This is just meant to be a fun thread for the linguistic nit pickers among us.
Here’s what I mean: I was listening to an interview on the radio today, and the interviewee used the phrase “you know” about fifteen times in just a couple of minutes (then I nearly ripped the button off the radio when I switched it off).
The interviewee also began many of her sentences with the word “so,” even though there was no previous thought being referenced. From what I’ve read there's no grammatical reason not to use the word ‘so’ at the beginning of a sentence. Still, it sounds wrong (to me) when the word ‘so’ is not tying thoughts together (when used at the beginning of a sentence). And it quickly becomes annoying when overused in this way.
While ‘so’ is a versatile and useful word, some people make it an annoying word by using it at the beginning of nearly every sentence.
www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/is-starting-a-sentence-with-so-condescending
Another irritating word is “irregardless”. Again there is no rule against its use. But it’s a double-negative. The word “regardless” already has the suffix, “less”, on the end of the word. Some dictionaries list the word ‘irregardless’ but they note that it is non-standard.
So what are your pet peeves when it comes to word usage, or those over-used phrases that are quickly tossed out in place of doing the work required to express a real thought?
Here’s what I mean: I was listening to an interview on the radio today, and the interviewee used the phrase “you know” about fifteen times in just a couple of minutes (then I nearly ripped the button off the radio when I switched it off).
The interviewee also began many of her sentences with the word “so,” even though there was no previous thought being referenced. From what I’ve read there's no grammatical reason not to use the word ‘so’ at the beginning of a sentence. Still, it sounds wrong (to me) when the word ‘so’ is not tying thoughts together (when used at the beginning of a sentence). And it quickly becomes annoying when overused in this way.
While ‘so’ is a versatile and useful word, some people make it an annoying word by using it at the beginning of nearly every sentence.
www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/is-starting-a-sentence-with-so-condescending
Another irritating word is “irregardless”. Again there is no rule against its use. But it’s a double-negative. The word “regardless” already has the suffix, “less”, on the end of the word. Some dictionaries list the word ‘irregardless’ but they note that it is non-standard.
So what are your pet peeves when it comes to word usage, or those over-used phrases that are quickly tossed out in place of doing the work required to express a real thought?
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