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 Overread wrote:

Apparently the whole "i before e except after c" isn't even taught any more as there are so many exceptions it makes the rule almost pointless to learn in the first place.

Still not as bad as the one semester of French I took in high school. Teacher taught us all these rules in the French language, and the 2 times where the rule actually applied and how, beyond that. . . . they don't apply.


Another one that just cropped up in my mind. . . people who, despite education and age suggestion they *ought* to be able to say the actual word, can't.

What I'm referring to are people who want to get some "synonym rolls", or the guy who wants to "axe me a question". The lady who "brought some drinks at the store for the party", or having a nice dinner at Olive Garden and enjoying a plate of Biscetti. And truthfully, I've heard this sort of misuse of words across basically all income, age, and racial demographics, it isn't limited to any one in particular.

And no. . . I'm not referring to people who are learning English as a second language for whatever reason.

Mostly forum things, but people who...
- type Calvary instead of cavalry
- type alot instead of a lot
- type allot instead of a lot

Especially if they then get indignant when you gently ridicule their choice of "words".

'Actually'. For a lot of interviewees, is seems to be a 'more formal' alternative to 'like'. It distracts from the point the person wants to get across.

 BertBert wrote:
"I had went home"
"The business was ran"
Is that a regional thing? I keep hearing this everywhere and it hurts because we had to learn 3rd forms by heart.

Yeah, pick one "I went home", or "I had gone home"
I noticed it more when I moved to the UK Midlands, but it may just be more common now.

 Da Boss wrote:

grahamdbailey wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:

And unless you're quoting an American, there's no reason for you to be saying "y'all".

Other than the fact that English is a terrible language with no 2nd person plural pronoun?

You can either use the plural "you", and pick it up from context (and it can work like that in plenty of languages) or do like they do in my hometown and say "ye".

I've been an English speaker my entire life and have never once been misunderstood and therefore required the use of "y'all". I mean if you're from the US where it's a natural part of speech, knock yourselves out, but I find it incredibly embarrassing when Irish or British people do it, or when non-native speakers living outside the US do it.

Y'all possibly has it's origin in Scots-Irish contraction. I'm an English-speaking Irish man, and it's a phrase I use, interchangeably with 'ye', depending on with whom I'm communicating.

Mad. Where in Ireland are you from? I'm from Wexford, lived in Dublin and the Midlands, never heard anyone say "y'all" unless they were imitating an american for a joke.

I'm a Dub, but, to be fair, the phrasing is something I may have picked up rather than inherited...


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 gorgon wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

 Olthannon wrote:
The company I work for now is full of awful corpo speak.

"Sense checking" is a loathsome phrase.

While(most) of my local branch is sane, every time we have a (mandatory) fireside chat, meet the leadership, quarterly update thing it flys thick and heavy.

Which is hilarious. It’s like they are speaking another language, on a few different levels. They are all synergistically fast-failing new paradigms to leverage innovation in the market space, and I’m just spinning like a little working cog, following the pathways and trying not to violate HIPPA laws. We’ve merged/been bought/been sold 3 times since I’ve been there, with different upper management. They all say the same things, tell us we are going to to do new things, with the latest buzzwords, but I still do my value-add one bit at a time at the bottom like I’ve been doing unchanged for years.

Most of the buzzwords actually make common sense if you think about them, but are so rizzed up (did I use that right?) that they become incomprehensible. Probably because someone paid a few million to a consultant and he needed to tell them something to justify his bill, and the “savings" get passed on to us...

"Thought leadership" is a phrase that gets used in place of "ideas" when said organization is out of ideas.

I had a manager say, in a meeting last week, "Let's double-click back on that". What the heck does that even mean?

 Dysartes wrote:
Mostly forum things, but people who...
- type Calvary instead of cavalry
- type alot instead of a lot
- type allot instead of a lot

Especially if they then get indignant when you gently ridicule their choice of "words".

Could you be more pacific?

Anyways. Rage bait aside.

I can’t stand social media posts which use stuff like “it be like”. Or “it do be like”

Now I fully accept and have no problem with the fact that’s just how some people speak. Given my fondness for slang in my own vocabulary, I can hardly begrudge that. But in the written form it’s simply cringe inducing. And perhaps just a little bit racist. Like you’re adopting a certain speech pattern to appear down and cool and rap with the kids. The same extends to Scots type. Such as “where are you fae” and similar.

some of my younger (ie 20's) ask "can you borrow me that card" instead of "lend". The also say "I versed him at Magic" rather than "played against" or "played with".

So now I have to find their English teacher and burn them at the stake.

