Phrases People Use Wrong

It drives me nuts when someone says I'm headed out to... Isn't it heading? Or I was headed over there, again it's heading.

Or I did it two times. Try twice.
Or I could care less when it's I couldn't care less.
You've got a other thing coming. It's think not thing.

opethPA
I'm embarrassed that I forgot about a few of the ones people have listed, specifically "for all intensive purposes"

Thanks everyone for making the end of my day enjoyable!

Oh yes that one too!
I'll have to read through the thread for fun

Something I have thought about for many years is the use of the word "pretty" to describe just about everything.

that car is pretty fast....
the food is pretty hot......
that guy is pretty stupid...
that girl is pretty hot....
that person is pretty fat...

and so on.....

Where does that term come from and why is it used in that way? I am by no means a grammar professor but it just seems in no way correct.

I do it also all the time, Just wondered how it came about.

Now that I think about it more it's all pretty confusing. (lol)

denybedoomed
"I seen that."

No, you did not. . .

You imbecile.

The "could care less" thing has always bothered me as well. Then you can care less than you already do?!?!?! So you DO care in some capacity?

My fiance pronounces "ancient" ank-chent.

Frustrates me to no end!

" I seen that" sounds dense. My ex spouse thinks obese is pronounced o-beast. He says eck-scape for escape. Oh the really stupid one is he will say so and so has an assist. He means cyst of course. Because they told him I have a cyst. Colorado is colder- ado.

He cracked me right up one day with " I tried getting across the US. Border today and the border guy says I needed a visa. I told him I have master card, he still kept saying , no you need a visa" Where can I get one of these visas? Get me one! He was doing a job near the border crossing and had me finish off the contract which was to public works Canada. He had put pubic works. Another phrase he repeats fifty times a day is " I'm the smartest man in Canada, you know people have asked me to run for mayor. I dunno though, they said I have to donate five grand"

reply to post by mwood


It is a strange term. By the way you're pretty ugly!

What a great thread. My mother has a couple of words that she constantly mispronounces.

She calls a mammogram a "mammiogram".

She calls the alcoholic beverage margarita a "margurita".

I have corrected her many times over the years, but to no avail.

misschareesee2
People need to stop saying, "bass ackwards." It's ass backwards.

Ha, in my family it's "back asswards", a tongue-in-cheek way of going a step further to denote how screwed up or FUBAR someone is.

My least favorites are when someone "axes" me something, "I wanna axe you 'bout..." (it's ASK, dimwit, you want to ASK me about something) And "I'm gonna get my hairs did". Oh, you're going to a salon for a haircut & dye job? Then just say so!

Yvette Fielding who hosts Most Haunted is a regular Mrs Malaprop.

She calls all-night vigils "viduals" and says "grievious bodily harm".

The word is 'grievous'.

CJCrawley
"grievious bodily harm".

The word is 'grievous'.

I also remember from childhood;
"Mischeevious"
"School sustificate"
And that perennial favourite "Read the destructions!"
(And my father playfully, and deliberately, referring to London as "the great metrolops")

reply to post by kaylaluv


I had a friend who said Monogram for mammogram and she just got a prescription (subscription) for the newspaper


One word that sounds wrong to me is disorientated instead of disoriented

Annnd, add "sustenage" to that irk list. My neighbor just walked out of their house on the phone, "I have to go, leaving now to grab some sustenage, it's lunch time!"

*facepalms* Come on, people. It's sustenance you're going out to get.

i ain't saying nuthink.

Supposably or supposively.

Apostrophes on all words ending in s. Like the thread about the "Mar's rover" currently. "SALE! PEA'S $.79/lb" but what belongings of the peas are on sale?

"It is what it is" is a HUGE one. It clearly is, thank you. It isn't what it is if you need to use the phrase. Please think of another annoying dismissive phrase.

Misuse of "anymore" has been big lately as my grandmother has somehow picked that up. Women out at night walking need to carry protection anymore. Did you see Chevy's new stingray? They're making it in the same shade of blue your grandfather's was in anymore. WHAT?????!!!

Ten hundred. I'm appalled by the number of adults that say this.

Double negatives. My brother in law loves double negatives. And John Deere. "It ain't no problem" is the one that makes me want to kill. So it's a problem then? Forget it, I'll call someone else. He also is unaware that cousins are NOT his "cousints".

People trying to make conversation with me about racing and cars who say the word "chassis" phonetically.

Any word that begins with "st" being pronounced by someone too god damned lazy to enunciate. You're getting some strawberries from across the street, not some schtrawberries from across the schtreet.

Oscillate with a hard "c".

About 20 listed before me. I'm sure there are many, many more but I've irritated myself.

The only that bothers me is when people say "SHUT UP" instead of get out of here, or get out of town. It may be a local thing. The first time someone said that to me after moving here, I almost decked them. I thought they were suddenly telling me to shut up in the middle of a story.

"I've been on tender hooks all day".

'I'm going to take a shower' .. Where are you taking it?

'I'm going to fix some lunch' .. BECAUSE RAW INGREDIENTS ARE BROKEN!?

It used to be when someone liked or admired something they would say :-

"Oh I do like that" or "I love that" (whatever it was)


Now it appears the new in thing to say is "I'm loving/liking it"

reply to post by misschareesee2


And that is a phrase how???
People pronouncing something wrong is not a phrase being used wrong... Seems to be a lot of that in this thread...