Phrases people don't say correctly

[zannafan]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:37pm

This might be a weird topic, but I was wondering what phrases do you hear people say incorrectly that drives your crazy. Right now I can think of two. The first is "for all intensive purposes" which really should be "for all intents and purposes".

Another one is "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less". Some people don't get my logic here, but bear with me...
The point of that phrase is to say that you care so little that you couldn't possibly care any less. If you could care less, then that could mean that you care either a little bit or a lot.

I hope you all don't think I'm a cynic, I just wanna know what other phrases like that you can think of, so I don't say the wrong thing in the future.

You guys ROCK! Thanks,
Nick

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:41pm

Starve a cold, feed a fever.

It's taken to mean that we should not eat when we have a cold, but pig out when we have a fever. The true meaning is that if you don't eat when you have a cold, you will be assisting the oncoming fever.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:41pm

I go crazy when President Bush pronounces the word "nuclear" as "Nucular". (Actually, I think he's dyslexic.)


Also, on TV and radio, I frequently hear the word "jewelry" pronounced as "Jew-luh-ree". Joan Rivers is the biggest offender there.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:47pm

The absolute worst, which even learned people now say (Mr. Susskind, journalist, who revealed O'Neill's reveal of Bush's A.D.D., used it on the Today show this past week):

"I feel badly." An adverb used as an adjective. You can only feel BAD, folks. Do you feel "goodly?" (Maybe Kristin Chenoweth does. But she also "specu-tates" about "meltification.") Please, please, stop feeling badly. Feel bad about using badly.

Unless you're a massage therapist, your feeling skills aren't of interest to anyone.

The other overused word: "myself," as in, "it was between him and myself." Ladies and gentlemen: there is nothing wrong with the word ME. Do not substitute "I" and do not overuse "myself" when "me" -- simple, eloquent because of its simplicity -- suffices. It is not like "ain't." Things can be between "you and me," not just "you and myself." I am not interested in your self.

Updated On: 1/18/04 at 10:47 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:51pm

Mr. Roxy drives me bonkers when he says "I and my wife...". The inverse of that phrase would be correct ("My wife and I...")

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:51pm

Look out William Safire. Your job is not safe!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:55pm

Excuse me, Gothampc...there's an English teacher in your midst.

[LadyGuenevere]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:55pm

When people say "etcetera" like "excetera."

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:57pm

(Hey, I'll take Mr. Saffire's etymology column, but only a stuffed shirt like David Brooks would usurp his holier-than-thou right wing punditry.)

Updated On: 1/18/04 at 10:57 PM

[thirdrowcenter]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 10:58pm

irregardless
oops, sorry,not a phrase Updated On: 1/19/04 at 10:58 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 11:02pm

How about the perennial "can I?" and "may I?"

After a whole year of my badgering my students about "Can I go to the bathroom?" they still don't make the correction.

Damned kids!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 11:04pm

Dollypop, if you were an English teacher, you would realize that the ellipses in your sentence are incorrect.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 11:07pm

I used to work with someone who constantly referred to the "axcillary" services in the hospital....you know, like dietary, housekeeping, etc.

I also take exception with the phrase "the lion's share". The lion's share isn't merely the largest portion, it's the whole damn thing.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 11:08pm

Bravao, 3rdrow!

How about: fewer and less! (LESS dollars is wrong. You make fewer dollars when you earn LESS salary. Folks, if there's an "s" on it, you're safer with "fewer!")

eminent,/imminent/immanent

farther/further -- only the first relates to actual distance

"he resents me going" should be "he resents MY going"

ONE THING I disagree with: "Anxious" is a perfectly okay word. I often mean "anxious" -- about my state of mind -- when spellcheck tells me I mean "eager."

Updated On: 1/18/04 at 11:08 PM

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 1/18/04 at 11:11pm

I am well, not I am good. (Well, at least most of the time...lol)

[CaTheatreGirl]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 1:43am

As a teacher, I'm always correcting my students for beginning a sentence "Me and my dad ..." and I have to bite my tongue when I hear adults saying something like, "Please join Nancy and I for dinner" in the predicate of a sentence. What's worse is when a teacher utters these phrases!

I agree with you, Dollypop, on the misuse of "Can I?" instead of "May I".

"Can I use the bathroom?"
"I don't know. Can you?"

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 6:09am

"Due to the fact that...." Fat English if I've ever heard it.

[RobbO]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 8:13am

Bite Me.

It's very important to put the emphasis on "me" when making that statement...

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 9:53am

Catheatergirl: Thank you. The "join Nancy and I" is part of that syndrome I'm describing -- the widespread belief that the word ME is never correct. As you note, even educated people say "just between you and I..." Like "feeling badly," it's bad grammar that has become acceptable to the ear from overuse.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 9:58am

One that I think is actually kind of cute and that makes me smile when I hear it is when somebody pronounces "supposedly" as "supposeably." It's just inherently funny, in my opinion.

I had a high school English teacher who drilled into our brains that we mustn't use the word "hopefully," as in, "Everything will work out, hopefully." In the few years since (ahem) practically every person who speaks English has taken to using it. It's ingrained now.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 11:29am

There are two things that my students say that never fail to drive me crazy. One is when they use "coversating". For example, when I see two students who look like they are about to fight and I intervene they often say "oh it's nothing, we were just conversating." I'm pretty sure this will actually become a word soon and be added to the dictionary.
My other problem is "shrimps." As in "I'm going to go to the fish store and get some shrimps for lunch." The plural of shrimp is shrimp! I always correct them when they make these two mistakes but I fear I am having little impact.

[zannafan]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 11:36am

I might not be totally correct on this, but I feel it is ok to say "I feel badly" Feel is a verb and badly is an adverb that is modifying the verb to feel. I might be wrong, so don't hate me, but I think you can say "I feel badly". Let me know.
Nick

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 11:58am

Supposeably you can't. Hopefully we'll find out soon and you and I can use it and feel goodly about it.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 12:14pm

My youngest son had a horrible life before I adopted him. As a result, he makes quite a few blunders in pronunciation. He talks about how every man has a "masculine and fenimine sides of their personaities" and he also doesn't do the laundry, but rather "does the warsh [sic]".

His girlfriend is a college student who has no excuse for confusing a "Nativity scene" with a "novelty scene" and thinks that Michelangelo painted the "roof" of the "Citrine Chapel".

...sometimes I think they're made for each other!!!!!

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 1/19/04 at 12:16pm

It might be an Ohio thing but we have a word here 'flustrated.' It's something between flustered and frustrated so locals simply blended them into one word.

And it bugs the hell out of me.