Oh god. Vs.

When did musical collaborations become X “Vs” Y.

Just stop it. Nobody is impressed.

 Vulcan wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
We must leverage vertical synergy

I swear, as I was watching the video I was having PTSD flashbacks to meetings I've been stuck in...

How have I not seen that before? Glorious! (and also twitching flashbacks) That 4 minute video could replace so many meetings.

Piqued! It piqued your interest. It didn't peak it or peek it. Read books FFS!

General grumble?

When famous people are referred to by nicknames.

Granted, any appreciation of a celebrity is going to be some degree of parasocial relationship. But when gossip mags use for example “Tay Tay” instead of Taylor Swift, that’s just too much. Waaaay too far. Suggesting a familiarity that just doesn’t exist.

Use their first name if you must. But creating nicknames or pet names is just bloody creepy.

So far a lot of really good bits here. Hopefully there we will continue critiquing when I get back from the ATM machine.

 Ahtman wrote:
So far a lot of really good bits here. Hopefully there we will continue critiquing when I get back from the ATM machine.

I see what you did there, and I don't like it.

Some abbreviations kind of bother me too, or just confuse me. Like referring to Christmas as Xmas. I get it, it shortens it, but for some reason I don't like that abbreviation. And maybe someone who's British on here could explain why you folks sometimes refer to it as "Chrimbo"? That one has never made sense to me, but maybe that's because I'm an ignorant American or something.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
[And maybe someone who's British on here could explain why you folks sometimes refer to it as "Chrimbo"? That one has never made sense to me, but maybe that's because I'm an ignorant American or something.

Nobody seems to know for sure, but it's possibly just a children's mispronunciation that caught on with the masses back in the 1920s.

Just one of those slang terms. I’m sure somebody of a mind could track down its origin, but I for one can’t be bothered.

Xmas however was in use by at least 1973. This is evidenced by the title of Slade’s seasonal masterpiece “Merry Xmas Everybody”

Given that bands penchant for deliberate bad spelling “Mama We’re All Crazee Now”, “Gudbuy To Jane”, I wouldn’t say it’s beyond the realm of possibility Noddy and co first coined it.

Cursory google shows it significantly predates that though.

Well, I never!

 insaniak wrote:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
[And maybe someone who's British on here could explain why you folks sometimes refer to it as "Chrimbo"? That one has never made sense to me, but maybe that's because I'm an ignorant American or something.

Nobody seems to know for sure, but it's possibly just a children's mispronunciation that caught on with the masses back in the 1920s.

I'm staggered it goes that far back. I don't recall ever really hearing it pre-millenium. It seemed to rear it's ugly head around the same time as things like nom and floofy.

It was certainly popularised by the novelty Christmas record “Proper Chrimbo”.

And as such regional words and terms enter the wider national vocabulary.

For instance, the word for a poor, dirty kid when I was a nipper in Edinburgh was “scaff”, seemingly stemming from a nickname for bin Lorrie’s known as Scaffy Trucks.

But when I moved to south east England? That was a word beginning with P which is racist. But said racist P word spread in prominence thanks to Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch” where it’s used quite liberally.

Hence, whilst scaff remains regional (if it’s even still in use. Been 33 years since I lived in Edinburgh), the racist word beginning with P has unfortunately become more common place, thanks to media exposure.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


For instance, the word for a poor, dirty kid when I was a nipper in Edinburgh was “scaff”

Grew up in Surrey, didn't have them...

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Just one of those slang terms. I’m sure somebody of a mind could track down its origin, but I for one can’t be bothered.

Xmas however was in use by at least 1973. This is evidenced by the title of Slade’s seasonal masterpiece “Merry Xmas Everybody”

Given that bands penchant for deliberate bad spelling “Mama We’re All Crazee Now”, “Gudbuy To Jane”, I wouldn’t say it’s beyond the realm of possibility Noddy and co first coined it.

Cursory google shows it significantly predates that though.

Well, I never!

Wouldn't surprise me if it originated in the US, and for the same reason we have neighbors instead of neighbours.

That was the common assumption when I was growing up, along with the idea that it was to de-emphasise the 'Christ' in 'Christmas'... but no, it actually dates back to 16th century England, and is an abbreviation of the old Greek word that 'Christ' is derived from.

 insaniak wrote:
That was the common assumption when I was growing up, along with the idea that it was to de-emphasise the 'Christ' in 'Christmas'... but no, it actually dates back to 16th century England, and is an abbreviation of the old Greek word that 'Christ' is derived from.

Makes sense. A lot of abbreviations date to that period IIRC because it was much easier to do on printing presses. The word would have been entering written use much more than in prior centuries.

