allowed to buy more Hungarian books.

why do americans say (for inst) "i didn't have that good of a time" instead of just "i didn't have that good a time", is that considered correct grammar even over there

you might also ask why English speakers throw in that meaningless "do" everywhere

archduke eduard of austria sez:
🐦[Are y’all beginning your novena for the Pope’s consacration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25?
— Eduard Habsburg (@EduardHabsburg) March 16, 2022🕸]🐦

lol

"Pick a Protein"

"you might also ask why English speakers throw in that meaningless "do" everywhere"

huh? which meaningless DO, can you give an example?

huh? which meaningless DO, can you give an example?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-support

meaningless English do: 'could do', 'should do', 'might do' etc

e.g. should we go to the beach? yeah, we could do or did nigel pack the towels? he should have done'

similarly, the unnecessary British English 'on': 'a lampshade with tassels on', 'a notebook with stickers on'

my engish teacher stepmom used to rant about these ones... rather than just "these"

The do I'm referring to:

I know.
I do not know.

I have a record.
Do I have a record?

Anyone who asks why dialect X uses "superfluous" construction Y should first ask themselves why semantically empty words are part of English's core syntax, and what that says about the actual value of brevity or efficiency in human language.

sure yeah ok but that otiose "do" at least makes grammatical sense

the "of" in "not that big of a deal" does not

it's a back-formation from the way you'd use "much" i guess

The cost of living is such a depressing phrase

— Lucy Prebble (@lucyprebblish) March 23, 2022

"snarky" is one i do not like

pretty good to get kicked off facebook 'cause now i see way less of internet arguers' stock riffs like "i'll just leave this here", "nice try", "living rent free in your head", "snowflake", "butthurt", etc etc

i could make a big long list but why make yourself sick

‘Do keep up’

ah yeah that one should earn an instant electric shock to the nutsack

"Grifter" was a term I'd only really come across in the UK in connection with that Stephen Frears movie, where it meant a con artist (iirc - haven't seen it for 30 yrs). So many people passionately, selfrighteously using this word that wasn't even in their vocabularly three years ago. Everyone loves something new to accuse people of.

possible reasons why an easy-to-spit US term for confidence trickster that's more than a century old recently became useful and thus used 🤔🤔🤔

Of course, but I find it interesting how quickly these things gain currency

^^ Yes! Most of the words/phrases in this thread don't actually annoy the shit out of me, I just find it interesting how word uses change and weird phrases become memetic

Having said that, the same colleague who

regularly 'pings' emails and refers to rough drafts as a 'starter for ten'

asked me earlier if we could 'grab 30 minutes to do a page turner' on a report, and I was definitely annoyed

(apparently it means 'to go through the report', which, why not just say that?)

i have accepted that a powerpoint presentation is often called a "slide deck" or a "deck" ... but I still don't understand why it is called a "deck," as opposed to a "stack" or something else.

is this gonna turn out to be something like the Hellman's/Best Foods issue, where there is some other region where "slides" are called "cards" and thus the "deck" usage made sense and that just transferred to the other regions where they called them slides?

the meeting I'm in right now ... "as you know, that will be a light-touch kind of pilot"