Posted by
cheesygrin
20 yrs ago
Agree with both your preferences (I'm from the UK, and yes, there are equally loopy phrases from there, I'm not a language purist before anyone takes it personally!). Language is a hard topic to discuss as it is forever evolving in different directions.
Just as dialects sound perfectly normal to people from the same countries, regions, even cities etc but "foreign" to everyone else, so can phrases.
If, however, I am to name a phrase that really does get to me....it is...
"Are you finished talking already"
The "Are you finished talking" can be substituted with a multitude of other options, it's the "already" that gets to me! And once you hear it once, you hear it ALL the time!
Would people please stop saying "already", already!
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* sigh *
This is what happens when a language is "exported" around the world and confirms that British colonisation was a grave error.
How unfortunate that we English not only get beaten in every sport we invented, but we also have to listen to the bastardisation (look it up if unsure of the actual meaning) of our language and have to hear utterances such as:
You've got mail... or You've gotten mail.
When we go to the party tomorrow, let's bring a bottle of wine. (There IS a difference between bring and take).
Using could of/would of instead of could have/would have.
Not knowing when to use Yours sincerely and Yours faithfully.
And the HK government's favourite, and oft-repeated, :
Use less plastic bags.
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For my money, the most annoying word - which appears to be multiplying like a gruesome bacterium "Stateside" - is "like". For some reason it seems particularly prevalent in the speech of American-born Chinese.
Here is a verbatim example uttered by an ABC woman in Wellcome yesterday:
"Like, I mean, he like, just kinda like stank".
Like, I mean this word "like", it just, like, you know, like, just kinda like bugs me.
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LOL Burgundy - I forgot that ghastly abhorrence.
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ness
20 yrs ago
We have a problem in our house with "It was real fun." I hear american broadcasters using real insteal of really all the time.
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calla
20 yrs ago
how about "actually"? it's so over-used that the meaning is almost redundant...
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calla: How can the meaning of word be redundant? Sorry to be pedantic, but since this actually is a thread on proper language, I am not inclined to let that one pass… "Whose house is of glass..."
Actually, a better example of a frequently misused term is "literally", which these days often takes the place of "figuratively" (its antonym).
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calla
20 yrs ago
beachball, the meaning of words can be redundant when used inappropriately or repeated in the same sentence (using different words that have the same meaning ie. Personal PIN number) . I often hear "actually" being used for no particular reason when speaking to the locals..
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waffle> "Less bubbles" is wrong. Although hard to do, bubbles are countable. "Less gas" would be correct but doesn't sound so attractive. So you are correct to think "less bubbles" is wrong.
HK's tv channels are a hoot. Remember when they would announce a programme, usually a sporting event, would be broadcast "Live" when it was recorded "live" and then later broadcast.
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Oh dear, it's akin to nails scraping down a blackboard.
The phrase "begs the question" is rarely used correctly these days and is used incorrectly to mean "raise the question". One would not say "beg your hand" instead of "raise your hand". So I don't understand why anyone would use it this way...
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I have never heard "beg your hand" to mean "raise your hand". When was it widely used in this way?
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"Begs the question" is an interesting one. It is one of those that is misused so often that one could argue its accepted meaning has changed (in the same way that even the OED has been forced to acknowledge that "disinterested" can now mean "uninterested").
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cd
20 yrs ago
To Calla and Jodie, I agree with 'actually'. Nearly every local thats interviewed on Radio 3 starts their reply with actually, it has me fuming whilst driving along listening to Backchat.
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Flesh> Not splitting hairs. It's just that I have never heard "beg your hand" used to mean "raise your hand", either used widely or widely used. Only trying to learn me (sic) something.
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Even when used correctly, "homosexual" is almost always mispronounced these days. As Burgundy correctly points out, it comes from the Greek term for “the same” and, hence, is pronounced with short “O“ sounds and rising intonation (as in homogenous).
calla: A word can be redundant (if it adds no value because what it communicates is already clear in the specific context), the meaning of it cannot be.
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TC> A mere slip of the p caused while multi-tasking.
Flesh> So none the wiser as to why you mentioned it... or what it means - hardly a page with the phrase "beg your hand" in Google.
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