Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

[Philosophia]

Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

Heading the list was the expression 'at the end of the day', which was followed in second place by the phrase 'fairly unique'.

The tautological statement "I personally" made third place – an expression that BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphreys has described as "the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice."

Also making the top 10 is the grammatically incorrect "shouldn't of", instead of "shouldn't have".

From here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/debates/3394545/Oxford-compiles-list-of-top-ten-irritating-phrases.html).

With all due respect, what are your least liked "irritating phrases"? At the end of the day, I personally find it all fairly unique, though it's a nightmare 24/7. It's not rocket science but it shouldn't of been at this moment in time.

Absolutely. :smile:

[ignescentphoenix]

Half the phrases are a little irksome, but I use the other ones frequently.

I guess it is a sign.:toofless:

[spiral]

Haha, I have a friend who is constantly saying 'six and a half a dozen' and it really irritates me.

I don't particularly like 'give over'. I used to hate 'my bad' but I hear it so often that I've gotten used to it now, and *gasp* sometimes say it myself without thinking.

'That's hot' makes me grind my teeth...

[aranarose]

None of those phrases particularly irritate me.

I hate the fillers. Uh... and... like... you know... okay then...

[Lessarey]

when a guy says "good times", makes my skin crawl.

[RainInanna]

What about "Mommy, what are you doing... what are you doing, Mommy. Mommy, are you doing something? Why, Mommy? Mommy, what are you doing".

Oh wait, maybe that's just at my house :P

[Annest]

What about "Mommy, what are you doing... what are you doing, Mommy. Mommy, are you doing something? Why, Mommy? Mommy, what are you doing".

Oh wait, maybe that's just at my house :P
Well, I have that in my house too...:smileroll

[Glowy]

"Wha'sup.. "- that makes me crazy. I would love to respond "Clearly your inability say a simple contraction"

[Thunder]

What about "Mommy, what are you doing... what are you doing, Mommy. Mommy, are you doing something? Why, Mommy? Mommy, what are you doing".

Oh wait, maybe that's just at my house :PMy baby is 22 now ans I actually tear up thinking of that little voice........ best days of my life.

[Thunder]

"Wha'sup.. "- that makes me crazy. I would love to respond "Clearly your inability say a simple contraction"Actually, sweet thing, Wha'sup IS the contraction. :bigredgri

[Annest]

My baby is 22 now ans I actually tear up thinking of that little voice........ best days of my life.
:hugz: The worst part is that they seem to grow up so fast.

[Thunder]

What gets me going is hearing people who speak for a living doing such a poor job of it. I cringe when a guest on a radio program responds to "Thank You" with "Thank You".......... Where the hell were these people raised... the response is " you're welcome".

Another is the use of the word "an". It isn't "An historical election" it is "A historical election" An is only used in front of words that begin with a vowel SOUND... that is why it is an honor... the h is silent and the word begins with a short "o" sound.

Finally...(for now) is pronouncing the word "our" as if it were spelled ARE. Our is pronounced the same as Hour... in fact the "H" in hour is silent... that should have been their first hint. AAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGGG.

[Bluewillow]

"A'ight" and "my bad" are the first two that come to mind. I'll have to give this some thought. :weirdsmil

[RainInanna]

My baby is 22 now ans I actually tear up thinking of that little voice........ best days of my life.

That's sweet. Thank you for the reminder that I'll miss it someday :)

[Rowan Darkmoon]

None of those phrases particularly irritate me.

I hate the fillers. Uh... and... like... you know... okay then...

Those irritate me too.

Thunder -- I kind of like when radio speakers say "Thank you" in response to the person saying "Thank you." When they say, "You're welcome" I interpret that as pompous. :lol: I agree it's not a correct usage though, although I often hear it most akin to a "Thank you"/"No thank you" kind of thing.

[halfwaynowhere]

One that irks me the most is "no offense but". Didn't make the list, though.
And online, seeing "should of" really bugs me... It just doesn't make sense... Its like, you could say "I have done this" or "I could have done this". But you wouldn't say "I of done this" so why say "I could of done this"? At least when people are actually talking, if they say "could of", it sounds like "could've" which is an acceptable usage of the words.

