Phrases And Words Used Incorrectly.

[ireckinso]

Okay I know there is a thread created to complain about things that people say, as in “I know right?” I deal with some backwards people almost daily, and they say things wrong all of the time. I try to correct them but then they argue so I just let them go ahead and sound stupid. Here are some examples of what I am talking about.

 

 

“We fought tooth and comb.”

 

Really, tooth and nail retards, or do you have lice?

 

 

“That’s an old wise tale.”

 

Okay so it must be pretty dependable if it comes from the wise right? Its “wife’s tale” idiots.

 

 

Now this isn’t a phrase but I hear this word used wrong all the time.

 

 

“That left a whelp on my arm.”

So you have a young carnivorous animal on your arm? Or did you mean welt?

 

 

“I’ve got an ideal.”

 

Yeah so do I, learn to speak. “Idea”

 

 

“Hey, can you de-thaw that?”

 

So you want me to freeze it more?

 

 

“I’ve been homing my skills.”

 

Well bring them to work next time, and then maybe we can “hone” them.

 

 

Then of course the old double negatives.

 

“I haven’t never heard that.”

 

So you heard me then?

 

 

“Just cut into chase.”

 

Now at first I thought I heard this one wrong, I thought there is no way someone just said that. Upon repeating it, I realized that is how they were saying “just cut to the chase.”

 

 

And finally, I heard someone say this yesterday at work and this is what ultimately got me started on this thread. One of my maintenance guys were telling me how they didn’t get along with a past manager and said, “We got off the wrong foot.” Trying to choke back the laughter I said “You what?” He said, “You know, we got off the wrong foot.” I had to get up and leave the area I was laughing so hard. I’m just picturing him pulling his managers foot off and the manager yelling “that’s the wrong one moron!” I still haven’t told him the correct phrase.

 

 

 

 

[florduh]

It's a doggy dog world.

[JadedAtheist]

Wow, I would so laugh in their face with some of those phrases. "I've got an ideal" is by far my favorite.

I've had some recent incidents myself and while I haven't got the biggest vocabulary in the world, it's big enough to notice these blunders:

 

"I am going to sodomize myself" - After I stopped laughing, he told me what he meant. It was nowhere near the meaning of this word.

 

"Do you know what a typhoid Mary is?" - When I told him it was a carrier of a disease that spreads the disease but has no symptoms themselves, I was promptly "schooled" about its actual meaning: A dangerous illness.

 

This one happened a few years ago:

 

• So, what's your background?
• Like, where my parents are from?
• Yeah.
• Well, the easiest answer would be Serbia
• Serbia? I think you mean Siberia.
• Nah, it's not Siberia, it's Serbia
• Yeah, you guys may call it Serbia but we call it Siberia over here.
• Listen fuckwit, Siberia is in Russia. It's a completely different place. Serbia is a country in eastern Europe.
• Whoa, dude settle down. Who cares if you call it Serbia and we call it Siberia?

[buffettphan]

I hear a lot of those same ones too. Must be because we both live in Virginia.

 

One of my irritants --

 

"My conscious tells me I should ________. " or "That bothers my conscious."

 

Nitwit, if you were REALLY conscious, you'd know the word is conscience.

[ireckinso]

I hear a lot of those same ones too. Must be because we both live in Virginia.

 

One of my irritants --

 

"My conscious tells me I should ________. " or "That bothers my conscious."

 

Nitwit, if you were REALLY conscious, you'd know the word is conscience.

 

I've heard that too.

 

Just heard another while on break. My lead was explaining how he fixed a wiring problem in his car. He said the had to get to the firewall to "un-loosen" the screws on the fuse box. I said, "so you tightened them?" He said, "no I had to un-loosen them." I replied, "so you tightened them." He finally thought about it and called me a smart ass but everyone around was already laughing.

 

Oh and Florduh I have never heard that one but love it!! "Doggy Dog world."

[chosendarkness]

What kind of place do you work at, a remedial learning center? Those sound like things children would say.

[Vigile]

While this does raise issues concerning education levels amongst native speakers, it really serves as a great example of how complex the English language is too. In my experience, English appears to be a pretty easy language to learn at a basic level, but mastering the idioms, et al, takes serious effort and years of experience.

 

Russian is kind of like this as well. Sometimes I understand almost every word and yet have no idea what the hell they are talking about. This is because much of common Russian is derived from Russian history and popular Russian films. If you aren't familiar with the context, you won't know what they are saying even if you have a large Russian vocabulary (which I wouldn't say I do, but that's another issue).

