What is your English language pet peeve?

I have long been annoyed by "
A sports cliche lamenting how a team or individual needs to "get untracked" ...
Meaning that they have to get out of an unproductive rut
The origin of this usage has never been identified
It does not appear to refernce refering to a rut as a track that one needs to get untracked from

My own speculation is that some broadcasters had been saying that a team needed to get back on track
But that some people who heard that reference were not familiar with the reference to a railroad track
And so the reference made no sense and was misheard as untrack instead of on track
So instead of saying a team has to get back ON TRACK
announcers started saying that a team has to get UNTRACKED
Which disturbingly is communicating the opposite meanung of getting back ON TRACK

 

That sounds like some kind of jargon. One feature of American English that I've noticed is a tendency toward efficiency, finding ways to reduce words and even syllables as much as humanly possible. A term such as "untracked" appears to be brief way of saying "they have to get out of an unproductive rut." We like to talk fast and cut corners where we can.

 

A usage that i am trying to rid myself of is prefacing a logical conclusion with the word "so" Particularly when used as a form of attack on another person by postulating some farfetched logiccal corollary of their position Such as ... "so, since you support trump you must be a racist", or "so, since you criticise trump you do not care that clinton is corrupt"

 

I was around then { The 50's } and can't remember any Game Show
going by - The $64,ooo Question -. I remember a show Titled - Queen for a Day -
and also - The Millionaire -.There was a game show Titled - The $ 64,ooo Question -.
I just don't recall it.Another show that never gets mentioned is - The Life of Reilly -.
starring William Bendix who also starred in - The Babe Ruth Story -.

 

Except when have you ever heard a sports announcer talk about being in a rut
As our daily lives change, we lose connection with common place experiences of the past
Old roads used to be unpaved and have ruts. How many people under thirty have ever been stuck in a rut?

 

The 64 thousand dollar question was a successful radio show before it was a 50;s game show, that turned out to be rigged along with most of the others at that time - go figure.

how about "Topper" who years later became Mr. Waverly of Man from UNCLE ?

 

Young females, liberals and low information Americans who end every sentence with "you know."

"Undocumented immigrant" or "undocumented worker" is another PC phrase that causes me to go out and buy another gun that I really don't need any more of.

 

Actually the first usage is correct. There was a show on radio called "Take It or Leave It", where the prizes started at 1$ and doubled to the seventh, that being "The 64 Dollar Question". This became a catchphrase and then the title of a show where the prize was much higher

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$64,000_Question

I have yet to understand why the scandal associated with it actually involved peopel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$64,000_Question

 

I'm with you on the use of "at". That one just plain identifies limited education.

I wish people would use "less" and "fewer" correctly. "Fewer" is used when the object can be counted. "Less" is for cases where there aren't discrete units. So, "less people" is just plain wrong - just as wrong as saying "fewer water" - lol!

I wish people knew when to use "I" vs. "me" and "he" vs. "him". How more basic can one get? I can accept that nobody seems to know whether to use "who" and "whom", but "him" and "me"?? PLEASE!!



However, if the issue is that it isn't someone's native language, I can accept FAR MORE than that! Anyone who hasn't learned a second language as an adult has NO justification for complaining about the progress someone who is learning English has made.

 

I'm also not sure about 'taking' a decision, either. I think it ought to be 'make' a decision and then 'take' action on it.

 

The problem with early TV was that deplorable Kinescope.It was like watching
a TV presentation thru a fish bowl.A Lot of really good preformances were
ruined because of early TV and it's lackluster technology.
I'm thinking the TV Movie - Requiem for a Heavyweight - starring Jack Palance.
All those great performances from - The United States Steel Hour.
And - General Electric Theatre -.
- Kraft Theatre - and - Lux Theatre -.
I was fortunate enough to catch a half-decent James Dean performance
on VHS in a - Schlitz Playhouse - production.
I almost bought a VHS copy of the TV Movie - The Iceman Cometh - { 1960 }
with the great actor Jason Robards.But it was too Kinescope-like.

 

My pet peeve is when professionals on TV use the singular "is" as a plural, "There is many..." My second peeve is when average people say, " I borrowed him my car" or "He borrowed me his car". It shows a complete lack of basic education.

 

I'll bet you know the correct answer when I give it and that it was really just a misunderstanding of the context.

It would be correct to say "Jim and I talked yesterday" because you would also say "I talked yesterday". You wouldn't say "me talked yesterday" so you would also be incorrect to say "Jim and me talked yesterday".

So it would also be incorrect to say "Jim and me both want another beer" for the same reason.

But it is correct to say "this is good for Jim and me" because you would also say "this is good for me".

 

I actually once saw someone write "I didn't feel well yesterday but today is worst."

 

You mean "go out and buy another gun of which I really need no more."

 

Absolutely.

- - - Updated - - -

Like "throw me down the stairs my shoes".

 

I have one that is both "picky" and funny.

We hear TV ads say things like "studies show that people get four times less cavities with ______ toothpaste!"

Let's think about that. Suppose we have a person who has had 8 cavities. If using the right product meant having four times less, that means they would have had 32 fewer cavities, or a minus 24. Why don't they just say "one quarter as many"? I think it's supposed to be more impressive to say "four" than to say "one quarter" and ads benefit more.

But so far we have a good collection of objectionable word usage and constructs:

I seen
irregardless
YOUR and YOU'RE
THERE and THEIR (and they’re)
Misuse of “I”
“I could care less”
“have went”
“would of”
Beginning every comment with “So...”


But here's a question: we hear "it wasn't that big of a deal".

Is that correct, or should it be "it wasn't that big a deal"? Or doesn't it matter?

 

LOL! I don't even know what that means.

 

In a particular New England town there is (or was when I was growing up) a large percentage of Canuck folks. They did some pretty interesting things with mixing French and English as well as mixing sentence structure so that the structure of the English kinda sorta followed the French structure or sequence, with humorous results.

Instead of "throw my shoes down the stairs" they would say "throw me down the stairs my shoes" or "Hey Joey, throw me out the window for the car the keys".

Mixing French and English (in French "corner" is "coin" pronounced like "queh[n]") , they would say "meet me down at Main coin where they park the cars side by each."

I actually enjoy such dialects and loved listening to the Canucks there.

 

"Dude" Before the 1980's calling someone a "dude" were fighting words. A dude was a pantywaist.

"Awesome" To be in awe is being in fear but respecting someone or something. To fear but to respect.

 

Yup, and today, everything is "amazing" if it's not awesome.

 

I wonder how many atheist use the acronym "OMG" while texting ?

 

I'm trying to get rid of my prepositions at the end of my sentences but they're just so hard to get rid of.

 

Heard a new media term today....'de-dubbed' referring to the examination and discarding of duplicate emails.