What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Gimme a sec

peeves
I'd agree with most of the list of peeves - especially the it's and its confusion. The distinction is simple and straightforward, why do so many people get wrong?
I'd add the appalling 'faux-polite" response:
Hi Mike? How are you?
I'm well and yourself?

Yourself? urrgh!

Also, on the "gotten" issue - it does grate in British English, but is explicable :- forget - forgot - forgotten is still in use; but the 'get - got - got" seems to have shifted away from that (germanic?) root. Is it that North American English has clung on to the old form (get got gotten) while the Brit English form has moved on?

Yes, seemingly American English has retained several old expressions and usages of 18th Century ( and 17th Century?) English which British English has altered.

Bill Bryson writes entertainingly about this in "Mother Tongue".

"How's yourself?" or even "How's himself?" sounds to me a bit like a colloquial Irish utterance, quite charming, and not intended to be correct grammar by the user.

IMO the use if "yourself" in this way just emphasises and elevates the recipient, somehow. Reflecting the spotlight, so to speak.

I just "remembered" my pet peeve. Basically; I absolutely hate it when people overuse that word, and worse, I am now starting to use it because it is repeated ad nauseum by so many people. That word is so overused by some people that I have nightmares about them repeating it over and over. It's very irritating when someone keeps saying 'basically' all the time, in fact even one time is irritating because it's usually not used appropriately. People seem to have forgotten the root of 'basically': basic. You DON'T use the word 'basically' when you are trying to surmise something about the chaos theory. There is nothing basic about the chaos theory and using 'basically' will only make you look like an ass. 'Basically' is an affront to intelligent conversation and I hope people will be banned from using it more than once in a conversation.

Heard on our radio and TV interviews a lot nowadays, from everyone it seems from sportsmen to politicians: "At the end of the day..."

This little phrase has become so hackneyed. I hope it is soon replaced.

What other colloquial phrases could be substituted? Can you suggest any? I'll start off with

In the final analysis
when push comes to shove
when all's said and done

ummm like basically its like at the end of the day like almost unique.

God it hurt to write that.

"The bottom line is....."

I totally agree with all that. Totally.

brilliant

what peeves me about english is that just when i've come to grips with william shakespeare as a playwright...and can spell his name, somebody publishes some research saying it wasnt him.

latest candidate sir henry neville.

My peeve today is the horrible non-word "fayre"

You see it outside pubs, and downmarket restaurants

"Brewer's Fayre"
Traditional fayre"
"Country Fayre"

Whether they mean fare, as in food, or fair, as in summertime celebration, the faux-traditional atmosphere presumably sought by the advertiser is absolutely NOT conjured up for me by the use of that mis-conceived misspelling.

I HATE IT!

Gosh, that feels better now. Thank you.

I'm having a spot of bother with India just at the moment McTag. I believe there were quite a few Scots as well as English there at one time.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50820&start=330

any comment

The jocks are like dogsh*t...they get EVERYWHERE

(You know its good old British self deprecating humour like that which can get you in trouble...its shows you have a superior sense of humour, and as you are not allowed to display superiority in anything these days, let alone humour...its therefore covert racism )

anyroad up back to dogsh1t...

hmm... bashing at most :wink:

Can I have a whinge about pronunciation?

I cringe when I hear "ungyon" instead of "onion".

Drives me nuts. There is a bloke on the drive show of the local station belonging to our national broadcaster who is very good but says "ungyon" when he means "onion".

Booker T and the MGs - "Green Ungyons"

"There is a bloke .......who is very good..."

knows his ungyons eh ?

..............................................

I dont think Ive ever heard onions pronounced like that.

Is it supposed to be "cool" or funny? Or is it just sloppy use of English?

quite fascinated actually....is it really said as

Ungy-ons?

Well onions or ungyons, I shouldnt touch the green ones if I were you. g-day to you gf.

Re fayre
Is this supposed to be ye olde englishe?

According to Wikipedia

So it's really Middle English, to answer your question, dadpad.

Cheers Steve - I should record him and send you an mp3....he really does say "ungyons"...and given it's the drive show it's quite dangerous, I get this red mist in front of my eyes and ....not really, no "ungyon" road rage from me

I thought at first it was an affectation but nope, he keeps on doing it.

Nearly as bad as the sheila on the afternoon show who keeps interjecting with non-word grunts as her guests speak. Yes, it really is our national broadcaster.