Phrases you hate

[homeedhorrors]

I know this has probably been done to death but just saw a cafe advertising "Vicky Sponge" and felt compelled to start a thread. Other offenders:

• any onomataopoeia for anything smell related, particularly if it is alliterative. There was a recent thread about "pongy pits" and being "whiffy" which gave me the inner boak.

Saw "occy health" on here which made me eyes bleed.

Just remembered 'sweet treat'. Everything is now a 'sweet treat', it seems.

I love ‘keeping your eyes peeled’ especially in relation to finding a car parking spot.

Pivot, why is everyone at work pivoting?

Wanky CEO apart from “leaning in” also likes to “pivot”. Adding into the mix “squaring the circle”, I was double checking if he was giving a business update or teaching us to Morris Dance.

"Points to ponder" always sounds annoying and somehow sanctimonious.

And anything that is a "journey" other than a physical trip to somewhere else.

'Swim teacher' - written on the t shirts of the swimming teachers at our local leisure centre. It's just bugs me, and I can't relax while doing my lengths, because my brain is shouting out 'Swimming teacher!' After all, you don't get a 'drive instructor' do you?

Wait list.

If no please, sure. But "can I get a coffee please. thank you, etc" is just fine

Agree with pp. There’s nothing at all wrong with saying ‘Can I get x please?’

Sometimes people think ‘can I get’ implies helping yourself. It doesn’t. One of the meanings of the verb ‘to get’ is ‘to receive’, eg ‘I got a letter this morning’.

In lots of varieties of English the word ‘may’ is very rarely used when asking for something. It’s probably standard where you are, but that’s not the same everywhere. It doesn’t mean people are less polite in those places. It’s just that language varies from place to place.

Agree with this and I’d consider myself a feminist. I don’t like words that generalise about groups of people. It’s stereotyping and that’s always unfair.

I agree ' Can I get' sounds rude and a bit scruffy.

"Our little family is complete" after posting new baby photos. Its a smack in the face and unnecessary to say when, for many people, having just one baby is a miraculous achievement in itself, and are those people not a real "complete: family if there is only one child? Winds me up. You don't have to have the requisite number of children in order to be part of a family.

Picky bits.
Hubby.
Biccies.
Cuppa. '
'One square of dark chocolate.'

The latter gives me the rage, with the implication that the dark chocolate eater is vastly superior to everyone who sits about pushing Kitkats into their cake-hole.

Certain phrases are usual in some areas, others are typical elsewhere.
’Can I get x please’ is an example of such a phrase. As is ‘May I have?’

It’s a bit strange to consider someone scruffy just because they come from somewhere else.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4343258-Can-I-get

I just find it rude. Like demanding. Not explaining it well. Whole thread on the debate here.

"Can I get..." always sounds like someone trying to sound American to me.
It goes back to my parents and I living overseas for a couple of years in a mainly American community. For the rest of her life my mother - who'd lived in the UK until her late 40s - said things like "Can I get...", "cookies and juice", and would ask the butcher for "ground beef" and then correct it to "I mean minced beef - I always forget" and so on.
This was in the 70s and it all sounded ridiculous back in Wales.
I know these are very common (except for the ground beef perhaps) now but still it makes me cringe.

Thank you, I must read that through.
I read the first post just now and OP is annoyed partly because she thinks ‘can I get’ doesn’t make grammatical sense.

It does make sense, so there’s a bit of misunderstanding going on there I think. Perhaps she clarifies later on though. It’s a phrase that does seem to cause quite some annoyance and it comes up on MN a lot.

I could be biased as ‘may I have’ is not a phrase that’s used where I live (Ireland). My Scottish friend says it’s not used where she’s from either. We’re still reasonably polite, not rude, not scruffy 😁 The expressions we use are a bit different, that’s all.

Taking a "deep dive" into something (as in finding out more about it) is starting to grate with me.

Teenaged. Is it a verb now as in:
Help!!! I've been teenaged.

Love language. Makes me cringe, luckily I only ever see it on mn. I've never heard it in real life.

Gifted.. just say 'given' or ' made a present of'

Please & thank you - so annoying!

A word not a phrase but I can’t bear “Famalam”!

My authentic self

Love you to the moon and back

To be fair
I’m not gonna lie
Both hugely overused & unnecessary!

reach out
go ahead and
fast forward
cue
full fat Coke
ect

Another one - “ I literally…..” when they really didn’t eg one woman on a video said “ I literally had a heart attack”