 

Off the top of my head, imagine you are learning to speak English and someone uses "Not!" in Wayne's World context. You would be clueless even though it's a common, straight-forward word.

[xandermac]

I live in North Alabama. I've heard all those and so many more. I make fun of people here all the time, because I'm so smart of course, until my kids make fun of me for saying some of the same stupid things.

[AlphaToOmega]

Don't shoot him no more.

[AlphaToOmega]

Wow, I would so laugh in their face with some of those phrases. "I've got an ideal" is by far my favorite.

I've had some recent incidents myself and while I haven't got the biggest vocabulary in the world, it's big enough to notice these blunders:

 

"I am going to sodomize myself" - After I stopped laughing, he told me what he meant. It was nowhere near the meaning of this word.

 

"Do you know what a typhoid Mary is?" - When I told him it was a carrier of a disease that spreads the disease but has no symptoms themselves, I was promptly "schooled" about its actual meaning: A dangerous illness.

 

This one happened a few years ago:

 

• So, what's your background?
• Like, where my parents are from?
• Yeah.
• Well, the easiest answer would be Serbia
• Serbia? I think you mean Siberia.
• Nah, it's not Siberia, it's Serbia
• Yeah, you guys may call it Serbia but we call it Siberia over here.
• Listen fuckwit, Siberia is in Russia. It's a completely different place. Serbia is a country in eastern Europe.
• Whoa, dude settle down. Who cares if you call it Serbia and we call it Siberia?

 

 

You're just embarrassed to be Russian.

 

 

 

[Ro-bear]

Wow, I would so laugh in their face with some of those phrases. "I've got an ideal" is by far my favorite.

I've had some recent incidents myself and while I haven't got the biggest vocabulary in the world, it's big enough to notice these blunders:

 

"I am going to sodomize myself" - After I stopped laughing, he told me what he meant. It was nowhere near the meaning of this word.

 

"Do you know what a typhoid Mary is?" - When I told him it was a carrier of a disease that spreads the disease but has no symptoms themselves, I was promptly "schooled" about its actual meaning: A dangerous illness.

 

This one happened a few years ago:

 

• So, what's your background?
• Like, where my parents are from?
• Yeah.
• Well, the easiest answer would be Serbia
• Serbia? I think you mean Siberia.
• Nah, it's not Siberia, it's Serbia
• Yeah, you guys may call it Serbia but we call it Siberia over here.
• Listen fuckwit, Siberia is in Russia. It's a completely different place. Serbia is a country in eastern Europe.
• Whoa, dude settle down. Who cares if you call it Serbia and we call it Siberia?

 

 

Simple solution: quit making up countries or call it Siberia like everyone else.

 

Someone once tried to convince me there was a country named Yougoslobbier. I knew he was just pulling my finger.

[ireckinso]

What kind of place do you work at, a remedial learning center? Those sound like things children would say.

 

I am the plant supervisor at amcor rigid plastics in Wytheville Va. We make Gatorade, Sobe, and some Soda and water bottles at this location. This area was comprised of mostly coal miners and textile mills before NAFTA. When the textile mills left a large portion of the work force became government handout recipients. Most have little education, I have even had a temp or two who could not read and or write.

 

Newest one I heard at lunch. Woman was talking about a high school football game from last night. "He kicked the ball straight as an error, and cleared the post by three feet." Again I thought it might be an accent thing so I asked, "Straight as a what?" Response, "error." It was pretty clear that time.

[ireckinso]

Wow, I would so laugh in their face with some of those phrases. "I've got an ideal" is by far my favorite.

I've had some recent incidents myself and while I haven't got the biggest vocabulary in the world, it's big enough to notice these blunders:

 

"I am going to sodomize myself" - After I stopped laughing, he told me what he meant. It was nowhere near the meaning of this word.

 

"Do you know what a typhoid Mary is?" - When I told him it was a carrier of a disease that spreads the disease but has no symptoms themselves, I was promptly "schooled" about its actual meaning: A dangerous illness.

 

This one happened a few years ago:

 

• So, what's your background?
• Like, where my parents are from?
• Yeah.
• Well, the easiest answer would be Serbia
• Serbia? I think you mean Siberia.
• Nah, it's not Siberia, it's Serbia
• Yeah, you guys may call it Serbia but we call it Siberia over here.
• Listen fuckwit, Siberia is in Russia. It's a completely different place. Serbia is a country in eastern Europe.
• Whoa, dude settle down. Who cares if you call it Serbia and we call it Siberia?

