Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[french frank]

my point - usage, evolution etc

I think I covered that with: "I am well aware of the evolution of language and how, as new uses come in, they get to be accepted."

But I will labour the point no more.

[Pulcinella]

Apologies if we've covered this before, but when did 'Not at any price' change from being 'It's not for sale' (i.e., no price would be sufficiently high for the value I put on whatever it is) to more like 'Not without compromises on both sides' (e.g., Mrs von der Leyen said [that] the EU wanted a deal, "but not at any price"), as we keep hearing about the Brexit negotiations?
(Or is this really a Pedants' Paradise question, even though it's a phrase that sets my teeth on edge?)

[Serial_Apologist]

A more recent arrival (possibly from the USA) that bugs me is: "And here's the thing..." used as a preposition to add gravitas to something that the speaker deems to be important.

To which a suggested reply after a meaningful pause could be, "Sorry, where's the thing?"

[cloughie]

To which a suggested reply after a meaningful pause could be, "Sorry, where's the thing?"

You mean you can’t remember where you put it or even what the thing was!

[gurnemanz]

This irritant must have been mentioned before but here's another thing about "thing":

You often hear: "The thing is is that ...." Why the double "is"?

[Boilk]

This irritant must have been mentioned before but here's another thing about "thing":

You often hear: "The thing is is that ...." Why the double "is"?

That double "is" is [sic] very common on US television.

I guess it's already been mentioned above on this thread, but usage of "off of" is becoming near ubiquitous to the point of a solitary "off" being limited almost to appearing after impolite four-letter words! In the last week I've had to bite my lip upon hearing: "passengers getting off of the train are reminded..." and "profiteering off of the Covid pandemic".

[Nick Armstrong]

This irritant must have been mentioned before but here's another thing about "thing":

You often hear: "The thing is is that ...." Why the double "is"?

Yes, canvassed by self & others in this post & following:

"The reason being is that......"

Must be the most widespread low-level irritant in the language for me and (as jean pointed out back then) the thing is is is is is is that this particularly annoying ship has well and truly sailed into common parlance

[jayne lee wilson]

That double "is" is [sic] very common on US television.

I guess it's already been mentioned above on this thread, but usage of "off of" is becoming near ubiquitous to the point of a solitary "off" being limited almost to appearing after impolite four-letter words! In the last week I've had to bite my lip upon hearing: "passengers getting off of the train are reminded..." and "profiteering off of the Covid pandemic".

"Off of" is an idiom (probably American sourced) so not really reducible to a literal meaning or an accusation of redundancy. A figure of speech, a sound, usually in the mouths and sometimes the writings of its users. It is what it is . (Now there's a phrase ripe with layers to peel....)

I often use it myself, on here...... for no better reason than enjoying the sound or the feel of it, as so often....

I got off of the train has a nice lilt to the rhythm... a little kick in the middle.....

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I would recite poems in seminars and so on...... but I often felt, even reading alone, that you couldn't really get a poem unless you heard it, heard its music in the air. So I guess that's a big factor for me too.

[Richard Barrett]

"Off of" is an idiom (probably American sourced)

I think "off of" might be something that sounds American but is actually an older British usage which has been preserved in North American English.

[french frank]

I guess it's already been mentioned above on this thread, but usage of "off of" is becoming near ubiquitous

I suppose one could say that it was not current usage, but it is now. I always thought it was originally dialectal - just as I noticed when living in Scotland that people said 'even although' where I would have said 'even though'. I wonder what the difference is between the grammarians' 'standard English' and 'current usage'? There are dialect forms and linguistic social markers which are simply ways of describing differing ways of using language. We have yet to found an Académie anglaise to rule on what we should be saying.

[oddoneout]

I think "off of" might be something that sounds American but is actually an older British usage which has been preserved in North American English.

It's a dialect thing(!) in these parts although more closely rendered as "offa" in terms of pronunciation by the native speakers. It wasn't until I heard some of my 'bilingual' friends saying "off of" that I made the connection.

[oddoneout]

This irritant must have been mentioned before but here's another thing about "thing":

You often hear: "The thing is is that ...." Why the double "is"?

It can sometimes be a stalling tactic while the point to be made is being put together in the speaker's head.

[Triforium]

This irritant must have been mentioned before but here's another thing about "thing":

You often hear: "The thing is is that ...." Why the double "is"?

Well, this is it, isn't it....

[Richard Barrett]

Well, this is it, isn't it....

This is what we find, as Ian Dury had it.

[Bryn]

This is what we find, as Ian Dury had it.

Or "What we find is this . . . ", as the DNA variant has it.