Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[vinteuil]

Shop assistants are commonly instructed never to say to a prospective client 'how can I help you?' because management teaches that it 'invites a negative response'. Honestly!

!

... one trick the British shop staff don't seem to have : I have always admired the consistent riposte in France from, say, staff in a greengrocer's or a butcher's, each time you buy, say, a lettuce or a chop - "... et avec ça? " [ "... and to go with that?" ] - nudging the purchaser to think of buying something else in addition. A good, and effective, ploy - I'm surprised it isn't as regularly encountered over here...

[kernelbogey]

Doesn't exactly set my teeth on edge, but what does 'take a rain check' mean when you decline something? (actually, it does rather smtoe when it's used by people who don't know what it means, as I suspect most don't)

At Baseball games (described by Jeeves as 'a game like cricket, only for children'), when the game is stopped because of rain you are given a check (ticket) to come to the event when it is completed. (I.e. 'I'll do that another time, thank you.)

Or something like that....

Edit: I think Jeeves may have said 'a game like cricket, or perhaps more like our rounders'.)

[french frank]

Shop assistants (including "baristas") who say something like "y'arigh?" (presumably = "are you alright?")

I have a neighbour who calls that out in the street and nothing seems to be the right reply when she isn't stopping for a conversation ('Yes, thank you, y'arigh?' or 'Hello' or ...).

[french frank]

At Baseball games (described by Jeeves as 'a game like cricket, only for children'), when the game is stopped because of rain you are given a check (ticket) to come to the event when it is completed. (I.e. 'I'll do that another time, thank you.)

Yes, or even: 'Thanks for the invitation. I can't actually come on that day but will come on another day if you'd be kind enough to invite me.'

[Nick Armstrong]

I have a neighbour who calls that out in the street and nothing seems to be the right reply when she isn't stopping for a conversation ('Yes, thank you, y'arigh?' or 'Hello' or ...).

I usually find that a quick "Fine thanks" with a smile does the trick...

[kernelbogey]

When I were a lad in Cornwall, the accepted formula was:
A: Orright?
B: Right on!

[Nick Armstrong]

... one trick the British shop staff don't seem to have : I have always admired the consistent riposte in France from, say, staff in a greengrocer's or a butcher's, each time you buy, say, a lettuce or a chop - "... et avec ça? " [ "... and to go with that?" ] - nudging the purchaser to think of buying something else in addition. A good, and effective, ploy - I'm surprised it isn't as regularly encountered over here...

I tend to find that mildly annoying, on the basis that if there were anything 'avec ça' I would already have asked. So they generally get a "c'est tout" from me.

[cloughie]

When I were a lad in Cornwall, the accepted formula was:
A: Orright?
B: Right on!

where are we to?

[Flosshilde]

... one trick the British shop staff don't seem to have : I have always admired the consistent riposte in France from, say, staff in a greengrocer's or a butcher's, each time you buy, say, a lettuce or a chop - "... et avec ça? " [ "... and to go with that?" ] - nudging the purchaser to think of buying something else in addition. A good, and effective, ploy - I'm surprised it isn't as regularly encountered over here...

In Italy, on the other hand, I think shop assistants say 'Basta', meaning 'Is that everything?'. In Scotland (or at least in Glasgow) the equivelant is 'Is that you?'.

[cloughie]

On BBC1 Breakfast when the sports presenter is introduced as ....and with all the sport - we know that there will be a small token bit from a number of sports, usually politically regionally correct so as to include Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland including items of little interest to most viewers and excluding mention of any football in England below Premiership level. Then as a special treat on Saturday mornings we have the presenter making an idiot of himself trying out some minority sport.

Another annoying expression is "sea change"

[Petrushka]

Have we got this far without anyone mentioning singing from the same hymn sheet? Unless I've missed it.

[Roslynmuse]

"Equally as good/bad/indifferent as..."

"I'm loving the Bruckner" [on two counts ]

[ahinton]

I tend to find that mildly annoying, on the basis that if there were anything 'avec ça' I would already have asked. So they generally get a "c'est tout" from me.

But if you were in the vicinity of La Rochelle they'd probably assume from what they got from you that you must be an English whatever-it-was-that-Mr-Mitchell-did-or-did-not-call-a-policeman whose ability in terms of correct French pronunciation did not extend to cétaux...

[ahinton]

Another annoying expression is "sea change"

Especially if you live on the coast, in NJ, NY, Connecticut, Staten Island...

[Pabmusic]

Interesting one Alps. I think in US usage 'smart' can be an adverb as well as an adjective. E.g. 'Act smart'.

Not that it would make it less irritating for you, of course.

It's not just in US English. Here's Michael Quinion on wrong and wrongly:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-wro2.htm

Interesting to see that wrong has been used adverbially since at least the 12th Century. We owe to those 17th and 18th-Century classical scholars the credit for so much of our linguistic pedantry.