Are there any words or phrases that you find annoying?

I can’t stand the use of “incentivize” when “incent” works in the same instance.

The use of “resonate” outside of a discussion on harmonics does not sit well with me.

And the use of “parent” as a verb grates on me.

“benefit of the doubt”

It’s clunky and I dislike the way it sounds, but sometimes there is no better alternative phrase.

Bless your heart as in F**K you!

Gift as a verb.

For some reason I don’t like the sound of “wanna” and “gonna”.

@zenvelo This answer really resonates with me. It reminds me of how I can’t stand “preventative”, since “preventive” is perfectly fine (what’s next? “preventatative”?). And I’m sure Brits would disagree with me, but I hate “orientate” too—“orient” is just fine.

As for phrases, I guess I hate “the proof is in the pudding”, since the original saying was “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, and that meaning is lost in the “new” version.

“all but” e.g. “Comedy shows without a laugh track are all but gone.” (Just say “almost”.)
“talk to” when they mean “talk about.” “I can talk to that subject.”

“Fer sure” and it is “Back in tha day…....”.

“Journey” is way overused in my book, e.g. in Academy Award acceptance speeches.

The word “like” when it is not used in the context of comparing one noun to another.

“Great minds think alike.” Just about whenever two people express the same view or come up with the same idea, somebody will say this, and it’s usually one of them, speaking in a self-congratulatory way. No, they don’t. Great minds are pretty rare and tend to think differently.

“Ignorance is bliss.” No, it isn’t, and it’s a misconstrued quote. That line of Gray’s poem says, “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise,” and refers to knowledge of your future: if you’d be miserable knowing what’s coming, you’re better off not to know.

“Fast forward.” Somehow this has become most people’s only way of expressing that they’re jumping ahead in a story, as if everybody’s story were a scripted and recorded drama. It’s not a terrible metaphor; I’m just tired of hearing it.

“One-stop shopping.” Why is that an active business principle? As soon as somebody says it in a meeting, discussions of alternatives stop. I think that idea has ruined the marketplace by turning everything into an everything store where you have to walk long distances inside and you end up buying bananas, motor oil, and socks under the same roof. One favorite store after another (stationery, home furnishings, books) has gone out of business after trying to spread itself too thin. I’d much rather buy my bananas here and my socks over there, knowing that I have some choice in what I purchase instead of just getting the cheapest ones with the highest markup and not having to travel any very great distance inside either structure.

I’m expressing my opinion here in response to the question and not looking to start an argument with anyone.

I detest “move forward” and “at the end of the day”.

These cliche’ buzz-phrases’ have become so common in recent years that at times, when someone (especially a politician) is being interviewed on the radio or TV, you will hear them used multiple times during a 90-second response. They fly around quite a bit in business Conference Rooms, too.

Apparently, many people think these things make their comment sound more dynamic, or meaningful.

To me, it just makes them sound like lazy, pretentious, trend-following nitwits….

I hate the term he/she “disrepected” me. He or she was disrespectful toward you.

I also don’t like “keep the faith.” What is that supposed to mean?

I don’t care for the term, “this is true” when it seems like it should be (because it’s said after someone has made a statment) “that is true.”

I’m not fond of “bae.”

And I’ll probably always cringe when someone says, “no problem” when they should say, “you’re welcome.” I should hope it’s not a problem that I ordered scrambled eggs.

I really hate the use of sports phrases and analogies when some suit who has never spent a minute on a gridiron or baseball diamond wants to sound competitive.

I don’t dislike the term “Believe you me”, but it certainly is a strange one. It sounds like pigeon English to me.

All. As in “He’s all ‘I’m outta here’, but then he’s all ‘I need a favor’ ”.

Third World Country. It doesn’t mean what most people think.

It is what it is. Just fucking annoying.

@Kardamom, I agree. The number of times I have refrained from saying ”‘No problem’ doesn’t mean ‘you’re welcome’” to some young person at a cash register or table would probably be enough all by itself to qualify me for sainthood if there were such a thing. Right alongside that is the persistent retro notion that the cashier or waiter ought to be thanking me, as the customer, and not waiting to be thanked so they can alert me that I might have been a problem to them, but luckily (for me) I wasn’t.

What’s bae?

@Espiritus_Corvus, it does sound strange, but at a guess I would say it’s a relic of an archaic verb construction, an imperative along the lines of “Speak thou for me” and “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” In modern English the “you” is understood; it used to be expressed.

I think you mean “pidgin.”

@Jeruba. We should start a revolution. Every time someone says, “no problem,” we should respond with, “I should hope not.”

@Jeruba: “Bae” is urban slang for “baby.”

Whoever started ‘bae’ should be shot.

Awesome and amazing have both been so bastardized and overused that I can hardly stand to hear them, even when used properly.