One of my favorite things about my job as an efficiency expert is to just use made-up words for things!

Solutionizing- Create a solution
"This is not the meeting to be solutionizing"

Revericate - Go back and validate data
"We need to revericate these data points before we confirm the hypothesis"

Domission- Overcome an obstacle, typically technical in nature; to continue the project
"This is in Domission and is no longer a challenge for implementation"

The Needful - The act/action that needs to be done to move forward
"The engineer went back and did the Needful."

Red Button - Remove a step of a process that people can do, but causes issues because there is the opportunity to do it wrong.
"This process has a Red Button in step 7, Do the needful and domission it."

These are not real words or terms! Some aren't even trade or industry terms. Some I completely made up out of whole cloth! I just love using my role as an excuse to make up words and phrases, then get people to start using them! So funny to me!






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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
General grumble?

When famous people are referred to by nicknames.

Granted, any appreciation of a celebrity is going to be some degree of parasocial relationship. But when gossip mags use for example “Tay Tay” instead of Taylor Swift, that’s just too much. Waaaay too far. Suggesting a familiarity that just doesn’t exist.

Use their first name if you must. But creating nicknames or pet names is just bloody creepy.

Have you reformed or something? Who is this? Is this really MDG?

I seem to recall a similarly named user getting many a ban for using pet-names for famous folks and politicians, usually in a negative way!

 Easy E wrote:

Red Button - Remove a step of a process that people can do, but causes issues because there is the opportunity to do it wrong.
"This process has a Red Button in step 7, Do the needful and domission it."

OK, this one is actually a good one though. . . I know my wife tells me stories of things that go on at her work, and if she had this term as vocab, it would be great for her.

 Easy E wrote:

The Needful - The act/action that needs to be done to move forward
"The engineer went back and did the Needful."

While most of your list made my head hurt, 'needful' is a word, and the above was very common usage when I was growing up, although seems less prevalent these days.

"Red Button" always makes me think of the Space Madness episode of Ren & Stimpy.

I hadn't thought about it in a while but I hear people say "turret" as "turrent" semi regularly online. I don't know where the 'n' is coming from but I don't like it.

EasyE wrote:Have you reformed or something? Who is this? Is this really MDG?

I seem to recall a similarly named user getting many a ban for using pet-names for famous folks and politicians, usually in a negative way!

Different scenario entirely. Mocking nicknames of the powerful to show disdain. Not to create the illusion that someone famous is a friend, and therefore the constant prying into their private life isn’t intensely creepy, bordering on organised stalking.


Anyways. All this Red Pill/Black Pill nonsense. You’re not seeing “past the veil”. Oh no, rather you’ve “drunk the Kool Aid*”

*I am aware that line is inaccurate, as the victims drank Flavor Aid.

 insaniak wrote:

 Easy E wrote:

The Needful - The act/action that needs to be done to move forward
"The engineer went back and did the Needful."

While most of your list made my head hurt, 'needful' is a word, and the above was very common usage when I was growing up, although seems less prevalent these days.

'Do the needful' is probably an old English phrase, which I have only heard used by teams I used to work with in India.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 Easy E wrote:

The Needful - The act/action that needs to be done to move forward
"The engineer went back and did the Needful."

While most of your list made my head hurt, 'needful' is a word, and the above was very common usage when I was growing up, although seems less prevalent these days.

This is probably an old English phrase, which I have only heard used by teams I used to work with in India.

My Favourite usage of “needful” I’ve heard is as a euphemism for going to the toilet. Always makes me smirk now when I hear it used in other contexts.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 Easy E wrote:

The Needful - The act/action that needs to be done to move forward
"The engineer went back and did the Needful."

While most of your list made my head hurt, 'needful' is a word, and the above was very common usage when I was growing up, although seems less prevalent these days.

'Do the needful' is probably an old English phrase, which I have only heard used by teams I used to work with in India.

"Do the needful" is an incredibly common phrase by scammers based in India. "I'm Bob Johnson from America Corp. sending you this message in regards to your CV. To confirm you're identity do the needful and respond with a code we've sent you" and it will be a password reset code or code to allow them to make a Google phone number from you email. Stuff like that. Obliviously context matters but it is frequent enough that seeing "kindly" and "do the needful" are giant red flags that something is not on the up and up.

Caveat addition to Ahtman’s correct observation. You may read a scam email and chuckle at poor grammar and misspelling. That’s entirely deliberate, as it quickly weeds out those the least likely to fall for whatever follows.

I mean, I'm amused by the typo in Ahtman's response.