to get wound up by a completely harmless phrase?and what phrases/sayings get your goat

[mayorquimby]

i know on the spectrum of tragedies this falls solidly on the unimportant end, but still what is life without trivial annoyances?

the phrase? it'e when people say "i personally..."
i mean why put in the personally? obviously if you preface your statement or belief with "I" it is clear to me that you are about to express your views or personal beliefs.

so what things that people say wind you up?

cheap at half the price is another.
and also the americanisation of "i couldn't care less" to "i could care less" because to me it no longer makes sense.

i'm beginning to think i am doomed to spend a jack dee like existence getting pissed off about tribvial things people do and say which have no bearing on the state of the world and which i could easily ignore and live a happier life.

Random and unnecessary "me" at the end of a sentence ...

"I can't eat those, me" or "I don't like that, me"

Drives me craze and I say it too!!

I also have that dumbass expression that 'you can't have your cake and eat it' - what is the fucking point of the fucking cake if you can't fucking well EAT it!!!

Arrrrgghhhhhh

A few phases bother me but spelling annoys me much more. I got a message on Facebook starting 'I carnt'... CARNT!?! As in can't, now that is annoying!

less instead of fewer

"torched" instead of burned

"absoLUTEly"

crazy

and hate not have grrrr

...you see how angry it gets me

borrow instead of lend and vice versa
ie. can you borrow me your pen?/can I lend your ruler?

also hate use of "myself" when they mean "me" or "I" - a woman I used to work with used to say this all the time and somehow thought she sounded more formal and "proper" by doing so

IF I WANTED FRIES WITH THAT I WOULD HAVE F ING ASKED FOR THEM!!!!

"I'm not being funny but..." makes me CRINGE. In my job I hear it several times a day and in context it usually means the caller is about to complain about something petty, KNOWS they're about to complain about something petty, and wants to mitigate their own pettiness! I know you're not being funny, because you're not Russell Howard, and if you were I'd be laughing right now.

Putyoursockson:

"Saw recently someone posting on Times website that whenever a call centre worker said 'bear with me' he would always reply 'has it gone yet?'"

I think that's a bit cruel, call centre workers are severely whipped if they allow long periods of silence so they have to drop meaningless phrases that they can say without thinking if the enquiry's taking a while. Calling them on it can really break their concentration!

I remember taking enormous offence at a council man (we were having a spat about the state of the graveyard where my entire family are buried) when he said we would "Have to suck it and see".
Now, I had never heard this term before and as it was just he and I in the graveyard, I thought he was trying his hand.
I told him I was sucking nothing and did he know my Granny was watching him over his shoulder....

I haven't read the thread so may be repeating but:

"I turned around and said...", usually followed by, "and he turned around and said...", "so I turned around and said..." Really? You were both turning around? Actually spinning on the spot? No, I didn't think so.

Also mispronunciations- prolly, for probably. Should/could/would/must of instead of should/could/would/must have. Hospiccle, instead of hospital.

Grr

when something difficult must be endured...."I just had to suck it up". Awful mental imagery.

less instead of fewer...

CNN says "this news will IMPACT you wherever you are" arrgh. Have visions of a big lump of news smacking into someone's face and knocking them unconscious. The word you are looking for is AFFECT. and that leads me on to people who can't do affect/effect.

Particularly beloved of unpleasant women on Jerry Springer-type shows-

"I'm all that"

-usually accompanied by them standing up and wriggling around a bit.

Always makes me want to say "No, you're not all that, whatever 'that' is. In fact, you're not even a little bit of that."

And not a phrase, but a word- vulnerable, pronounced vunnerable. There's an L in there, use it, fgs.

Two people where I work say "one pounds fifty"
It takes all my self control not to grab them and shout "it is a single it doesn't need an s"
Makes me thinking about it

Another vote for "Do you know what I mean?".

My MIL says it about every eight seconds, always after something that is glaringly obvious. I never know whether she really wants to know what

And, at work, "going forward".

cupoftea, I'm guilty of the turning around thing. Sorry

Oops.

That should be

"I never know whether she's really asking if I know what she means, or if it's just a verbal tic"

DH is completely shocked and stunned that he is not the only DH in the world who trots out ''while you're down there'' at fequent intervals

I am on the point of divorcing dh because he will say "no not for me" when I offer tea/coffee. I have tried to break him of the habit, by responding "well, would you like one for someone else?" but it doesn't work.

(He also has started saying 'reckernise' instead of 'recognise' which imo is also grounds for divorce; it'll be 'skellington' next or 'chimbley'!)

"cheap at half the price" bugs me because it's WROOOOOONG. It should be "cheap at twice the price" because it means that even if it were 2x what the price is now, you would still consider it cheap. Cheap at half the price is mind-destroying nonsense.

argh

"Right Guys" said to a mixed group, it is insulting to the females to be talked to as men we are not. Guy is male.

In fact if a mixed group were addressed as "right Sally's" I bet the men would complain about being called Sally yet woman put up with this crap.

There got that of my chest

"Dad, would you like some more tea/coffee/wine/anything?" "If you've got some" - aaarhg, I am offering it, so OBVIOUSLY I still have some, just say yes, please, or no, thank you!

Putting on my pedant's anorak for the moment, I think 'racialism / racialist' is a word. It's a bit of a throwback to the powell era to use it interchangeably with racism though. Looking at the dictionary definition it seems more appropriate for systematic differentiation between races ("e.g. the South African government of the 1980s was racialist") rather than individual prejudice.

dictionary.reference.com/browse/racialist

and ''tea? Coffee?''

My Mother: ''Whatever you're making''

They both involve adding hot water into a cup. It's hardly a big deal. Just make a frickin' decision, will you!

Another one here who cannot stand anyone saying "Can I get" instead of "have". It's ignorant, stupid and so WRONG! Even writing this post makes me annoyed thinking about the stupid people who say this! And don't get me started on the use of "brought" instead of "bought".

"years of age" - always an entirely redundant phrase