OT: What words or phrases annoy you?
"micky" wrote in message
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I also don't like "different than". It should be "different from".
People who use clichés or standard phrases, but get them the wrong way round
so they make no logical sense: "cheap at half the price" (it should be
"cheap at twice the price" if you mean "very cheap") and that Americanism "I
could care less": no, you *don't* mean that, it makes no sense; you mean "[I
care so little that] I could *not* care less".
Then there's the ultimate "should of" ("I should of noticed that you were
wearing a new dress"). Grrrr. "Should have"... And that makes its way into
written English, so it's not just sloppy/hurried speech.
The thing that really makes my strangling-fingers start fidgeting (!) is
American-style business-meeting bull****: "leverage" (always pronounced the
US way - levveridge, even by Brits), "blue-sky thinking", "thinking out of
the box", "OpEx and RatEx", "run that up the flagpole and see who salutes",
"Reaching out [to someone]" etc. I suppose it's an offshoot of business
letter clichés from earlier times, such as "I beg to inform you that...",
"Assuring you of our best intentions at all times, I remain your loyal
servant" (*), and "Please find enclosed/attached..." (what's wrong with
"Here is..."?).
(*) Someone overdosed on the Uriah Heep obsequiousness tablets! So cringing
that it's prostrate. FFS, just say "Yours sincerely/faithfully" depending
whether you started with "Dear [name]" or "Dear Sir/Madam". Except that
addressing "Dear Sir/Madam" is not sufficiently gender-inclusive for the
Wokesters of today.
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