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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be annoyed when people misuse words?

184 replies

acsec · 24/08/2013 15:46

My DH is a prime example of this. The two which annoy me most are "My thesis is..." and, usually when he is playing a computer game and dies on it "Argh! Death becomes me!"
Unless you have written a dissertation on this subject, then you mean theory and I don't think dying on a computer game makes you look especially fetching.
It winds me up so much and I have given up telling him what he actually means.

Please MN, tell me I am not suffering alone!

OP posts:
GrandstandingBlueTit · 28/08/2013 09:27

His instead of he's. What is that about?

ShellyBoobs · 28/08/2013 13:23

"re-illiterate"

There's a lovely irony in that.

Grin
justmatureenough2bdad · 28/08/2013 14:01

what irks me is when people tell me I have implied that they are an idiot...which they can't possibly know...
I do have to advise them that they have, in fact, inferred that they are an idiot

currentlyconfuseddotcom · 28/08/2013 14:26

I embarrassed myself in a meeting when I told someone their work was 'monotone' instead of 'monochrome'. They started speaking in a low level voice then I realised and cringed.

gininteacupsandleavesonthelawn · 28/08/2013 14:38

Brought instead of bought... Argh!

HopeClearwater · 28/08/2013 14:43

Colleague used to say that things which happened every now and again were 'sporodic'. And her ill friend was on an 'oscillator' in hospital, not a ventilator.
She had a very high opinion of herself too...

Geranium45 · 28/08/2013 14:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FreeWee · 28/08/2013 15:03

My DH calls it a bunfire rather than a bonfire. Annoyed me to start with but now endears me by saying "no buns were harmed in the making of this fire" like the small print at the end of an animal programme!

littlemog · 28/08/2013 15:09

'Yourself' is the worst for me at the moment. Just say you!

littlemog · 28/08/2013 15:09

Oh and 'hung' when people mean 'hanged'.

Feminine · 28/08/2013 15:11

My favourite.

pacific.

Stepmother:" I pacifically told them my ring size was xxx"

It is pronounced "per sif fic " however. Even funnier!

littlemog · 28/08/2013 15:14

Brought and bought.

SoniaGluck · 28/08/2013 15:50

FreeWee We always called it a 'bunfire' and we used to go out collecting 'bunnywood' or 'bunnying' just before Guy Fawkes night.

The local shops used to sell 'bunfire toffee' on sticks in a foil bun case from mid-October onwards. Happy days.

I don't think they still do; I never see any anyway.

ViviPru · 28/08/2013 16:38

The phrase DH uses all the time that makes me want to decapitate him is "double check". NO, you irritating man. You will check it. Double check implies you have already checked it once when you HAVEN'T.

GAH!

currentlyconfuseddotcom · 28/08/2013 17:15

Someone made me laugh just now when they said: "See, I always have premonitions about him. Sometimes they come true."

VitoCorleone · 29/08/2013 20:09

Well we shall agree to disagree on the think/thing situation.

As for could care less / couldnt care less - its common sense surely? If you could care less about something then it implies that you do care to a certain degree but there is room to care a bit less

If you couldnt care less then you dont give a shit, you care so little about something there is no room to even care a little bit less.

How can people even argue about that?

VitoCorleone · 29/08/2013 20:12

Couldnt care any less than you already do, thats wjat im trying to say.

littlemog · 29/08/2013 20:19

Do people actually say that they 'could care less' ? When they really mean that they couldn't care less?

That's weird.

Lweji · 29/08/2013 20:19

Someone made me laugh just now when they said: "See, I always have premonitions about him. Sometimes they come true."
:)
What, like 50% of the time?

MyCatHasStaff · 29/08/2013 20:39

DH got an email from someone who "wasn't trying to be a pre-madonna". No, I don't suppose he was.

MorrisZapp · 29/08/2013 20:49

Some of these are regional. I'm in Edinburgh, where 'burst' often means 'broken'. Drove me mad as a pedantic brat child to hear that one. My roller skates are burst! No, they are broken.

VitoCorleone · 29/08/2013 20:59

Yes littlemog i think they say it in the states, ive heard it on American tv a few times and in a Green Day song.

Never heard anyone here say it.

Pootlingalong · 29/08/2013 21:53

Oh, I do love a good grammatical pedant thread, no shame in that. Surely the worst is the inventive use of yourself/ myself e.g. "What can I do for yourself today?" Wtf? Um, stop hurting my ears with your dodgy reflexive pronouns (showing off emoticon). This one may be peculiar to North America, but has anybody else been the victim of "situated"? My example is " once you've got yourself situated, we'll begin." I thought I was already situated, I don't understand. Of course, it may just be my advanced age, so happy to be corrected.

MacaYoniandCheese · 29/08/2013 22:11

People say "I could care less" here all the time. I'm pretty sure it's a North Americanism and it's WRONG, I tell you. I've also read/heard North Americans say 'make due' instead of make do Confused.

BitchyRestingFace · 29/08/2013 22:58

Oh, I do enjoy these threads. I sit here, nodding along and harrumphing, as happy as a pig in shit Grin

I dislike the way "ignorant" now seems to be used as a general insult, to mean rude, unpleasant, etc. That's not right, is it? You can be quite ignorant and still be a lovely person, or you could be a horrible person but very knowledgeable Confused