Like, as in “I think I’ll, like, to the gym today”
and
So, as when leads off the answer to a question.

Yeah, Pachy, that “so” lead-off is epidemic, just like when many younger people say that something happened “on accident”.

No, kids…...things happen either on purpose, or by accident…...they DO NOT happen “ON accident…. ”

@PullMyFinger @Pachy I find myself yelling at people on NPR where “So” is constantly used at the beginning of an answer.

I also can’t stand the use of the present tense in such reports or interviews when describing events that happened in the past; “So, George Washington cuts down a cherry tree….”

I hate when someone says “aksed” instead of “asked”.

I really hate the term “Sex, drugs and rock’n roll” when someone describes the 1960’s and 70’s Vietnam War years, especially from someone who was supposedly there. It was much more than that. It was a huge concerted effort by young people to find alternative ways of living, conducting themselves, changing the way we do government and doing things in such a way as to not damage the earth.

The term is commonly used by people like Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc. to dismiss that effort which still doesn’t fit into the conservative paradigm, and to rewrite history. Revisionists.

And it is also used by old farts who, in order to establish their wild card, thinking they will get cred from a younger generation. I suspect these fucks did not take part in any of it, as they evidently have no idea what that era was about. I suspect that they spent their time on campus as Young Republicans.

Sex, drugs and rock’n roll were what we did on the side. Sex became freer and more prevelant due to the birth control pill. Drugs were a failed experiment in finding enlightenment, for the most part. Only idiots stuck with it for long. And rock’n roll was and is a good thing.

@Espiritus_Corvus Saw the remastered “Monterey Pop” documentary today and agree. We were young and hopeful that things could change.

@janbb Yeah. I love it when Joplin is on doing “Ball and Chain” and the camera pans to Mama Cass in the audience. The look on Cass’s face. She was absolutely enthralled, totally freaked by this young, unknown singer from Texas.

Monterey, 1967

I dislike hearing the word “passed” when someone has died. Using a euphemism seems disrespectful to the deceased and those closest to him or her. Why not acknowledge the gravity and the grief of the occasion with the proper word.

The word “gal.”
The phrase “totes adorbs.” (A shortened way of saying totally adorable.)
The following I never noticed until I worked in Youngstown, Ohio:

“The car needs washed.” No, the car needs to be washed, or the car needs washing.

I would find this phrasing in business emails and official procedures. It made me flinch any time I read it or heard it said. For reference

I suspect some of these phrases, words and weird local grammar come from immigrants attempting to adapt their home languages with American English.

When I was young and traveling the States, I found it amusing to hear Minnesotans use the verb “loan” for both “to loan” and “to borrow”, as in “I loaned it from Sam.” Then I lived in Sweden for ten years where they use the verb “låna” (pronounced loan-ah) to both loan and borrow. Then it made sense. Swedish immigrants, for the most part, settled the farmland of Minnesota in the late 19th century—and they incorporated some of their similarly sounding words, and much of their grammar, into their new language.

The way “washed” is used above sounds to me Germanic. It could be a similar case of adaptation.

There are two expressions I commonly hear at restaurants that annoy me a little.
When the server asks:
“Have we decided what we’re getting?” or “Are we having dessert?” I wonder if the server is joining us for the meal.
.“Are you still working on that?” Actually I was eating it. That is not work.

I find it annoying when people say “I’m loving this song” instead of “I love this song.”

“Fluffy is hugging on Fido” instead of “Fluffy is hugging Fido.

“Mary is kissing on Fred” instead of “Mary is kissing Fred.”

I agree with what so many Jellies have written. “Awesome!” “Working on.” So many great examples.

Well…..truthfully…..I am liking this thread….and actually feel like hugging on some of you….

@tedibear “Needs washed” seems to be a feature of American Midlands English, same goes for using anymore to mean “now” in a positive sense. “Anymore we take the bus”. Makes me want to tear my hair out anymore :P

I find it very strange to hear a Pennsylvanian say “Wooder” for “Water”. It doesn’t annoy me, though,

I have caught flak from various Texans most of my life because, it has been pointed out, I sometimes end statements with the word “do”; as in would do, could do and should do. Things like answering a question with terminology such as “Yes, that would do”
Probably early Scouser upbringing but I don’t recall my mom doing it but, then again, she might do.

@rojo You come from Scousers? Might do?

As the great Bernie Sanders recently said…..

“That’s not what you do…...but I’ll tell you what you DO do…...”

“That was a fail.”

I haven’t heard this in years, but it was very common when I was in high school, and it made me cringe. It was not a fail, but you are a failure.

The use of the word “epic.” That’s not even what it means.

When people shorten “perfect” to “perf.” Perf is already short for perforated.

And lastly…this isn’t a common thing, but a few of my friends have taken to saying “guano” instead of “bat-shit crazy” and it annoys me for no apparent reason.