Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

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  • Pulcinella
    Host
    • Feb 2014
    • 10887

    Originally posted by french frank View Post

    If it doesn't irritate you and doesn't irritate him, why bother? Language will evolve no matter who that irritates. One can objectively notice these changes; one may find explanations for them; but at some point during our (long) lives we have all unconsciously adopted neologisms. Interesting or irritating? We can refuse to adopt the coinages that we don't like, but - King Canute and all that.
    I don't want folk to think I'm not intelligent!

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    • french frank
      Administrator/Moderator
      • Feb 2007
      • 30241

      Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post

      I don't want folk to think I'm not intelligent!
      They'll probably just think you're younger than you are!
      It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

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      • Pulcinella
        Host
        • Feb 2014
        • 10887

        Originally posted by french frank View Post

        They'll probably just think you're younger than you are!
        They certainly do at the primary school where I help out: they were encouraging me to get tramlines in my latest haircut.

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        • teamsaint
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 25193

          Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post

          They certainly do at the primary school where I help out: they were encouraging me to get tramlines in my latest haircut.
          Get a really good stylist and they might be able to add a tram station design.

          ( I agree with you, train station is fine. I prefer railway station , but ,you know, it works great ……)
          I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

          I am not a number, I am a free man.

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          • gradus
            Full Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 5603

            Featured in this evening's classical concert on BBC4, 'Devorak' according to the BBC continuity announcer. At least they say it correctly on R3.

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            • Russ
              Full Member
              • Nov 2023
              • 22

              'leverage' is one of my current urrgghh words.

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              • Serial_Apologist
                Full Member
                • Dec 2010
                • 37589

                Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

                It's strange that we never hear people speak of Janruary, even though many say Febuary - I suppose it's possible they spell it that way.
                Now we have an American voice presenting a new TV ad pronouncing it as Febuary! Back in the 1950s American voices and actors were used as a permissibility conduit for male role model(l)ing and free market abundance; but why do "they" still use Americans today for selling product values in the age of Trump? "You know it makes sense"

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                • oliver sudden
                  Full Member
                  • Feb 2024
                  • 599

                  Originally posted by gradus View Post
                  Featured in this evening's classical concert on BBC4, 'Devorak' according to the BBC continuity announcer. At least they say it correctly on R3.
                  Do they really say Dvořák correctly on Radio 3? That would be most impressive. Even some Czechs can’t manage the ř sound. (There were a couple of presidents in a row who couldn’t (Havel being one!), giving rise to the joke that being able to pronounce it disqualified one from the post.)

                  Comment

                  • Pulcinella
                    Host
                    • Feb 2014
                    • 10887

                    Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

                    Now we have an American voice presenting a new TV ad pronouncing it as Febuary! Back in the 1950s American voices and actors were used as a permissibility conduit for male role model(l)ing and free market abundance; but why do "they" still use Americans today for selling product values in the age of Trump? "You know it makes sense"
                    Special team points at the primary school where I help out for pupils who get both Wednesday and February correct when they write the date in their 'literacy' books. There's one such coming up tomorrow!

                    Comment

                    • oliver sudden
                      Full Member
                      • Feb 2024
                      • 599

                      Please don’t tell me that you lot on the sceptred isle who pronounce all the letters in February do the same for Wednesday…

                      Comment

                      • Pulcinella
                        Host
                        • Feb 2014
                        • 10887

                        Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post
                        Please don’t tell me that you lot on the sceptred isle who pronounce all the letters in February do the same for Wednesday…
                        Wensday or Weddunsday?
                        It's the spelling they need to get right if they're of the Wensday brigade.
                        I do try to be more Wednusday myself, ha ha!

                        Comment

                        • Roger Webb
                          Full Member
                          • Feb 2024
                          • 753

                          Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post
                          Do they really say Dvořák correctly on Radio 3? That would be most impressive. Even some Czechs can’t manage the ř sound. (There were a couple of presidents in a row who couldn’t (Havel being one!), giving rise to the joke that being able to pronounce it disqualified one from the post.)
                          Easier for BBC presenters to get correct, but they never do, are '...berg' endings in Scandinavian names, Lindberg, Atterberg, et al. BTW it's ....bery, so Atterbery, Lindbery, etc.

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                          • vinteuil
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 12788

                            Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post
                            Please don’t tell me that you lot on the sceptred isle who pronounce all the letters in February do the same for Wednesday…
                            ... it's /wenzdi/ .

                            My mother wd say that only governesses pronounce it /wednezday/ ....

                            .

                            Comment

                            • smittims
                              Full Member
                              • Aug 2022
                              • 4078

                              In my experience it's always been quite common for English speakers to say 'weddensday'. I've always said 'wensday'.

                              Comment

                              • gradus
                                Full Member
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 5603

                                Lerner and Loewe/GBS had it right: '... the moment he opens his mouth he makes some other Englishman despise him ...'

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