Linguistic pet peaves of which you yourself are guilty

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

1. I respond to things other people say with "that's true" as a reflex, even if I don't think they're true or even if they don't need affirmation

2. I use wimpy modifiers like "sort of" and "something of a" and "almost" way too much. Also the verb "seems".

3. At the end of making a point I trail off and tack on "or whatever."

4. Referring to "______-types" as in "yuppie-types" "hipster-types" etc.

5. Overusing "etc."

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 12 June 2005 02:55 (twenty years ago)

"peaves"

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 12 June 2005 02:57 (twenty years ago)

HAHAHAHA! D'OH!

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 12 June 2005 02:58 (twenty years ago)

whose pet peeves are they supposed to be? your own?

― metal assembly (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 12 June 2005 03:10 (twenty years ago)

That's the idea.

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 12 June 2005 03:14 (twenty years ago)

I mumble sometimes. I mean to do it for effect, but it only makes people go "WHAT?!?!"

― metal assembly (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 12 June 2005 03:17 (twenty years ago)

Normally I have a very clear voice! And good diction!

― metal assembly (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 12 June 2005 03:18 (twenty years ago)

I never learned how to use some kind of subjunctive in English so I use it about as well as I use the ancient Greek subjunctive. That means not very well. "I wish I was a pop icon!" etc.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 12 June 2005 04:11 (twenty years ago)

SOMEONE: [asks a question]
ME: "What?"
SOMEONE: [Begins to repeat the question...]
ME: "Oh, [answers the question halfway through the repeat because subliminally, I apparently heard and understood it the first time!]

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Sunday, 12 June 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

i totally do that.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 12 June 2005 05:59 (twenty years ago)

Normally I have a very clear voice! And good diction!

a very clear what? and good friction??

― Amon (eman), Sunday, 12 June 2005 06:21 (twenty years ago)

i'm addicted to diction!
(after four years of it in college)

my biggest peeve lately is not exactly linguistic, but it goes along with communication. at work people tend to break things up with obnoxious things like //////// or instead of just using decent punctuation. this drives me insane and i waste a lot of time deleting their shit and editing their comments to make them coherent.

― tehresa (tehresa), Sunday, 12 June 2005 06:44 (twenty years ago)

also: i received an invitiation to a family gathering yesterday. on it, the term "friends" is there as "friend's" and i freaked out when i saw it and wanted to call my aunt and inform her of her mistake (after notifying the apostrophe protection society, of course).

― tehresa (tehresa), Sunday, 12 June 2005 06:47 (twenty years ago)

Using the sentence "this is true" to say that something someone else has said is correct. My dad does it all the time, and I hate it, but I seem to be picking it up from him.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 12 June 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

I say "I mean" all the time, even when I don't really mean. But usually I get tired of linguistic tics pretty quickly and usually drop them quite soon after starting them. I suppose the most annoying thing I do is to adopt a semi-American accent when I talk about American things.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 12 June 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

I've started prefacing a whole bunch of interjections to conversations by saying "can I just say...". I have no idea what would happen if anyone said "no, you can't". Especially since I'd have already said it.

I have no idea why I do this.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 12 June 2005 10:31 (twenty years ago)

I am one of those people who, when people say things like that, butt in with "NO!"

This is because I am a smartarse.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 12 June 2005 11:00 (twenty years ago)

Well in that case I would be perfectly justified in going to this thread...WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAID FUCK YOU! TO SOMEONE

I try to stop myself saying "can I just say..." because it's annoying as anything, but it is something I just can't stop doing.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 12 June 2005 11:03 (twenty years ago)

(I know, ailsa, I need to stop being a cunt at people for no reason)

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 12 June 2005 11:10 (twenty years ago)

I've started prefacing a whole bunch of interjections to conversations by saying "can I just say...".

I'm sure when you do it isn't that bad, but I cannot read this without imagining the words being said in the voice of Craig from Big Brother.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Sunday, 12 June 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

I try to stop myself saying "can I just say..." because it's annoying as anything, but it is something I just can't stop doing.

I've had huge arguments with Bloke just because he starts nearly every sentence with "no, but..." which means that I (obviously) think he's contradicting me, when in fact he means more like "yes, and..."

I have tried to explain the difference between these two things, but to no avail so far.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 12 June 2005 11:44 (twenty years ago)

I use but all too often. In French I will use voila all the frigging time. I do like how yes and no are used in Japanese (different than in dutch), so much so I tend to apply it in my language as well.

― nathalie's post modern sleaze fest (stevie nixed), Sunday, 12 June 2005 11:55 (twenty years ago)

Yes No

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 June 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

Re: "Can I just say"

I'm sure when you do it isn't that bad, but I cannot read this without imagining the words being said in the voice of Craig from Big Brother.

