annoying turns of phrase

cool · Post by **cool** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:55 am

I hate acronyms and abbreviations- such as Heathrow Terminal Five being called Five- I didnt hear the others being 4,3, 2, 1. Or 'somebodys going to medal' Radio 5, morons. Lets get back to proper written English.However do not check this contribution for mistakes please!

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:35 am

Istenem wrote: nb Cool i tend to agree, when i'm writing for publication i do so properly but everyone has irritations, i wince at hyphens used as punctuation because people don't know which colon to use and erroneous exclamation marks. there was one on the front page of a certain "quality" national last week !

Over-use of dashes as generic clause-breaker is one of my own stylistic faults I must confess!

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:19 pm

cool wrote:Or 'somebodys going to medal' Radio 5, morons.

I'm with you on that one. My own bête noire is those who use 'ask' as a noun, usually in a sporting context - "it will be a big ask to win those three races". When did 'ask' become a noun?

Northern Monkey · Post by **Northern Monkey** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:16 pm

grecian wrote:
Over-use of dashes as generic clause-breaker is one of my own stylistic faults I must confess!

Aye me too- but to be honest, if I bother to think about it, I can use a paranthetic clause up with the best of them.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:14 pm

My own bête noire is those who use 'ask' as a noun

Another annoying one: 'Key', as in 'This will be key.'

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:13 pm

grecian wrote:
Over-use of dashes as generic clause-breaker is one of my own stylistic faults I must confess!

I'm guilty of hpyhenmania myself...

Phrases I hate:

No-brainer
Random (especially when used to describe a night out having some drinks)

Phrases I used to hate and then used in a sarcastic manner to take the piss out of people who used to use them to the extent that I have started using them myself without meaning to:

Gaunnae do something? (without use of please or thank you)
Wean
Let's do this (thing)
I was like .... sooooooo drunk last night

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:29 pm

Gah! :x

I was like ....

Some like to use this at the start of every 'sentence' they splurt...

So does it mean that they never actually do / are anything? They were just like it? :x

jb13 · Post by **jb13** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:45 pm

cool wrote:I hate acronyms and abbreviations- such as Heathrow Terminal Five being called Five- I didnt hear the others being 4,3, 2, 1. Or 'somebodys going to medal' Radio 5, morons. Lets get back to proper written English.However do not check this contribution for mistakes please!

Have you got a Bird.

BigEd · Post by **BigEd** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:15 pm

Matt Vinyl wrote:Gah! :x

I was like ....
Some like to use this at the start of every 'sentence' they splurt...

So does it mean that they never actually do / are anything? They were just like it? :x

I must agree that I hate the "I was like.... and they were so like... So I was like..."
:x

My worst experience of this was on the Metro train in Chicago, when some fat, loud mouthed Yank woman, a couple of rows behind me, went on and on....

How I hated that trip.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:19 pm

"and he turned around and went..."

"i'm not being funny but..."

:x

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:01 pm

My bad.....

GRRRRRR

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:32 pm

"suffice to say..."

"a myriad of..."

these are common in even good publications.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:49 pm

Any form of 'management speak', such as:

-We need to grab the low hanging fruit.
-Let us go for the quick wins.
-There'll be time for networking at the bar after the meeting.
-Well it's a form of beast-feeding, providing those numbers to them.
-Holistic approach*

*I think this one annoys me because a particularly poor manager used to come out with it all the time, as a way of 'impressing' other staff...

Nixxy · Post by **Nixxy** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:07 pm

Matt Vinyl wrote:-Well it's a form of beast-feeding, providing those numbers to them.

Am I the only one who had to re-read that? I could swear you were talking about breast-feeding for a moment, there!

ops:

cool · Post by **cool** » Thu May 01, 2008 12:01 am

particularly annoying are people that double up to emphasise a point except if its the bogoff offer(thats amusing).