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Original poster

Pretentious Phrases instead of Plain English words -Piece de resistance

155 replies

igr61 · 27/08/2018 14:17

Just thought I would get this one of my chest.
Irritating People that use pretentious foreign words Phrases instead of basic plain English-
"Piece de resistance " instead of saying Masterpiece or the best available.
and that other one usually said by TV presenters and journalists:
"Raison detre " instead of reason for existing

OP posts:
TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 27/08/2018 21:12

yoghurt - hate typing on an ipad!

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 27/08/2018 21:14

TwitterQueen is totally right. None of the French phrases given as examples translate correctly into English, so it’s not pretentious- people are just trying to get the actual meaning across. I’d say it’s being precise not pretentious.

NonaGrey · 27/08/2018 21:18

Nothing you mentioned in your OP was pretentious.

If you don’t like using non native words you are going to struggle to get through the day. Modern day English is full of words taken from other languages.

Just a few examples:

Cartoon is Italian,
Loot is Hindi (as is shampoo),
Butter was originally Greek,
Coffee is Arabic (as is caravan), Boss is from Dutch (as is booze and stove),
Breeze is from Spainish,
Punch (as in the drink) is from Urdu.
Though, there, their, thing are all from Norse.

Perhaps your issue is just with French? Do fiancé, entrepreneur, chef, picnic, omelette, silhouette, depot, genre or souvenir strike you as pretentious too?

About 30% of English words come from French.

The very reason that English is such a successful language is that it takes on words from other languages.

HushabyeMountainGoat · 27/08/2018 21:22

It may be a tad pretentious if someone was using phrases that were not well known or able to be understood by non French speakers, but the examples you use are so everyday that you would barely notice them.

Growingboys · 27/08/2018 21:24

Not pretentious at all.

Inverted snobbery/chip on your shoulder I reckon.

Chacun à son goût.

FadedRed · 27/08/2018 21:45

Perhaps we should all go back to speaking 'proper' unadulterated English? (Hope this link works, or you will delight in my Schadenfreude.)
'

DiscoDown · 27/08/2018 21:52

I agree that a lot of these have no direct translation. For example, the word schadenfreude succinctly sums up a phrase that would be clumsy in English. And everyone knows what raison d'etre and joie de vivre etc means, it's not deliberately picking the most obscure phrases/words they can just to show how clever they are!

BareBelliedSneetch · 27/08/2018 22:01

What is far more annoying is the erroneous use of myself and yourself in a misguided attempt to sound more important. Now that’s pretentious!

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 27/08/2018 22:03

BareBellied that’s a good point yourself has made there.

Seriously I hate it to death. With fire.

Thehogfather · 27/08/2018 22:16

Yy bare. I have the misfortune to occasionally receive emails from someone who does that, combined with what he clearly thinks is an impressive vocabulary. When in reality its fairly obvious he has spent 45 minutes with a thesaurus in an attempt to find the longest and most obscure words possible to convey his point. Or not convey as the case usually is because it's equally obvious he doesn't understand their meaning.

TwitterQueen1 · 27/08/2018 22:19

"TwitterQueen is totally right" I would frame this and put it in every room in the house, including the Dd's bedrooms, if I wasn't so afraid of being outed.... Wink Grin

SenecaFalls · 27/08/2018 22:19

I think "piece de resistance" is a really good phrase to describe one's chef-d'œuvre, tour de force, or magnum opus.

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 27/08/2018 22:20

Twitter give me about 16 years and I’ll cross stitch it for you. My stitching is not fast...

TwitterQueen1 · 27/08/2018 22:23

mercy buckets Grin as we used to say in 5th year....

NotUmbongoUnchained · 27/08/2018 22:29

Well, I don’t think this went the way OP thought it was going to 😂

xsquared · 27/08/2018 22:32

Virtual signalling - why not just call it showing off?

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 27/08/2018 22:34

Err because virtual signalling doesn’t mean the same as showing off?

xsquared · 27/08/2018 22:34

Ok, that wasn’t a foreign phrase but I find that particular phrase overused.

Neffall · 27/08/2018 22:35
Grin
xsquared · 27/08/2018 22:35

X post, it is to do with showing how superior you are and hat is a form of showing off.

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 27/08/2018 22:35

Overused, definitely, but showing off isn’t an alternative. If people would stop moaning about other people virtue signalling that would be great and would fix the problem.

xsquared · 27/08/2018 22:36

That

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 27/08/2018 22:36

a form of showing off

Absolutely but a pepper is a form of vegetable and you still (presumably) accept people referring to it specifically?

xsquared · 27/08/2018 22:41

Think you’re being picky there. The point is, virtue signalling is a relatively recent phrase and it is perfectly possible to describe others tryin to be pious, morally superior etc without using the phrase “virtue signalling”.

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 27/08/2018 22:43

Not using fewer words. Virtue signalling means what it means and there isn’t a less wordy alternative. Neither pious or morally superior work because they don’t capture the attention seeking aspect.

If the question is “what phrases are overused and really annoying” then it’s totally one. It’s just not pretentious.