Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I absolutely detest when rules, instructions, warnings or errors are started with "Please". I know someone out there feels that it's necessary to temper commands with politeness, but it's really annoying and so limply passive. "Please refrain from tampering with the security controls" instead of "Do not tamper with the security controls" or simply "No tampering".
And on the subject of Marplisms -- a friend of mine's mother always used to say "Don't kick a gift horse in the mouth." Which was priceless for the mental image it conjured. I wish more people would look into the origins of phrases and idioms so they understand what they're really saying when they use them!
But one thing that grates my nerves is when people use foreign words improperly, either grammatically incorrect or misspelled or completely incorrect in context. Every time I see "vwala" or "kahones" it just makes me want to scream.
Yeah, 2 words, but.....Trains, Planes, Boats, et al are due to arrive at a specific time (more or less). Things happen "BECAUSE OF" other events. i.e. "Due to the amount of snow, schools have been cancelled" NOOOOOOOO, it is "Because of" snow, schools are closed. Snow may be due to arrive around 2 a.m. and schools may be cancelled because of the snow, but....Not "Due to".
—Usage note
11. Due to as a prepositional phrase meaning “because of, owing to” has been in use since the 14th century: Due to the sudden rainstorm, the picnic was moved indoors. Some object to this use on the grounds that due is historically an adjective and thus should be used only predicatively in constructions like The delay was due to electrical failure. Despite such objections, due to occurs commonly as a compound preposition and is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.
----Dictionary.com
I don't know how many centuries it takes for a word to become acceptable. When I was growing up, people said "the game was postponed conna rain". ( = 'on account of')
I absolutely detest when rules, instructions, warnings or errors are started with "Please". I know someone out there feels that it's necessary to temper commands with politeness, but it's really annoying and so limply passive. "Please refrain from tampering with the security controls" instead of "Do not tamper with the security controls" or simply "No tampering".
And on the subject of Marplisms -- a friend of mine's mother always used to say "Don't kick a gift horse in the mouth." Which was priceless for the mental image it conjured. I wish more people would look into the origins of phrases and idioms so they understand what they're really saying when they use them!
But one thing that grates my nerves is when people use foreign words improperly, either grammatically incorrect or misspelled or completely incorrect in context. Every time I see "vwala" or "kahones" it just makes me want to scream.
I saw a "walla" recently, and laughed my head off. I've seen people on here mention that but I'd never witnessed it myself.
most of the stuff that bugs me is when locals mis-use words for a "pop-pysch" approach. some examples:
using the word Truth when what they mean is Opinion or Viewpoint... "this is my Truth"
saying Empower to mean gaining knowledge
using Reality to mean one's situation... "this is my Reality"
and at the top of my hate list: Offend. a person can be 'offended' by anything they choose to be offended by.
Thanks for reminding me. I hate "empower" or "empowerment" the worst out of all the pop-psych words and phrases. Or at least I hate it worst right now until someone reminds me of another one.
I hate the term "Happy Holidays", and even worse than that "Season's Greetings". What ever happened to plain old Merry Christmas?
It's more safe to use Happy Holidays since some folks do not celebrate Christmas but other holidays in the same time frame, for example Kwanzaa.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
