9 Words and Phrases You’re Probably Using Wrong

[RoosGirl]

https://hbr.org/2018/10/9-words-and-phrases-youre-probably-using-wrong

9 Words and Phrases You’re Probably Using Wrong

by Ross and Kathryn Petras

Many times, especially in business settings, people use words that they think they know — but don’t. Although they do this in an effort to sound intelligent and sophisticated, it backfires badly, because even one small slip-up can cause an audience to focus on only that, not the speaker’s ideas. Sure, saying the wrong word (usually) isn’t a game-changer. But if you make that kind of mistake, it sets you up for a question that no one wants clients, coworkers, or employers to begin asking: “Are you really that smart?”

Think it can’t happen to you? We’ve heard horror stories: people laughing behind a prominent CEO’s back for his not understanding the correct use of a business term; a corporate lawyer saying “tenant” (a renter) instead of “tenet” (a belief); an employee toasting her supervisor as the “penultimate” leader (which doesn’t mean “ultimate” but instead means “next to last”).

Continued at link.

[corbe]

   I am quite guilty of abusing all of them.

[RoosGirl]

Someone I know was using the word "supposeNly" in place of "supposeDly". 

[240B]

Oviously
Ek-spearmint
Uh-mergency Uh-mediately Uh-fficient (basically, any word that begins with 'e' or 'i' can be replace with 'Uh')
Did you see that? Yes, I seen it!

I could write a hundred of these.

If I worried about this stuff, I would make myself crazy. I have learned to just, Let it go.

The fastest way on Earth to make a new enemy is to correct someone's English.

[Frank Cannon]

Someone I know was using the word "supposeNly" in place of "supposeDly". 

Your wrong about that.

[RoosGirl]

Your wrong about that.

Someone else I know uses the word "your" in place of "you're".  So bleep annoying.

[RoosGirl]

Oviously
Ek-spearmint
Uh-mergency Uh-mediately Uh-fficient (basically, and word that begins with 'e' or 'i' can be replace with 'Uh')
Did you see that? Yes, I seen it!

I could write a hundred of these.

If I worried about this stuff, I would make myself crazy. I have learned to just, Let it go.

The fastest way on Earth to make a new enemy is to correct someone's English.

I think if you know how to gently tell someone they're a bleep up, like I do, then it's safe to correct them.

[Sanguine]

I think if you know how to gently tell someone they're a bleep up, like I do, then it's safe to correct them.

Your always gentle. 

 

[Frank Cannon]

Someone else I know uses the word "your" in place of "you're".  So bleep annoying.

Yew're wrong about that.

[RoosGirl]

Your always gentle. 

 

[RoosGirl]

Yew're wrong about that.

I don't think those grow in Florida.

[Frank Cannon]

I don't think those grow in Florida.

Orange you glad about that?

[Sanguine]

Orange you glad about that?

Osage oranges?

[RoosGirl]

Osage oranges?

Leave it to you to bring monkey balls into this conversation.

[RoosGirl]

Orange you glad about that?

You just have to make everything about Trump, don't you?

[Sanguine]

Leave it to you to bring monkey balls into this conversation.

I do what I can.

[Frank Cannon]

Osage oranges?

Had to look that one up.

[Frank Cannon]

One word I find being misused all the time on the forum is "Bumfuzzle". It has nothing to do with a wino's beard.

[RoosGirl]

One word I find being misused all the time on the forum is "Bumfuzzle". It has nothing to do with a wino's beard.

fo schizzle

[Sanguine]

One word I find being misused all the time on the forum is "Bumfuzzle". It has nothing to do with a wino's beard.

Says who?

[Frank Cannon]

Says who?

Don't let YOUR kakorrhaphiophobia nature keep you from learning new things. Pick up a Funk and Wagnall and find out what it really means.

[Sanguine]

Don't let YOUR kakorrhaphiophobia nature keep you from learning new things. Pick up a Funk and Wagnall and find out what it really means.

Ah,  got you all hot and bumfuzzled. huh?

[Cyber Liberty]

9 Words and Phrases You’re Probably Using Wrong Incorrectly

 

[Axeslinger]

IRREGARDLESS

Makes me want to put an ice pick in my eardrums.  If something is without regard (regardless), how can it be without without regard?!?

[Gefn]

Personally, I dislike it when people say “axe” instead of “ask” but I realize with accents, dialects and the like, people don’t speak the Queen’s English anymore.

I am probably one of the few people in America who use the word “zed” instead of “zee”.

Curses for being an English major!

[Texas Yellow Rose]

Personally, I dislike it when people say “axe” instead of “ask” but I realize with accents, dialects and the like, people don’t speak the Queen’s English anymore.

That's like fingernails on a blackboard to me.  Elementary school teachers forbid anyone in our classes to say axe instead of ask for 6 years. 

[Sanguine]

Personally, I dislike it when people say “axe” instead of “ask” but I realize with accents, dialects and the like, people don’t speak the Queen’s English anymore.

I am probably one of the few people in America who use the word “zed” instead of “zee”.

Curses for being an English major!

I had to look that up, @Freya.  Zed?  Zee?  Maybe it's Dutch?   

[ConstitutionRose]

That's like fingernails on a blackboard to me.  Elementary school teachers forbid anyone in our classes to say axe instead of ask for 6 years.

