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.

'plenty more fish in the sea' - seriously, how is that going to help ANYONE going through a breakup?

oh absolutely

Literally is usful in some contexts.

For example if someone says 'I literally pissed myself laughing' I assume that a change of underwear was in order.

Otherwise it's just a turn of phrase.

Jux - my husband says 'aren't' in entirely the wrong context i.e. "I aren't hungry..'WTF? WHich could be grounds for divorce

Friend also says 'pacifically' instead of specifically which is very very annoying

FIL says learnt instead of taught i.e. "I learnt him how to do this"

Now I am talking about intelligent people here so WTF can they not grasp simple basics????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'er' and 'um' especially when being used constantly by someone being interviewed.

instead of 'he said' "he was like" followed by some like Durrr brain gesture, and instead of she said "she was like" and instead of I said "I went..."

I haven't read the whole thread, but 'gotten' is just American and as far as I know, acceptable there. It was an old version of the past tense, which stayed on in America and died out in the UK. I use it because I grew up in America, so there.

I don't like 'he turned around and said 'X', then she turned round and said something'. It makes me dizzy listening to all that turning around.

I also don't like 'know what I mean?'.

Gentle otter your post reminded me of being a young 17 yr old out for the night - whilst waiting for my mates a bloke came by and asked 'are you doing business?' now as I was working at the local chippy I innocently replied 'No we shut early we ran out of fish....' poor bloke!!!

plonker - the "have your cake and eat it" is wrong in the phrasing rather than the content - it means you can't eat your cake and still have it in your hand, you either have to eat it or keep it in your hand.

I hate with a passion "cheer up love, it might never happen". I had someone say it to me when my brother had died. And even if there was nothing wrong - I'm not on this planet to be decorative for you, dickhead, perhaps I was deep in thought.
And Breathe.

Oh another one -

How are you spelling that?

Well, my name is Jane and today I'm spelling it zquerynbte but tomorrow it might be something different

Chillax (or however they spell it) - can't stand that and other invented words.

Also when Gok Wan refers to the women he barely knows as 'girlfriend' my teeth make involuntary grinding noises.

I'm fairly sure it was John Major, in a really important crisis, who said,

''When you're backed into a corner, you turn round and come out fighting..."

That's when you turn round, is it?

Many Mumsnetters on AIBU conclude their posts with a dogmatically expressed opinion followed by, "End of."

Funnily enough, the thread continues...

Do they then reflect that their moronic sign-off wasn't quite as conclusive as they might have thought?

End of.

"he/she knows which side their bread is buttered"

"jesus wept"

"f*ck a duck"

and it generally irritates me when I call someone and they tell me they cant talk right now.... don't answer the phone and let me leave you a message.

I do have one more disgusting phrase which I wish I had never heard, it's truly revolting and turns my stomach; " fanny batter"

Sidge - my name is as normal as Jane and I get asked all the time 'How are you spelling that?' and I too think... well maybe xioifdfk today... but then, having looked at the coat pegs in LO's school... maybe it is actually (actually! LOL) a reasonable question these days? (BTBH most people asking are come across as so bloody thick I think not!).

Chillax annoys me - does anything but make me relax!!

Mind you, I'm clearly guilty of saying a lot of things that annoy other posters, so I'll leave it at that....

slopes off......

'colourways' - it's just criminal

'if you like/will' - often used by media pundits trying to seem intellectual on BBC2 or Radio 4, worst of all when used in conjunction with the hand signal for inverted commas eg. 'the meeting between the two politicians was a clash of the titans, if you like'. Arrrgh! Whether I like your phraseology or not is irrelevant - you're not going to un-say it just because I'm yelling at the TV are you!

'as I say' - preceding or following much of what my mother says in a conversation, just in case the pearls of wisdom didn't sink in the first eight times.

'Hi-ii' - said repeatedly, as in me:'Hi', MIL: 'Hi-ii', me: 'Hi', MIL: 'Hi-ii', me: 'Stop saying Hi-ii and lets move on to the next part of the conversation eh, MIL?'

'then I turned around and said' - I loathe it but it does make me laugh. I have a friend who says it all the time and while she is doing so I have an image in my mind of her in a dodgy 80s soap, with the protagonists marching past one another and then swivelling their shoulder pads and flicking their blow drys as they argue.

Next are terrible for that Colourway nonsense! They also invented the colour 'stone' which would have been grey in my mind, but when Next say stone they mean pale beige.

Almost all management speak - bleugh

MsMB - quite agree. Also the fancy pants names they give paint colours on the colour charts ..

Stone! How the hell is 'stone' a colour ffs?

iam a hairdresser and many of my annoying clients say things that piss me off daily!!... ie. 'and all that jazz!!'

'ah bless' (has to be the worst)
'totally lush' (gavin and stacey which i love but hate that everyone says this now!)
'random' v. annoying
'coolio' my friend always adds this into a txt and i could scream!
i no its been said 'but at the end of the day' is so cringing

'on the other hand' is another.
ok will stop cos i could go on and on,

oh one more i hate that my bf says things twice to our daughter ie u want bic bic, bot bot, din dins! she can talk better than him and she 19mnths! hahaahah

My mother also says 'day-cor' (decor) when she's talking about the inside of someone's house, usually critically, as in 'I thought the day-cor left much to be desired'. I know it's close to being correct pronunciation for a loan word and she's only been married to a (half) Frenchman for 40 years, but for some reason it REALLY annoys me.

@ flossie: and breathe..!!

Wilki - my dh says 'aren't' as well, it drives me insane.

I can't stand it when people use the words myself or yourself as substitutes for the words me and you. Aaaargh!

And also pointlessly adding "at all" onto the end of questions - "would you like cashback at all?" Yes, I would partially like cashback. It makes no sense!