Yet another linguistic pet peeve thread

My linguistic peeve of the day:

I don't like the use of the word zero for an amount, as in "zero interest". Zero is a numeral, not a number. A numeral is a symbol. A number is a concept. What's wrong with saying "no interest"?

Please add your peeves to the list.

and other redundancies.

my employer (formerly called Bell Atlantic) built a corporate building known as the Bell Atlantic tower. Inevitably, people began calling it the BAT tower.

So, why do we say "ATM Machine"?

Actually, I find it reassuring despite the fact that it is redundant. Let me explain. These days when everything is being initialized (is that a word?) I'm glad that people aren't speaking in initials and acronyms all the time. Imagine poeple going around saying "There's a ATM (automatic teller machine) around the corner but I can't find my MAC (money access card) and I've forgotten my PIN" (personal identifation number). I think that some people have just struck a balance between talking in so many acronyms on the one hand and sounding very stilted and technical on the other: money access card, personal identification number, etc. If one were to simply say PIN to someone who wasn't familiar with the term that person would be completely lost but if you said PIN number (even though it's redundant) at least the person you were speaking to would know that you were talking about a number of some kind.

its either "i gotta go to the ATM" or "i gotta go to the cash machine"......

when people spell y'all as ya'll. Drives me nuts. :)

Ya'll is not a contraction. You can't contract a pronoun with an adjective. Ya'll is a phonetic representation, based on the predominate way the word is pronounced.

Sigh. Guess you gotta be from Dixie.

....why the apostrophe at all then?

What's it called, the hitch in your sound. That's where you phonetically break the sound from "Ya" to "ll." You do the same thing transliterating Arabic to English script.

There are glottal stops in Arabic that are transliterated as apostrophes.

Anyway, "y'all" doesn't have any phonetic breaks. It's pronounced "yall," rhymes with "mall." :)

OK, now I'm getting steamed about this!! :hurts:

Y'all is a CONTRACTION for "You All," therefore it's "Y'all."

What is so difficult about that concept?!?

:arg: :argh:

Not directed at you pagerbear, but we just argue about this so many times that I feell like I'm driving in circles.

I also once repeatedly debated with a Chicago dipshit who repeated claimed that "Y'all" was singular. :crazy: :argh: :nuke:

I am from Dixie thank you very much. Born and raised in northeast Texas.

And if you spell y'all as ya'll it's only because you've had your brains washed by a bunch of Yankee carpet-baggers who don't know no better. :P

That's western and Yankee, not Dixie!

what the hell you're talking about. :crazy:

Plus everyone knows it's Texans who really really use the word y'all anyway. :P

Nothing west of the Mississippi is Dixie, and we called anything north of Baton Rouge Yankee.

And most Texans I know would fight you for calling them southern. I've lived in Dallas and Austin, and they swear Texas is western, not southern.

I was born and raised in southeast Texas, and I wouldn't suggest calling my former neighbors Yankees. ;) They might take offense.

and "ya'll" bugs me too, even though you see it everywhere.

"Y'all" is short for you "you all," which I also say.

"Ya'll" makes no sense whatsoever.

For what it's worth, there's a "Florence Y'all" festival in northern Kentucky: http://www.cityofflorenceky.com/fya03/fya2003.htm. The large water tower originally said "Florence Mall." Delays in building the nearby mall led them to eventually repaint "Mall" as "Y'all," and it has stuck.

How do you spell you'uns?

the losing team is 'within 3 points' if the score is 17-14. The losing team is with 4 points or the lead of 3.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 points, but not 3. They have no concept of the idea that within means inside of. But then most of them are morons.

That drives me nuts too.

"Johnson is finally tackled, but not after he gains 15 yards."

No, it's "not BEFORE he gains 15 yeards."

Why else would a team show up for a game? :shrug:

on line.

"I'd rather be from Mars then Venus?"

Huh? Where did this come from, and why am I seeing it everywhere all of the sudden? (or is it all of "a" sudden?)

"I'd rather be from Mars than Venus." But that is another story.

It is "all of 'a' sudden."

confused...

thanks.

A mistake I've seen here and on CNN news streamer recently. Just a little peeve..

as "Canada Geese".

I hate that! It's redundant.

What would a woman give birth to? An adult girl?

uh no, it's "I COULDN'T care less"!!!!!

When are people going get that right? :mad:

That one drives me crazy!

And almost no one gets it right. :grr:

I figure. But this one makes no sense...how hard is it to figure out?

I don't get it.

(love the sig pic)

It does NOT equal compose.

Mine is when people use bigger words than necessary to sound complex or technical. Best example is using the word utilize when "use" works just as well.

And they don't mean the same thing. Use is the act or practice of employing something, utilize means "to make use of."

My ex girlfriend used to write it this way in her emails and it always bothered me. However I have seen it used all over the internet. Is this a UK or Australian equivalent? Someone please clear this up for me.

I still see this one even in published works. The word loose used to mean you didn't win. Sheesh.

A person will say," I need to loose weight," or " How much weight do you want to loose?"

Oh, god, waves of nausea, waves!

