About Me

My photo
I love music, books, movies, blah, blah, blah! I love people, learning new things, and always progressing to be a better person.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Commonly Used Words and/or Phrases I Can't Stand

The English language boasts approximately a quarter of a million
different words and phrases.
A lot of the words that appear in the lexicon are derived from what we consider to be our very own English,
with the most immediately recognizable forms dating all the way back to AD 1300. English "technically" comes
mostly from early Germanic, but so many other languages have crept
in and left their own stamps on our lexicon.
That's a lot of stuff to keep straight.

I feel that a rich vocabulary can open doors in social and employment circles and help build a strong foundation as a person.
But the problem with language today is two-fold.
First, the Internet, as well as text messaging, has bastardized
communication to a series of grunts and ape-like noises.
Second, most slang...is just annoying.

Here is a short list of Words and/or Phrases that irritate me and why.

1. LOL (laugh out loud) - This has replaced the word Ha or funny.
I will admit that I played along at first but it didn't take long for me to grow annoyed with the lack of words in messaging. Also, this term can be horribly deceptive. You have to trust that the person is, in fact, laughing out loud (which they rarely are). It's patronizing...

2. Replacing any word with just a letter - (Example: U instead of you, C instead of see, and K instead of OKAY!) I understand that the day-to-day life of an average human being is rough...but not rough enough to exclude vowels and consonants. The first thing I think when I see this kind of writing, "Wht up? r u rely goin to th movi tody?" is that you are either a twelve-year-old girl or an idiot...sorry.

3. Adding extra letters to words or spelling words wrong on purpose (at least I think it's on purpose) -

Example: Oh Myyyy gash! I luurrv High Skool the Musical its soooo
knot boaring! I want to see it again tomarrow!
This one baffles me. I realize that as I get older trends will surpass my understanding...but seriously...this one makes you look like
a crazy person.

4. Words/phrases that bother me in general - Bestie, BFF,
for sure!, moist, favs, you-betcha, vaycay, avant-garde,
indie, emo, za (referring to pizza), going rogue, snarky, bohemian,
hipster, frumpy, and Maverick.

I know we can't all check our grammar at all times, I use comma splices like they are going out of style...but please, PLEASE, when writing
something, please at least try!

P.S. - Sorry this post looks weird.
I am having problems with the formatting of my page.

4 comments:

Reggie said...

I love this post. And I just wanted to add that vaycay in writing looks a lot like something else what you just glance at it. I'm happy to say that I don't use any of the words that plague you :) Or I at least don't use them seriously.

Neil Hiatt said...

Thank you! I agree with vaycay too, I always have to do a double take.

Britums said...

I can support you on most of this post particularly #1 &3 but I will admit to doing #2 because I do in fact HATE to text and have not ever learned your much loved t9 feature so anything I can do to speed it up I will do. Also I can not abide by you hating the word snarky as you are in fact snarky and it is a word rarely used and therefore unexpected and brilliant when put to use. Love your bff!

Neil Hiatt said...

I prefer sarcastic, sharp, or biting...never snarky.