Random minor word-choice annoyances.

A beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year ten thousand and one, ninety one.

So many pundits and television journalists begin their responses with "Look..." I get they are there to "explain" things but it sounds so condescending and didactic.

Also pundits who sum up by saying “at the end of the day…”

Net / net, they should speak outside the box.

Let

me

be

clear….

Make

no

mistake

…

"Let me be clear..."

Hear ye! Hear ye!

"Apropos of nothing" is mine ...

OP is goated. OP eats. OP is goals.

My sister in law begins every third sentence with "Look: ____" It does sound didactic and domineering.

On the other hand…so what.

Mira que...

Mira que, si no estás allí a las 5 pm, yo me voy.

Thinking about pundits and the word mira, so many so them say "Look" before saying something. It's a fine way to punctuate something you think is important but it's so common on cable news as a way to briefly collect your thoughts the "Look..." no longer necessarily precedes the speaker leveling with listeners.

[Quote] It does sound didactic and domineering.

…and dedicated, dreadful, delicious, and decisive.

Every managers and supervisors meeting has some tool from HR advising us how "we need to be mindful" of something. I cringe every time I hear that phrase.

Stay in your lane r16.

Don’t break out of your silo.

If I were in a silo I’d want to break out of it!

WHAT SAY YOU? makes my skin crawl.

Uptick. Just say increase FFS.

Empower and all its variations. It's a big word that has been rendered meaningless from repetition.

“So yeah!”

It is what it is

Wet me be pewfeckwy queer…

I used to know a woman who would frequently start sentences with “People…”

How do you feel about "BE TOLD!"?

When douchebags call songs "bangers"

"Don't sleep on_______" to mean "don't miss_______."

“Welcome in”

I HATE "welcome in."

I’ve never heard welcome in.

Oh Brendad!

GIVE HER HER FLOWERS!

Corporate America has messed with the English language so much, but the one that bugged me the most before I retired from 35 years in "cube world" was how we turned "ask" from a verb to a noun, as in "what is the ask". No dear - it's "what is the request", or "what is the question". It's still a verb....... ask verb us /æsk/ uk /ɑːsk/

The word "anymore" is so badly used anymore.

[quote] The word "anymore" is so badly used anymore.

Positive anymore.

I complain about this one a lot:

The use of the word "gift" as a verb.

It's not even any shorter than the proper verb "give." Same fucking number of letters!

But people use it all the time - and it's a relatively recent phenomenon.

Christ, i hate it.

Hold my beer.

Lately I’ve noticed people saying they itched something when they should have said scratched. Wtf.

I don’t mind gift as a verb. To say “he gifted me that buttplug” is different from saying “he gave me that buttplug” as the former denotes some kind of occasion or ceremony.

Lend (verb) vs. loan (noun). Yes, I know “to loan” is used widely, but it sounds more USA Today than New York.Times to me.

R39

"Gifted" is an adjective - for example, "you are a very gifted cocksucker who was honored at the recent butt plug ceremony."

Not a verb. Never ever.

Mark me.

“Fall pregnant”

I don’t see how these two words even go together.

R43, that has always irked me. I guess if a woman slipped, fell and landed on an erect cock, it might work.

I don't care if this fits, but only idiots start sentences with "So."

Full stop Mark my words Hear me now believe me later - Hans and franz

Look... is slightly less obnoxious than "listen..."

I think "look" is the most annoying, closely followed by "so." "Listen" is annoying but I haven't heard talking heads use it to start every other sentence way I hear the former two.

pulling back the curtain.

I hate it when people say “jumpin’ Jehosephat!”

LITERALLY

Claw back..

“Here me out…”

I’ve been hearing mostly white straight men in their late twenties to late forties, usually vaguely white collar, saying “‘preciate ya!” Instead of a simple “thanks” to service role employees. I think the intent is to sound folksy and salt of the earth, but it really just sounds condescending and patronizing to my ears.

EVERYONE!

Quit saying "...to that point"!

It sounds insane!

Certain Irish people will say "You know that kind of way?" at the end of a sentence, their version of "You know what I mean?". Teenagers started using it about 15-20 years ago and now their parents are using it. It sounds particularly stupid in not-so-young people.

When some goes “acrossed” the street. Why the -t sound at the end?

“You know what I’m saying.”

These three:

1. "Y’all" I swear this one got turbocharged during the Bush years - the dumb one. Now, every white girl with a TikTok account thinks she’s a southern belle. It’s folksy cosplay at this point.

2. "Iconic" This word used to be reserved for things that had actually stood the test of time. Now it's tossed around for anything with a following. Not everything that trends is iconic. Sometimes it's just... there.

3. "Without further ado" YouTubers love it, usually right after three minutes of “Smash that like button!” babble babble.

I completely agree with you, R59.

"He/she has that whole [insert name of celebrity] thing going on"

I'm baffled by the trend in the past few years of "said" as in aforementioned. It's usually not needed and it sounds contrived. "I went to the store and at said store..."

r56 "Teenagers started using it about 15-20 years ago and now their parents are using it."

Teenagers from 15-20 years ago ARE parents now!

Sorry, I meant to say "middle-aged people are using it now." It started out as a teenage expression.

OP, I don't care for "know this" because it is a vestige of formal rhetoric properly saved for climactic summation. Among other sources, these rhetorical flourishes have been embraced by African American ministers who maintain a version of formal speechmaking. Political and position-focused speechmaking use it, as noted.

Such tricks can be effective in the right place. The danger always is overuse, which leaves something that needs to be rare into a cliche.

Low-hanging fruit.

Low-fucking-hanging fruit.

And these.

"Invite" instead of "invitation." It sounds so . . . Clampett: "Uncle Jed, we done got an invite from the Drysdales!"

"Here's the thing"

"Chew on this"

Pet peeves:

Stress on the wrong syllable: PO-lice, MAC-Donald's, IN-vite and DE-troit

February with one 'r'

Puerto Rico pronounced as Porto Rico. Took 2 years of Spanish in junior high. I THINK it should be pronounced Pwehrto Reeko. There is definitely no "o" in the first syllable

Language redundancy/padding

Instead of saying

"I was a child who grew up to be a man"

They say

"I was child who thought like a child, felt like a child, played like a child, ate like a child who grew up to think like a man, feel like a man, plays like a man, eats like a man who grew up to think like a man"

When all the rain-forests are gone and oxygen is being rationed, you will be among the first to be killed!

“I’m sorry you feel that way!”

I was today years old……

[quote]Fall pregnant

That’s a Britishism r43. I know, doesn’t make any sense.

“Yeah, no”.

Which is it?

^^^ this drives me crazy too, but it means "I'm sorry, but 'no.'"

R75 I know what it means, but it’s annoying and sounds stupid.

"Performative virtue-signa(l)ling"

"Man cave"

"His/her _____ game" ("Arthur's hydration game is impressive")

"Side hustle"

“I was panicked.” “This is panicking me.”

“Mid.”

Is “average” that difficult to use in a sentence? It’s so dopey. Especially when adults use it.

“Sus.”

Again, is “suspect” or “shady” that challenging?

It’s foolish and sounds uneducated.