At one time I managed a testing and quality control lab.  There was a particularly annoying female with one business group who had many bad habits not the least of which was saying, "Can I axe you a question?"   My answer was "No, but you may ASK me a question."   After a time, it became a joke, what is now called a meme, for everyone save the annoying female. 

[DCPatriot]

Have realized more than a few times, how lucky I was to have been taught in a parochial Catholic school system.

From the age of five in kindergarten, the Sisters of Mercy taught us reading, writing and arithmetic but also pride in being an American youth...encouraging us in Boy Scouts, etc..

Then the Franciscans and Jesuits took over.

Thankfully, by the time they got me, I was a Barry Goldwater enthusiast.

Strangely, the most effective English teacher was a lay teacher.  A flamboyant queen of a man named Mr. Driscoll. 

If you turned in any papers with 'promise', he would ride your ass (figuratively, of course)   There were no C or B students.   

Either an A, or you were taking shop the next year. 

[austingirl]

I really cringe with the misuse of "myself" is place of I or me. 

[TomSea]

Mute point, Moot point, I've noted that. I wasn't aware of the meaning of "moot", I am now.

[LilLamb]

Using advice for advise or ideal for idea are two things I see a lot and it makes me crazy.

[RoosGirl]

I've noticed a lot of "sale" in place of "sell" lately. 

[GtHawk]

   I am quite guilty of abusing all of them.

My son has a Masters in English, so sometimes when he say something to irritate me I will as many grammatical errors as possible just to get back at him. He has at least relaxed in his corrections. I once asked him if his non English major friends called him a grammar nazi too.

[Silver Pines]

I love this type of thread and I could list a fifty misuses that bug me, but I'll just go with "wa-la" for "voila." 

[Frank Cannon]

I love this type of thread and I could list a fifty misuses that bug me, but I'll just go with "wa-la" for "voila."

What? Who the hell even uses the word voila much less misspells it? You hanging around with Magicians?

[Sanguine]

What? Who the hell even uses the word voila much less misspells it? You hanging around with Magicians?

Most of us do hang with a different type of people than you do, Frank. 

[Frank Cannon]

Most of us do hang with a different type of people than you do, Frank.

I'm seeing that. I had thought Midway Freak Shows were a thing of the past, but apparently not.

[goodwithagun]

Someone else I know uses the word "your" in place of "you're".  So bleep annoying.

.

[RoosGirl]

.

LOL  I like that.

[RoosGirl]

I'm seeing that. I had thought Midway Freak Shows were a thing of the past, but apparently not.

! No longer available

[aligncare]

In Brooklyn we compress sentences.

Such as: Jaeet? No, djew?  Translation: Did you eat? No, did you?

And the well known: Fuhgeddaboudit. No translation needed.

 

[Silver Pines]

What? Who the hell even uses the word voila much less misspells it? You hanging around with Magicians?

Lmao

I've seen people do that a dozen times.  It's maddening.

[jmyrlefuller]

9 Words and Phrases You’re Probably Using Wrong Incorrectly

 

Good catch.

[RoosGirl]

Lmao

I've seen people do that a dozen times.  It's maddening.

Tout le monde devrait être obligé de prendre le Français juste pour savoir comment épeler le mot "voila".

[240B]

This is silly but one of the most annoying phrases in common use today is:
Where are you at? Why not just, Where are you? What does the 'at' add to the question?
And his brother:
Where are you going to? vs. Where are you going?

The most confounding thing about these usages is that it defies the normal construct of 'path of least resistance'. It is unusual for people to 'add' a word to a sentence specifically to make the sentence wrong. The normal case is to omit words to make the sentence simpler. I don't know? I don't get it?

I've worked with people who have never said, Where are you? without adding 'at' in their life. I'm not sure they even know that it works that way.

A guy a work told me once, 'I could care less!' So I told him, 'OK, do it! Knock yourself out. Go ahead and care as less as you want. If you could care less, you don't have to hold back for me.'

Never will forget the look on his face. Once he figured out what I was saying, just a look of complete surprise came over him. He raised a finger to come back with something, then he huffed away. That ended the conversation. So many people don't think logically about what they are saying or the words they use.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

This is silly but one of the most annoying phrases in common use today is:
Where are you at? Why not just, Where are you? What does the 'at' add to the question?
And his brother:
Where are you going to? vs. Where are you going?

The most confounding thing about these usages is that it defies the normal construct of 'path of least resistance'. It is unusual for people to 'add' a word to a sentence specifically to make the sentence wrong. The normal case is to omit words to make the sentence simpler. I don't know? I don't get it?

I've worked with people who have never said, Where are you? without adding 'at' in their life. I'm not sure they even know that it works that way.

A guy a work told me once, 'I could care less!' So I told him, 'OK, do it! Knock yourself out. Go ahead and care as less as you want. If you could care less, you don't have to hold back for me.'

Never will forget the look on his face. Once he figured out what I was saying, just a look of complete surprise came over him. He raised a finger to come back with something, then he huffed away. That ended the conversation. So many people don't think logically about what they are saying or the words they use.

Ever wonder why on all the cop shows they say "GSW" instead of "gun shot wound", even though it takes more syllables?

Well, you will now.