I had a writing professor in college who hated the word "the." She instructed us to strike "that awful, unnecessary word from your vocabulary." I still haven't mastered The Art of Writing without Articles, but I suppose we all have our quirks.
I have a coworker who hates it when writers talk about "journaling" instead of "writing in a journal." My Dad doesn't like it when people say "ain't" (do people still say that? who are these people?). This girl hates it when others abuse fonts. Call me Miss Snark, but I cringe when someone asks "where're you at?" Ugh! What words or phrases makes your skin crawl with indignation? I know we all have our linguistic pet peeves, so let them out!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
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The royal "we", the company I work for insists (DEMANDS) that everyone speaks we, writes we, thinks we! It gets so ingrained that it is hard to not carry it over into my personal life. My husband will look at me and say, who the heck are you talking about??
Harmony, so true. I've been on websites that I KNOW consist of one person working out of their basement and it says "we this," "we believe," and "our mission." Umm... you and I wouldn't refer to ourselves that way on our blogs, would we? I think they just do that to create the illusion that they have a huge staff instead of a staff of one.
LOL! I've never visited your site before, but I can definitely relate to this post.
My younger sister, my dad, and an ex-boyfriend were all guilty of this: Instead of saying (for example) those books, those people, those dogs, etc., they would all say them books, them people, them dogs.
CRINGE!
Melissa, thanks for stopping by. That reminds me of one my mom's pet peeves: "all's I'm saying is..."
OMG. My husband could write a book of words he hates. I'm more forgiving. Though I know there are some out there that totally bug me... What, I can't think of right now!
BTW, I didn't get an invite to the MediaB event you mentioned, but next week is busy for me anyway. Do you get those daily emails from them? Are they pointless? They seem pretty dumb to me so far.
Here in Dublin a lot of people say "I seen" as in "Oh yeah, I seen that!" and "I says" as in "I says to the guy..." I hate the both. They make my blood boil even when I overhear them!
LOL, these are some pretty funny idiosyncrasies (I guess that's the right word). I hate when people pronouce "diploma" as diplooma. It makes me cringe.
You RAISE sheep; you REAR children.
You CARRY packages in a TOTE.
Thank you for letting me get that off my chest! he he
No problem, Lady Maclead, ranting is my specialty!
Please-not everything in this world is awesome! I have heard everything from pizza to Paris Hilton's hair described as "awesome." Enough! The term awesome should be reserved for such inspirations as the Grand Canyon or God.
BTW LOL OMG RLFMAO WTF -- THOSE are what drive me nuts! In front of me I see a keyboard with all the letters necessary to clearly convey my message. If I can use them to get my point across, so can EVERYONE. I hate when I must play that guessing-game with the abundance of people who use an abundance of obscure acronyms in order to communicate. For the most part, it would be easier and more effective to communicate via the use of hieroglyphics rather than this dialect between an elite or "chosen few," this vernacular intended to appear efficient and concise (which comes far from). Instead, it's ineffective and confusing.
@bfergel: I agree - if there's any doubt on what an acronym means, it's better to spell it out!
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