[Rowan Darkmoon]

Along those lines, halfwaynowhere, I HATE when someone says, "I not (fill in racist, sexist, classist, etc...) but" and then they say something that defines them as being when they said that they were not.

Just becasue you say you're not something, doesn't mean that you aren't if you feel that way!! :flamer:

[teishabee]

Im hating the phrase 'we'll work something out.'

My fiancee alwasy says this when I have a question.

It annoys me!!!!!! I need answers answers Im telling you!!:toofless:

[RainInanna]

A former boss who was, uh, shall we say, expressive.. passionate.. ok, plain ol' tempermental.. used to often talk about "presenting" "exercises" (as in, why don't you pree-zent a report on X, Y, Z, A, B, and C, and we'll see what this exercise shows us). And a manager there would say "woulda, shoulda, coulda" when she was reprimanding me for screwing up (as in, so you woulda shoulda coulda done X instead of Y). So those still make me wince. It's not so much the phrase as the "going to have a piano dropped on my head now" feeling I get when I hear it.

Also, "and we're laughin'". Another problematic boss used to say that all the time. Twitch, twitch.

[Cassie]

I hate the phrase "Give it up for _____________", meaning a round of applause for...

[Convallaria]

I hate "True that." Is it so hard to say "That's true"?

[Sage Rainsong]

I hate the phrase, "I gave it 110%."

[Thunder]

I hate the phrase, "I gave it 110%."especially since this usually means "I didn't fall asleep while I was doing it".

[CoolJ]

I can't think of a single phrase that inherently annoys me.

[WynterWynd]

"In my humble opinion"
That one drives me crazy when it it used to cover up an opinion that isn't humble at all. When a person uses it to cover up a rude ass chewing.

The over use of any one word. My neighbor is stuck on the word 'stunning' right now. Everything is stunning, her christmas tree will be stunning, her mothers house is stunning.

A few more stunnings from her and I may have to show her there are other definitions for that word :smash:
But this one is more of a peeve on my part:hehehehe:

[Phoenix]

Being a teacher, I could probably write a book on the irritating things that kids say. As people have mentioned the "um's" and "likes" are at the top of the list. Along with MSN speak (brb, ttyl, lol) either said outloud or typed in essays. And the number one, most irritating word, more than anything else in the English Language, so much so that I have banned it from my classroom is "DUDE!. I don't think that there is anything that makes you sound more ignorant than starting an argument with "But dude..."

On a positive note, a few years ago I was teaching the Julius Caesar to a grade 11 class and they started playing with the shakespearan language. For example if one kid got worked up or upset someone else would say "calmeth thyself". I thought that was just cute!

[Terra Mater]

"It's all good" and "whatever"

It is most definately not all good; if you think it is then you are in serious denial.

Whatever? As in "whatever you say doesn't matter to me".

Both phrases are almost guaranteed to get me throwing large heavy sharp objects across the room.

[Willow Rosette]

The word aint drives me nuts!!!

[Iris]

One that really gets me is one I hear at work all the time...here it is in a sentence.

"Can you action that email please?"

Uh, no. I can't. No really, I actually grammatically can't, because that's NOT A FRICKING VERB!!

ETA oh, and when people say 'literally' and don't mean it. As in "This backache is literally killing me." OH NOES! Someone call an ambulance!

[)O( ~ Khara~ )O(]

Wachoo...

It makes me nuts. As in 'Wachoo sayin?' Instead of "What are you saying?"

Another that never really bothered me until recently is "Where you at?" or sorta pronounced "Where y'at?" Now this, when I was growing up, is something I heard all of the time. It wasn't asking where I was physically, it was just asking "how are you?" Now it's the way people ask where you physically are and it makes me a bit nuts...

I know there are a whole bunch more, but they don't come to mind right now.

[WitchJezebel]

None of the phrases really bother me. I don't like the overuse of the word "like" in just everyday conversation. I mostly hear it from teenagers here in NYC, but it drives me batty. It takes some of these kids 20 minutes to tell a 2 paragraph story.

The one thing. The one thing that makes me want to hurt somebody is when 'not actually a word', irregardless is used. I huging HATE it when people say it trying to sound intelligent - you're NOT - you sound like an idiot.