Words and phrases that drive you insane...

[Ducksbehindthesofa]

Certain words (usually nonsense or pseudowords) and phrases really grate on me, sometimes to the extent I don't bother reading the rest of a narrative if I stumble across a word or phrase on my hit list, halfway through something.

There are plenty, but a few to kick off:

Holibobs. It's not even an abbreviation for goodness sake.

Chillax. Just why?

"You do you" - this seems to be the in phrase at the moment, especially with the younger generation. It always sounds vaguely condescending to me

Chrimbo. Please, no

Nom nom nom. This one is right up there with holibobs!

Your turn......

This is a weird one, and difficult to describe, but I feel annoyed any time someone affects to sound twee and folksy when it's not how they normally speak or write.

"The floor needs swept" "Be sure to drink plenty of water".

I think I'm overly sensitive to this as I grew up with family members who, every now and then, tried out sounding like an Enid Blyton character. It would be a normal day, and then suddenly I'd hear "You're to clean your room before supper" and "I simply must...". And, of course, that person would be "Terribly, terribly cross" about something.

So silly and harmless, but it makes me embarrassed when I hear other people doing it!

People who are able to speak completely normally but then turn 'th' into 'f'. (Excluding dialects where this is common, such as cockney.) So free instead of THree. Fousand instead of THousand. Bloody stop it. It sounds awful.

History, or anything past, being related in the present tense.

Calling a house a 'property ' is extremely annoying.

Oh, an MN one that I LOATHE... when a poster replies with what they - gavel in hand - decree should have been done by the OP in whatever situation they're posting about.

Comments such as "..and what did she do when you told her to not park there/book the hotel/eat your lasagne?"

The smirky smugness is just ugh.

It's from 'spoon theory' by Christine Miserandino. It's not my favourite way to explain chronic illness, but some people like it. (And yes, I'm a 'spoonie'. 🤣🤣)

Mine is "very/extremely unique" - unique is binary, there are no degrees of uniqueness.

I'm smiling so hard. My wonderful mam always called them slip-slops. ❤️ I'm tearing up now, in a good way.

Quality Time

I knew this would turn up. It’s not an Americanism (not that it would matter to me). We use it in NI. It’s not slang. It appears on official documents etc. It’s also used in the rest of the island of Ireland and in some areas of Scotland.

See also ‘can I get?’

Yes - especially as there's no WAY that they themselves would have confronted the neighbour/laid down the law to the other customer in Lidl in real life.

Life hack

I am annoyed by people artificially dropping ‘T’s off the end of words when it is not a natural aspect of their accent as if to say ‘I am nice, Don’t mistake me for posh. We are all in it together.’

Oh, and overuse of the word/phrase ‘joke/it’s a joke’, usually used to describe immigration/NHS/benefits/any government policy. It feels like some people use the phrase and think it’s such a useful descriptor that it’s all that is needed to explain their thoughts on these complex and nuanced issues.

Iconic: used for every single bloody thing or person that is reasonably well known, the decaying and abandoned Debenhams store in my city is apparently "iconic" according to our local rag.

It is what it is why? Why not try and change it? This was used by one of our local councillors at a residents' meeting when we were all saying we had had enough of only getting our pavements cleaned every three months
With respect: which means " I am about to disregard what you have said or slyly insult you"
Run don't walk: used to try and flog some passing fad

Im NI. Everything is prefaced with ‘wee’
Spend a fortune in a restaurant/bar/hotel its a wee bill. Need a bag for bits you can’t carry its A wee bag.
Wait a wee minute.
Any service, goods whatever is prefaced with wee. Drives me mad 😢

'Suck it up.'
It always sounds so disgusting.
😖

Perhaps I'm missing some subtlety here, but I can't see anything at all amiss or annoying about "Be sure to drink plenty of water."

Very sound advice in this current Australian heatwave.

Pretty much all of the previous,detest ick, hoovering for vacuuming, people getting married in "Registry offices". We are pregnant. Gender instead of sex. Using the bathroom, when its a room minus a bath, say ",I'm going to the toilet", if you must say something.Folk who use "like" before every sentence and "so". Nothing,something, embarrassed to say my oldest DD does this..

Any sentence that starts with 'Aw' or 'Aww' sets my teeth on edge immediately.

The phrase I hate most is ‘use your words’. Awful, patronising phrase.
But that's the intention of it. It's meant to be patronising because it's used as a way to tell someone they are behaving like a child and need to grow up and speak up.

"The floor needs swept"

That’s the only way we say it in NI, with the implication that the whole sentence would be ‘the floor needs to be swept’. Are we all wrong?

Anyone mentioned Amazeballs yet?

famalam
hollibobs
making memories
living your best life
hubby
my tribe

basically all twee shit used to show off family stuff 🤣

I once ghosted a man for writing om nom nom in a text message to me. Disgusting.

"without further ado" or any variation with the word ado. It winds me up every time, because I hear it constantly at work

Forever home 🤢