Pet Peeves

[Egein]

...strange.

i say "durant".

[Ulven]

In the media, reporters over-use and mis-use the word literally. eg. A reporter was talking about a footbal match where one team won hansomely. The reporter said "They literally blew them off the park" Hmm, if that meant they threw grenades at them- I wish I watched that game. If it meant they gave felatio- I'm glad I missed it.

Another pet peeve is incorrect use of punctuation- by me! I don't mind when others do it, but I wish I knew punctuation well. I'm a writer (amateur) at heart, so it's pretty annoying.

Oh, and I agree with the peeve against people who use shorthand "i luv u2. wat r u doin tday" etc. In chatrooms where things are moving quickly, fine. But in posts, I really don't like it- and on a language forum of all places. grrr
I guess they're just having fun with language, which I respect, but I'd rather it be left for non-language sites.

[Zaduma]

:evil: Yeeeeeeeesssssss I do hate it as well, but more than the germans - they are native anyway - , the foreigners !!! specially if they learned to say this "ach sooo" in a few months, it does not sound even natural !! and the worst is when they say it using their NATIVE language shame I do not have an on/off switch in my auditive system to switch it off in those moments

Uffff good to hear that I am not alone in my hate to this one Really, I start to be agressive when I hear 'ach soooo'

[Varislintu]

I don't like how every single Finn these days is totally incapable of distinguishing in speech between 'kuin' (than) and 'kun' (then). They are both just kun in most people's opinion.

Suurempi kun...
parempi kun...

Aaargh! I wonder, if the i is so hard to pronounce, why nobody has any difficulty saying 'kuinka'?

In every day speech it wouldn't be so bad, but professional speakers do it as well, on TV, every day!

[Pips]

Interesting that those words should cause so much confusion, when the English equivalents aren't always used properly either!

[Varislintu]

Interesting that those words should cause so much confusion, when the English equivalents aren't always used properly either!

Yeah, now that you mention it, that is a funny coincidence !

[JackFrost]

I don't like how every single Finn these days is totally incapable of distinguishing in speech between 'kuin' (than) and 'kun' (then). They are both just kun in most people's opinion.

Suurempi kun...
parempi kun...

Well, same thing in French, there is no difference between "that" (conjunction) and "than", they both are "que". All you have to do is look at the context.

[ILuvEire]

I'm reviving this thread, because I need to complain, and most people just give me blank stares when I say these things bother me >:[

1) The use of "ain't." It just hurts, I don't like it. Yes, yes, I know that it's attested long back through English history, but that doesn't make me hate it ANY LESS.
2) When people use "biscotti" as the singular. When I hear "would you like to buy a biscotti?" At Starbuck's, it just makes me want to pour my coffee on them.
3) When people say /ˈsɪmjuːlɚɹ/. It's /ˈsɪməlɚɹ/!
4) Prescriptivist grammar rules, especially that damn one about splitting infinitives.

New people, share your pet peeves

[thoughtsafar]

Aha, I was hoping there was a thread like this, for I have been noticing more and more lately how so many people around me (some almost constantly) use the simple past of strong verbs in perfect constructions. I thought maybe it was a dialectal/sociolectal feature of my area, but I've been noticing it on television and among more educated peers and such as well.

I've wrote.... I've went.... I've ate....

Blech.

Do people do this in other Germanic languages? Ich habe schrieb/ging/aß?


Oh yeah, I thought of a few more. "Supposably," "all intensive purposes" (what makes them so intensive, I wonder), and "penii." And faux-Greek and faux-Cyrillic text. You know they have a real E, right, GRSSK? How about you YAussia? Oh and mismatching case in comparative structures: He's stronger than I, not me; she likes him more than me. (English shouldn't have disjunctive pronouns!)

[TaylorS]

Aha, I was hoping there was a thread like this, for I have been noticing more and more lately how so many people around me (some almost constantly) use the simple past of strong verbs in perfect constructions. I thought maybe it was a dialectal/sociolectal feature of my area, but I've been noticing it on television and among more educated peers and such as well.

I've wrote.... I've went.... I've ate....

Blech.

Do people do this in other Germanic languages? Ich habe schrieb/ging/aß?


Oh yeah, I thought of a few more. "Supposably," "all intensive purposes" (what makes them so intensive, I wonder), and "penii." And faux-Greek and faux-Cyrillic text. You know they have a real E, right, GRSSK? How about you YAussia? Oh and mismatching case in comparative structures: He's stronger than I, not me; she likes him more than me. (English shouldn't have disjunctive pronouns!)

I do that a lot without even thinking. The Preterit and Past Participle forms of Strong verbs seem to be merging in many English dialects. There is a quirk here in the Upper Midwest, though, in which the Past Participle -en ending is spreading by analogy to more and more irregular verbs that end with /t/. Caughten, Thoughten, Boughten, Soughten, Cutten, Taughten, etc.

[loqu]

I CAN NOT STAND people adding a -s to the 2nd person singular preterite perfect in Spanish.

It's viniste, cantaste, llamaste, not vinistes, cantastes, llamastes.

What's worse, is that we Andalusians don't usually pronounce final consonants. But in Seville people insert an aspiration where that wrong "s" is supposed to be. And it's totally, totally wrong. I can't stand it. It makes my heart blow up into pieces.

[Formiko]

I CAN NOT STAND people adding a -s to the 2nd person singular preterite perfect in Spanish.

