Word use that drives you up the wall!

[jbarn]

"Can I have"...asked in a restaurant to a wait staffer, rather than "I'll have...

Why, do quite a few people ask this in such a situation?

To me, it sounds infantile.

With such a question, the questioner puts him/her self in a subservient role, when in fact it's quite the other way around.

Many moons ago, I had a British girlfriend who who ask this when dining out and I requested she stop with the dopey question.

She informed me it was the polite thing to do.

I couldn't convince her it wasn't impolite when ordering in a restaurant to start out with: "I'll have the Chateaubriand or whatever...

I always add please when ordering. Nothing wrong with courtesy. I also like to phrase instructions as requests, even in the workplace.

[jbarn]

Drives me nuts when people say "supposably". And while I know it is acceptable to do so, it irks me when people pronounce the "t" in often.

This is not a word use, but there is a saying, "you can't eat you cake and have it too". It means you cannot eat the cake, but still have it for later. Saying "you cannot have your cake and eat it too" is not only the incorrect saying, it is wrong. I certainly can have it, and eat it. In fact, that's how it is done.

Improper tense of verbs also irritates me. The use of "I seen" as in "I seen a guy's gun blow up in his hand" just makes me want to blow up.

I have tons more.

[Abraham]

jbarn,

Please, keep em coming.

They're excellent!

[Abraham]

jbarn,

I forgot to mention, I too go out of my way to be pleasant and courteous to wait staff for a number of reasons.

Foremost, it's good for the digestion, plus there's no need to be abrupt or condescending to wait staff. Ever. Saying please and thank you and no thank you doesn't cost a thing.

Secondly, anger wait staff who are bringing you your food - are you crazy...?

If the service is so egregious that you must speak up to management, better be sure no more food is coming your way.

[nightmare]

OMG

Not 15 minutes ago I heard someone say, "O.M.G." I understand typing the abbreviation, but saying the letters takes as many syllables as saying the words. Even worse, the speaker was older than 20. Maybe older than 30.

[Abraham]

Right along with O.M.G. is: "Too die for"

I'm merely annoyed when I hear either of the above uttered by a teenager, but an adult?

[Oldgringo]

I notice the frequent misuse of advice and advise. One is a noun and one is a verb. Another word issue I have is the misuse of an and a (granted, this can be somewhat tricky).

Something that really gets my goat is some lengthy rambling with no paragraphs. That tires me out and I usually give up before I get to the punch line.

Is English grammar no longer taught in the public schools?

[Oldgringo]

Right along with O.M.G. is: "Too die for"

I'm merely annoyed when I hear either of the above uttered by a teenager, but an adult?

How about, "I could care less"?

[WildBill]

Right along with O.M.G. is: "Too die for"

I'm merely annoyed when I hear either of the above uttered by a teenager, but an adult?

How about, "I could care less"?

How come people never say "I could care more"?

[Abraham]

WildBill,

They don't because it would sound idiotic, which makes "I could care less" even more perplexing in it's widespread (bone headed) use.

[Oldgringo]

WildBill,

They don't because it would sound idiotic, which makes "I could care less" even more perplexing in it's widespread (bone headed) use.

Rather than "bone headed", you reckon that 'they' don't know the difference between the two?

[WildBill]

WildBill,

They don't because it would sound idiotic, which makes "I could care less" even more perplexing in it's widespread (bone headed) use.

Rather than "bone headed", you reckon that 'they' don't know the difference between the two?

Now I am really confused.

[FML]

Right along with O.M.G. is: "Too die for"

I'm merely annoyed when I hear either of the above uttered by a teenager, but an adult?

How about, "I could care less"?

How come people never say "I could care more"?

It's easier to say "I don't care." Or more forceful expressions that can't be posted here.

[Oldgringo]

We had a yankee neighbor when we lived outside Disneyworld (imagine that) some 30 years ago who would say, "I'm going to "Wal-Marts" or "K-Marts"". Where does the "s" come from? Another one is "anyways" where does that "s" come from?

[Dragonfighter]

I sometimes wonder about flammable and inflammable both meaning the same thing, but frankly I could care less.

Ooo, Ooo! I got this one which finally came clear to me in rookie school. Flammable is any material that will burn under ordinary circumstances and when exposed to enough heat to sustain combustion. Think paper, wood, etc. Inflammable is anything with a certain volatility and will burn rapidly and hot. To be inflammable as far as DOT, NIOSH and such folks are concerned, a material under ordinary atmospheric pressure and within temperature norms offers up fumes into its container or surrounding atmosphere.

Where ordinary combustion is actually a chain of chemical reactions where the material degrades and surrenders gasses which in turn "burn" with a flame. Inflammable materials give of gasses without heating beyond normal environmental temperatures. Your gasoline, alcohols, LPG, acetone and the like come to mind.

Now, only in the English language can you cut DOWN a tree and then cut it UP. You can RAISE a barn or RAZE it to its foundation. You drive on a parkway and park in a driveway. We have one word "love" that covers the sexual, the brotherly, the affectionate and the purposeful. The Greeks on the other hand had four words defining each specific type (eros, philio, storge and agape).

Someone mentioned the need to modernize and streamline the English language. I disagree; we have already lost our ability to understand words' original meaning. We redefine them according to popular usage and in turn lose the ability to understand what authors of the past were trying to tell us. A good example is the word "adultery". What do you think of when you hear that word? Thanks to the Council(s) at Trent the word has come to mean a sexual infidelity. But it's meaning is much broader than that. When we say, "adulterate" or "adulterated" as in, "We have adulterated our food supply," we don't mean that we have been "sexually unfaithful" to it. We mean we have corrupted it. In the case of a document or contract we have made it invalid, falsified it. From the Latin to mix, pollute, falsified... So if one thinks "falsify covenant" (or break law) when they hear the word adultery; then one can see that adultery in the marriage covenant can happen long before sexual infidelity occurs.

I know it's been a rambling post but the whole push to streamline and modernize the English language (not just here) and word use robs a language, already lacking inflection, of any eloquence that remains. Let me pick on TAM, you read one of his wonderfully worded posts and set an average kid down in front of it today, I doubt he'd understand a good portion of it. I know they couldn't match it.

I say, "hashtag eloquence".