Local speech that drives you crazy

[Timothy]

Yeah, I'm a terrible speller. Can't find a spell check for the app on my phone and wasn't near a computer or dictionary. Starting in junior high, my English teachers always told me that some people can spell and some people can write; very few people can do both. The bad news was that I wasn't one of them. The good news was that I could write so if I kept a dictionary with me at all times I should be fine. You have no idea how much I hated hearing this.

There have been many times I've changed my phrasing online because I couldn't remember how to spell something.

I can relate with you on that one, PAG. I've been a poor speller since I wrote my first words. Spell-Check has greatly helped my spelling by pointing out the same words, over and over that I misspell. Over the years, fewer and fewer of them appear. Spell-Check is a teacher for me. There are still many that keep showing up. Like "proven". Spell checkers hate that word and won't even recognize it.

Or "Online" and "Offline" common words used today. Every spell-checker tries to hyphenate them.

 

[MSC]

Re "COOL BEANS"!
LOL, looks like purple.alien.giraffe is in a very long line of people irritated by the phrase, as according to Wiktionary, its origin goes back to the early 1700s when french trappers would exclaim "course bien", meaning "good run", and Americans changed the phrase to "cool beans". And it's had its revivals since then. the link is:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cool_beans
And while we're on the subject, I'm convinced that if the 2 words "like" and "awesome" were somehow magically removed from the English language, that we'd be pleasantly greeted by the silence of millions of mutes!

 

[Timothy]

>...I'm convinced that if the 2 words "like" and "awesome" were somehow magically removed from the English language, that we'd be pleasantly greeted by the silence of millions of mutes!

Like, it's awesome you pointed that out! Ha!

Please add "Uh" to the removals...

 

[MSC]

Like, it's awesome you pointed that out! Ha!

Please add "Uh" to the removals...

Consider it removed!

 

[roadfix]

being addressed as 'bro'

 

[vitauta]

My irritants are more the attitudes people adopt than the words they use. Like a person who will argue out of habit. Regardless of what you say, they argue or point out some obscure manner in which you can be proven wrong.

You say; "It's a beautiful day" and they say; "There are millions of people suffering right this second who think this is a crappy day".

That type of thing.

Another type of attitude that bothers me immensely is when someone starts a reply with "That's nothing, I have one better than that!"

What the heck? "That's nothing" ??? What I just said is "nothing"???

Or the person who tries to ridicule someone by saying; "Hellooo, didn't you understand?" What the heck is the "Hellooo" part; other than pure insult?

I could go on and on.

these are all people who have no real interest in anything you or anyone else has to say. they just want to make sure they are heard and validated. putting down other people's ideas is just one of their ways of claiming their superiority and monopolizing the conversation. these people usually have little to contribute anyway, but just keep repeating the same thing over and over again....

 

[Timothy]

Being asked "Whatcha think, huh?" and being slapped on the shoulder at the same time. Makes me want to say "It makes me think you better quit hitting me before I hit you back much harder".

 

[jusnikki]

I can't think of any local phrases or anthing right now. It drives me crazy when people say "like" a hundred times before they finish one sentence.

"Like" I told aunt sue if she didn't stop "like" trying to "like" run my life, "like" I was going to "like" stop speaking to her.

Oh I know another one.... When some is telling or explaning something and they end with "are we on the same page".... I always want to say, "well I don't know, what page were "you" on...

 

[Zhizara]

My very pet peeve is when they pronounce jewelry like: joolery.

Can't they see it is spelled jewel-ry, which refers to jewels?

Other than that, I won't even begin to explain how it's impossible to understand a heavy creole accent. I just nod and smile, and walk away muttering how some people sound like they're talking with a mouth full of mashed potatoes!

 

[joesfolk]

...or the phrase "Know what I mean?" So people use the phrase after every other sentence and after a few minutes of that it becomes downright insulting. Do they really think I don't know what they mean? Or are they just too verbally challenged to figure out how to end their sentences?

 

[CharlieD]

I think "local" speach is here to stay, no matter what we do. It's been around forever.

 

[jusnikki]

My very pet peeve is when they pronounce jewelry like: joolery.

Can't they see it is spelled jewel-ry, which refers to jewels?

Other than that, I won't even begin to explain how it's impossible to understand a heavy creole accent. I just nod and smile, and walk away muttering how some people sound like they're talking with a mouth full of mashed potatoes!