--bkl

Can you say "I'm teasing you"? I knew you could!

Just everybody else!

"You got a lot o' 'splainin' to do", when not spoken by Desi Arnaz, also has a certain nails-on-the-chalkboard effect.

--bkl

it drives me nuts when people say "I'm feeling nauseous" instead of "I'm feeling nauseated" (although since "nauseous" means causing nausea perhaps they're right since they're making me sick :puke: )

That one makes me nauseated every time.

Nope - it's green.....

A topic of conversation is not a destination!

:grr:

99% of the time (outside the insurance business), people mean the former, but use the latter. I was stunned speechless about a month ago when someone actually used "ensure" correctly, instead of "insure". Literally speechless.

That drives me crazy too. I have seen it used incorrectly so many times that I was beginning to doubt myself.

Litter is trash, wastepaper, or garbage lying scattered about. Therefore, if one were to "put litter in its place" you would not put it in a garbage can, you would toss it on the ground - since, once you've put it in a proper recepicle it is no longer litter....

;)

In reality you could only give this advice to people with 3 feet.
It should be "Better" foot forward, but that's not the saying.

It must be Clinton's fault.

A large number of people came to the party.

I thought they taught count nouns and non-count nouns in grade school. Now it's an accepted thing, and it can be found in all sorts of published matter.

Who ever thought that this little linguistic device was funny/witty/appropriate should be (insert cruel punishment involving fire ants, corn syrup and itching powder).
:grr:

This one irritates the life out of me that people repeatedly use "effect" when they should use "affect." :crazy:

It's easy. "Affect" is the verb. You "affect" the outcome. The outcome is the "effect."

...as in "to effect a change". It's just not the verb people mean in your example.

It's corporate nonspeak to "effect change". I hate it bigtime. May the grammar gods slit my throat if I ever utter such nonsense. :P

i.e. the effect

just as one guideline

no one says chicken avian (or even poultry). nor does any other fish get the repetitive name, no bass fish, red snapper fish, etc.

it is pronounced "shaps" from the spanish "chaperras", for riding the "chaparral".

In baseball RBI is a categorical abbreviation for "run batted in", not "RUNS batted in". Like HR for home run, the plural is HRs, the 'runs isn't pluralized...the HR is pluralized.

The grammar of an abbreviated phrase is irrelevant.

This drives me insane.

WHAT THE FUCK???

of otherwise bright folks who perpetually spell 'definitely' incorrectly.

people have become so lazy with saying their T's that they can't even spell right. Are we all hooked on our own horrible bullshit phonics ?

;-) it's a nice emphasis.

"with Lydia and I"
"till death do we part" ("Tilll death do us part" means "till death parts us." "Till death do we part" means "We part until our death.")

You wouldn't say "with I?" would you? "Between you and I" is not "more elegant" than "between you and me": it's an over-correction by people who are trying to prove that they know English grammar when they really don't.

The other one, which seems to be endemic to the Pacific Northwest and is starting to show up in the Midwest, is "have ate," "have drank," "have saw," "have went." (The native Midwest mistake is the opposite: "He done it." "He come here yesterday." "I seen it with my own eyes.")

Between y'all and I, some people have funny ways of talken. Some folks have better grammar then other folks. For example, I was utilizing the ATM Machine the other day, and this fellar starts talking about WMDs in Iraq. I could tell he was a freeper. Of course, I could care less what a freeper thinks. For one, freepers don't care about the environment, and they especially hate Canadian Geese (which is where I draw the line).

Well anyway, he was singin the praises of G. W. Bush. I asked him if he had any sence. I also tried to explain that Iraq was a total loose, but he wouldn't listen. His face became red in color, and he rudely told me not go there. I told him to talk to the hand. At this point in time things were getting a little heated, so I decide to leave. On my way to the car, I through my ATM receipt into the trash – you know, put litter in its place. I don't know if this will positively effect the environment, but every little bit helps. My wife recently gave birth to a baby boy, and I want to clean up the environment so something is left for my son.

Anyway, I can see I'm start'n to ramble while I'm comprising this message, and it appears that my NIC Card is becoming overheated. So, I think I'll sign off now.

Their. I think I've peeved off everyone now.

But I can't stand hearing "area-you-dight" , as in "Condoleeza Rice must be smart, because she's so area-you-dight."

Erudite. Three syllables dammit.

I am going to scream.

And also the use of the word of in sentences when have or the contraction, 've should be used as in, "We should've gone home earlier," or "We should have gone home earlier," instead of "We should of gone home earlier."

As in, "Dean is the only candidate that inspired me."

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

"Dean is the only candidate WHO inspired me."

When I see THAT mistake in the subject line, it's so annoying I rarely look at the thread.

Also, numerical abbreviations are routinely butchered. I am in my 40s, not my 40's. The decade of World War II was the '40s, not the 40's or the '40's.

I usually say, "jack shit"...and jack just left town...

I know that the word "me" is understood... but it just sounds STUPID to leave it off.

-- Allen

May I speak with Elaine?
Yes, this is HER!

or

Him and me are gonna go to the store.

Grrrr!