I sort of realised I did it when Only An Excuse picked it up as a linguistic tic of Graeme Souness. He does say it a lot.

Eyeball Kicks, I don't know if you mean Scouse Craig or not-gay hairdresser Craig, but either way is not good.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 12 June 2005 12:25 (twenty years ago)

craig just said "who are they to say a pacific time?"

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 12 June 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

I don't say that, unknowingly, though.

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 12 June 2005 12:57 (twenty years ago)

No, Mark, I mean like this:

You don't like oranges?

Yes (I don't like oranges) -> Japanese answer
No (I don't like oranges) -> Dutch answer

Same meaning!

― nathalie's post modern sleaze fest (stevie nixed), Sunday, 12 June 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

"do you like or dislike oranges?"

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 12 June 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

"no"

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 12 June 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

It's a shame we've no equivalent of the French "si". I usually take the Irish approach. We don't really have a single word for "no". In Irish it's:

Do you like oranges?
I don't.

Would you like to go to the beach?
I would.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 12 June 2005 13:03 (twenty years ago)

i say 'i guess' a lot here. in real ife i *think* i say 'man' a lot, but i'm not sure: that's how much of a hippie i am: it's just second nature, man.

― n_RQ, Sunday, 12 June 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

Eyeball Kicks, I don't know if you mean Scouse Craig or not-gay hairdresser Craig, but either way is not good.

Not-gay hairdresser Craig. The word "say" kind of irritatingly elongated. Oof.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Sunday, 12 June 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

i don't do this, but i hate when people preface a question with:

"let me ask you a question..."

just ask me the fucking question, dipshit.

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

I have a few friends who do the "No, but..." thing when they mean "Yes, and..." I'm sure it's a subconscious thing but it's got to be some kind of power/(in)security issue.

I tend to slip into hickness every once in a while. I blame growing up in the West. e.g., "Your guys's", pronounced "guysez", as in "Are we going back to your guys's house later?" I never noticed this tick but had it pointed out to me about a year ago. Most of the people I know here (the "East", Mtl) who are from the West do it too (I've now noticed). I think I'm compensating for being over-educated and generally too eloquent for this workaday world (hahaha.)

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

Sometimes at the end of sentences I say "and whatnot" because sometimes just ending a sentence where it is doesn't seem sufficient -- it seems to abrupt and so I tag on "and whatnot" to smooth the abrasiveness of that ending, or sometimes it's just the way my train of thought works. It's difficult to explain.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (East, Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

oh, i say 'yeah, no'. i think this means 'yes'. it's a bit vicky pollard, but not, because i've been saying it for years. possibly it means 'yeah, i know'.

― n_RQ, Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

Some of my worst ones are Jersey-isms that I've adopted since I moved here in order to "fit in." You know, like "Have a good one, buddy." That sounds retarded! Have a good one?

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

yeah i say stuff like that when i'm saying goodbye to someone and feel weird just walking off. "uh...bye...have a good night...uh...see you around..."

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

reading the rest of the thread, i now realize i am mark s's old boss.

― n_RQ, Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm. I have too many sins, I figure.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

you guyz need to get a real hobby and leave people alone.

― fhsdfh, Sunday, 12 June 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

I rarely spot my split infinitives until it's too late.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Sunday, 12 June 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

EXpresso and EYEtalian.

― giboyeux (skowly), Monday, 13 June 2005 07:13 (twenty years ago)

(oops. I'm not actually guilty of those. They just drive me crazy.)

― giboyeux (skowly), Monday, 13 June 2005 07:13 (twenty years ago)

Them: ..boring smalltalk..
Me: Oh, really?

"..In terms of.."

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Monday, 13 June 2005 12:07 (twenty years ago)

And I say "like" at the end of every sentence. Sometimes I even say "you know, like".

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 13 June 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

I use the word "comments" too much.

― bob n0pe (bobnope), Monday, 13 June 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

I say "skun" (which of course is not a word) when I should say "skinned".

― You fondle my trigger then you blame my gun / Kate (papa november), Monday, 13 June 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

The "can I just say" thing reminded me that I had a high-school geometry teacher who would say "if you will" -- e.g., "Now this part we can call segment AB, if you will." To which I would snarkily reply, from the back of the classroom, "Oh, I will, all right."

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 13 June 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

the other day in a work email I asked for something to be "flushed out" when I meant "fleshed out." since this is my #1 pet peeve in the office (someone else here used to say it daily and it drove me up the fucking wall) I almost crawled under my desk and died.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 13 June 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.