 

 

You're just embarrassed to be Russian.

 

 

 

 

What the hell DID he mean by "I am going to sodomize myself?" I've been trying to figure that one out and can't come up with a plausible answer.

[agnosticator]

I see this so often that I caught myself doing it too! Most grammar Nazis miss these. The lose/loose dilemma:

 

You can lose something that was set loose by someone else. Or: Tighten that loose bolt and don't lose it! There! I said it properly.

[Thackerie]

A former co-worker once told me about seeing something so startling that it left her "white as a goat." When I remarked that I don't think that's how the expression goes, she said, "Of course not. I meant, pale as a sheep."

 

She's the same one who also says, "For all intensive purposes" (instead of "for all intents and purposes").

 

My least favorite corrupted expression is "I could care less" (instead of "I couldn't care less"). Gives me a toothache every time I hear it.

[ireckinso]

A former co-worker once told me about seeing something so startling that it left her "white as a goat." When I remarked that I don't think that's how the expression goes, she said, "Of course not. I meant, pale as a sheep."

 

She's the same one who also says, "For all intensive purposes" (instead of "for all intents and purposes").

 

My least favorite corrupted expression is "I could care less" (instead of "I couldn't care less"). Gives me a toothache every time I hear it.

 

Yeah i've heard the intensive purpose a lot but usually I don't say anything, I guess I could care less......

[AlphaToOmega]

Yeah i've heard the intensive purpose a lot but usually I don't say anything, I guess I could care less......

 

 

Its short for, "I could care less...oh wait...no I can't"

 

Common in some parts of Australia as a twist on the the original, as Australian's like to twist things.

I'm quite guilty of using it for example but I also figured everyone knew the rest of it.

 

Other ways to say the same thing, "Call the RACV'.

Twist on the RACV commercial's on TV. The motto for their auto club was "Call someone who cares".

Sometimes just their phone number was given: 13 7228.

Pretty hard to follow a conversation unless you're very familiar with the TV commercial and the saying.

I'm with you on the sodomize myself comment though.

 

 

 

 

[I Broke Free]

She's the same one who also says, "For all intensive purposes" (instead of "for all intents and purposes").

 

 

 

I was personally guilty of saying that for nearly 40 years. I was mortified with embarrassment when I actually read it somewhere and learned I had been saying it wrong. Once I read it I could not believe I had never given any thought to what I was saying; it made no sense at all.

 

Serbia – Siberia // Slovenia – Slovakia // You say potato…….

[JadedAtheist]

What the hell DID he mean by "I am going to sodomize myself?" I've been trying to figure that one out and can't come up with a plausible answer.

 

lol, the context of the conversation was someone said something with a real "sophisticated" term in a casual setting so a couple of us mocked him by saying various lines. The sodomize comment was meant to be the sophisticated way of saying "I'm going to rub one out".

[AlphaToOmega]

She's the same one who also says, "For all intensive purposes" (instead of "for all intents and purposes").

 

 

 

I was personally guilty of saying that for nearly 40 years. I was mortified with embarrassment when I actually read it somewhere and learned I had been saying it wrong. Once I read it I could not believe I had never given any thought to what I was saying; it made no sense at all.

 

Serbia – Siberia // Slovenia – Slovakia // You say potato…….

 

 

Canadian-American...

 

 

 

 

 

[ilovemybrain]

I used to have a boss who "corrected" some of my meeting notes incorrectly. She thought the word "intact" was actually spelled "in tack". I have a friend who consistently uses the word "mortified" (which means embarrassed) to say she is "terrified". So I always have a good laugh over that.

[Ouroboros]

I hate it when people refer to a site as a "sight".

[ireckinso]

I love hearing when people say "Supposably" instead of "Supposedly" its actually a common mistake but people get mad when you correct them in front of others!

[gypsy79]

I see this so often that I caught myself doing it too! Most grammar Nazis miss these. The lose/loose dilemma:

 

You can lose something that was set loose by someone else. Or: Tighten that loose bolt and don't lose it! There! I said it properly.

 

OMG. Lose/loose mistakes drive me crazy. And irregardless--oh, the horror!

[BrotherJosh]

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling