Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Old Grumpy]

Quite so, witness the Duchess of Sussex' interview with Oprah Winfrey!

No I didn't- passed me by entirely, sorry!

[Serial_Apologist]

No I didn't- passed me by entirely, sorry!

[kernelbogey]

Winter wonderland.

Hugely overused, presumably because of the minimal alliteration. It's just snow....

[Nick Armstrong]

Winter wonderland.

Hugely overused, presumably because of the minimal alliteration. It's just snow....

Sweet treats

Another sonically-driven cliché

[Pulcinella]

Sweet treats

Another sonically-driven cliché

I have happy memories of a meal in Italy at which we fell chatting to a couple of German visitors at the next table.
When dessert time (dolci, of course, in Italian) arrived, one of them looked across, smiled, and said (with apologies for the characterisation):

Und now, ze zweeties.

[Nick Armstrong]

I have happy memories of a meal in Italy at which we fell chatting to a couple of German visitors at the next table.
When dessert time (dolci, of course, in Italian) arrived, one of them looked across, smiled, and said (with apologies for the characterisation):

Und now, ze zweeties.

There’s a sugary sweetness to some German expressions which simultaneously makes me smile and wince…

esp. Handy = mobile phone (pl. Handys) … Wie ist deine Handynummer?

[kernelbogey]

There’s a sugary sweetness to some German expressions which simultaneously makes me smile and wince…

And the German fondness for cloying diminutives: -chen, -le et al, which W. G. Sebald protested against.

[gurnemanz]

And the German fondness for cloying diminutives: -chen, -le et al, which W. G. Sebald protested against.

The Swabians are especially noted for this -le appendage. A while ago an aunt of my wife's living in Stuttgart suddenly died of a stroke. A real case of Sod's Law - it was just after she retired. We went over and I remember we were chatting to the lady nextdoor with a strong Swabian twang, who referred to a "Gehirnschlägele" seeing her off. It struck us at the time but I suppose it's like a Scot saying something like "She had a wee stroke".

There is an apt Swabian adage which goes: Schaffe, schaffe, spare, spare, Häusle baue und verrecke". Roughly: Work, work, save, save, build a wee house and die.

[Serial_Apologist]

Switzer Deutch often puts -li on word endings for diminutives - the German Ein Bischen becomes Ein (or Eis) Bischli.

[teamsaint]

The Swabians are especially noted for this -le appendage. A while ago an aunt of my wife's living in Stuttgart suddenly died of a stroke. A real case of Sod's Law - it was just after she retired. We went over and I remember we were chatting to the lady nextdoor with a strong Swabian twang, who referred to a "Gehirnschlägele" seeing her off. It struck us at the time but I suppose it's like a Scot saying something like "She had a wee stroke".

There is an apt Swabian adage which goes: Schaffe, schaffe, spare, spare, Häusle baue und verrecke". Roughly: Work, work, save, save, build a wee house and die.

Gurney, you might be interested in Chapter 2 of “ My Grandfather’s Knife” by Joseph Pearson.
it is a really fine ,very well written book that sold very badly.
in fact I recommend it to you all, not least because of a chapter about the Berlin Phil.

[cloughie]

The best time.
This may have come up on this thread before but - good time, great time but surely something has to be reallt special to be the best time!

[french frank]

The best time.
This may have come up on this thread before but - good time, great time but surely something has to be reallt special to be the best time!

But “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...", wunnit?

[smittims]

I've never liked 'me neether' (pronounced thus).

'I wouldn't have thought that.'

'Me neether' (nor would I).

'

[Serial_Apologist]

I've never liked 'me neether' (pronounced thus).

'

Nor me nyver - as we Cockneys would say!

Another mispronunciation, to me, is in pronouncing the "-shire" at the end of certain county names as "sheer", eg "Chesheer", or even "shire", as in breed of horse, when "sher" always used to suffice.

[Serial_Apologist]

I do not like the expression "passive aggressiveness", meaning keeping schtum rather than lashing out, verbally or otherwise. What is wrong with walking away to prevent worse? Is not space and time for cooling off preferable to escalation with no end in view? It is what wife-beaters were once advised to do in family counselling, but then "passive aggression" was made a label for cowardice. To me this amounts to emotional blackmail and even a come-on - I wear my passive-aggressive badge with pride.