I love a creole accent. Now, don't ask me what's being said half the time but I love to hear it.

 

[vitauta]

I can relate with you on that one, PAG. I've been a poor speller since I wrote my first words. Spell-Check has greatly helped my spelling by pointing out the same words, over and over that I misspell. Over the years, fewer and fewer of them appear. Spell-Check is a teacher for me. There are still many that keep showing up. Like "proven". Spell checkers hate that word and won't even recognize it.

Or "Online" and "Offline" common words used today. Every spell-checker tries to hyphenate them.

i have always been good at spelling--nothing i ever had to work at, it just comes naturally. many words whose meaning i don't know, and never use, i could spell with ease. it's a "recognition" of sorts. if i see a word spelled incorrectly it looks wrong to me, and it can be somewhat irritating. typos in books, books that i've paid good money for, drive me crazy! spellcheck is a mixed blessing for me. i like that it picks up my typing errors, and on rare occasion, my incorrect spellings. what really surprises me though are the very many times spell check indicates a wrong spelling when the word is actually spelled correctly. in the beginning, i was just obsessive enough to look up the word in the dictionary every time it happened. 99% of the time i found that it was spell check that had it wrong. these days, if i am confident about a word and i see it underlined in red, i just ignore spell check and go with what i know. i really should start up a list of words that spell check doesn't recognize. and i know that my vocabulary is not so obscure or arcane that this should be happening, or is it?

 

[babetoo]

this one really ticks me off, i say "thank you, so much" the reply i get is "no problem" why can't they just say "you are welcome?"

 

[Andy M.]

i have always been good at spelling--nothing i ever had to work at, it just comes naturally. many words whose meaning i don't know, and never use, i could spell with ease. it's a "recognition" of sorts. if i see a word spelled incorrectly it looks wrong to me, and it can be somewhat irritating. typos in books, books that i've paid good money for, drive me crazy! spellcheck is a mixed blessing for me. i like that it picks up my typing errors, and on rare occasion, my incorrect spellings. what really surprises me though are the very many times spell check indicates a wrong spelling when the word is actually spelled correctly. in the beginning, i was just obsessive enough to look up the word in the dictionary every time it happened. 99% of the time i found that it was spell check that had it wrong. these days, if i am confident about a word and i see it underlined in red, i just ignore spell check and go with what i know. i really should start up a list of words that spell check doesn't recognize. and i know that my vocabulary is not so obscure or arcane that this should be happening, or is it?

Most spell checkers have an option to click on that adds your correct spelling (of a word that the dictionary has wrong) to the dictionary so it won't annoy you by being flagged as incorrect every time. (A run-on but correctly spelled sentence.)

 

[vitauta]

many of the words and phrases that are so irksome are simply victims of overuse. words that i used before they became hackneyed but only rarely afterward, like "humongous" and "awesome" and "draconian" have been repeated so often that they have lost the full effect of their original meanings. oh, and please stop talking about "giving back" anymore. anybody who is seriously "giving back" today is not using that tired old phony-sounding phrase.

 

[CharlieD]

In a service type of a business people will be trained to say you are welcome. I guess in the head of a person “you welcome” means that person actually did something for him/her and the “thank you” that he/she just gave was really deserved and worked for, and it was his/hers obligation to say thank you. If somebody says “no problem” that means they did not work hard for it and/or they did not mind doing it at all.

 

[Andy M.]

many of the words and phrases that are so irksome are simply victims of overuse. words that i used before they became hackneyed but only rarely afterward, like "humongous" and "awesome" and "draconian" have been repeated so often that they have lost the full effect of their original meanings. oh, and please stop talking about "giving back" anymore. anybody who is seriously "giving back" today is not using that tired old phony-sounding phrase.

Lately, it's just surreal how many times the word surreal is used by TV personalities/actors in interviews. I mean it's totally surreal, if you know what I mean. Bottom line, sometimes they even use it correctly! Am I right, or what.

 

[Timothy]

Lately, it's just surreal how many times the word surreal is used by TV personalities/actors in interviews. I mean it's totally surreal, if you know what I mean. Bottom line, sometimes they even use it correctly! Am I right, or what.

Awesome, Dude! I mean, like you really got it right! YaknowwhatImean?

 

[Dawgluver]

"Basically" drives me nuts, especially when used 5 or 6 times in as many sentences. If something is that "basic", it should be able to be condensed down to one sentence!