It's viniste, cantaste, llamaste, not vinistes, cantastes, llamastes.

What's worse, is that we Andalusians don't usually pronounce final consonants. But in Seville people insert an aspiration where that wrong "s" is supposed to be. And it's totally, totally wrong. I can't stand it. It makes my heart blow up into pieces.

Wow.."I" do that! I'll say mihma, instead of misma. I think it's a South American thing. I used to never pronounce the aspiration, but lately i have. My neighbor Luis says it that way all thew time. (He's Mexican).

[Czwartek]

I don't like how every single Finn these days is totally incapable of distinguishing in speech between 'kuin' (than) and 'kun' (then). They are both just kun in most people's opinion.

Suurempi kun...
parempi kun...

I've noticed something similar in written Norwegian, with the words 'å' and 'og', meaning 'to (infinitive marker)' and 'and' respectively. They're pronounced the same, so many Norwegians confuse them in writing. The same with 'to' and 'too' in English.

"Ask" was once "aks" in Old English (a pronunciation which lives on today in some dialects, tho by now the original pronunciation has arbitrarily been stigmatized).

I never knew that actually existed as a standard pronunciation! I've only heard it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAeprWIOQqQ

One thing I can't stand is the pronunciation of a mid-word 't' as a glottal stop. It's a highly dialectal thing, but I hear it all the time. Also substitution of 'l' for a 'w' sound after a vowel. Hence Bottle of milk becomes Bo'ow of miwk. Despite the fact that many people around me use it, I try not to. I'd rather keep my 't' and 'l' sounds.

[Hetzig]

Hence Bottle of milk becomes Bo'ow of miwk.

Uggh, I don't like that either, but I assume you must be on a more southerly latitude as around here that's said more like bott-ler milk.

[Czwartek]

Hence Bottle of milk becomes Bo'ow of miwk.

Uggh, I don't like that either, but I assume you must be on a more southerly latitude as around here that's said more like bott-ler milk.

I live in Ipswich, Suffolk.

[Shad]

I CAN NOT STAND people adding a -s to the 2nd person singular preterite perfect in Spanish.

It's viniste, cantaste, llamaste, not vinistes, cantastes, llamastes.

What's worse, is that we Andalusians don't usually pronounce final consonants. But in Seville people insert an aspiration where that wrong "s" is supposed to be. And it's totally, totally wrong. I can't stand it. It makes my heart blow up into pieces.

Wow.."I" do that! I'll say mihma, instead of misma. I think it's a South American thing. I used to never pronounce the aspiration, but lately i have. My neighbor Luis says it that way all thew time. (He's Mexican).

First of all, that aspiration is natural to many South Americans and is, therefore, not incorrect. Second of all, if your friend is Mexican, then he's supposed to pronounce all the S.
As far as I know, they are the only Spanish speakers who speak like that, but I could be wrong...

At least in Venezuela (and I'm sure than it's the same in many other countries) pronouncing every S sounds just pretentious and annoying.

[Formiko]

First of all, that aspiration is natural to many South Americans and is, therefore, not incorrect. Second of all, if your friend is Mexican, then he's supposed to pronounce all the S.
As far as I know, they are the only Spanish speakers who speak like that, but I could be wrong...
.

I'm sorry, my Salvadoran neighbor Oscar speaks that way. I never noticed how my Mexican neighbor from Puebla speaks. He also speaks Nahuatl, so he most likely does NOT aspirate his S's.

[loqu]

First of all, that aspiration is natural to many South Americans and is, therefore, not incorrect.

Oh, I just see this now, I only meant it as incorrect and annoying when I'm talking about the final -s in "cantastes, comistes, bebistes". Like lots of people in Sevilla would say, ¿ayer estuvistes tú allí? [aˈʝe etːʰuˈβitːʰe ˈtːʰu aˈʝi] while people from Cádiz wouldn't add any non-existing -s, [aˈʝe etːʰuˈβitːʰe ˈtu aˈʝi]

Of course I don't mean every aspiration of the S, which is also natural to me as an Andalusian.
_______

I revive this thread with another pet peeve of mine, people writing "looser" in English, when they actually mean "loser". This happens just too often.

EDIT: now I see I agree with the second post on the thread should have read it before I posted. But I'll keep the post since I agree with Stan.

[Set]

Hence Bottle of milk becomes Bo'ow of miwk.

Uggh, I don't like that either, but I assume you must be on a more southerly latitude as around here that's said more like bott-ler milk.

I'd say bo'ler miwk or bo'ler wa'er (sorry can't do IPA). I know some people think it sounds weird, but if I were to say bottle of water properly, I would sound incredibly pretentious

Something that does annoy me though is when people say something like "could of done it". You can see where it comes from because normally you'd just say "coulda done it" or "could'ave" and 'ave' is not so far away from 'of' I guess. But to actually pronounce the 'o' and 'f' suggests you've never actually learnt to read. I also wouldn't be totally surprised if there were people (not just children) who wrote "could/would/should of"

[linguoboy]

I also wouldn't be totally surprised if there were people (not just children) who wrote "could/would/should of"

People write that all the time. It's call "reanalysis" and it happens a lot.

I don't know what you mean about "actually pronounc[ing] the 'o' and 'f'". Is of pronounced differently from 've where you are? In American English, they are exactly the same, i.e. /ə(v)/. Using the same "o" in of as you would in, say, off would sound incredibly odd.