Words, Phrases, and Misspellings We Hate

Morrus said:

Funny, I was going to say "math" and "Legos", both of which sound like toddler-speak to me!

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Ditto.

My toddler won't be getting away with either (even though we live in a country that uses American "English").

Jeff Carlsen said:

Actually, neither Lego nor Legos is officially correct. The correct term is either LEGO bricks or LEGO building blocks. LEGO is only the brand name, not the name of the individual blocks. That said, I'll always say Legos.

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In the spirit of this thread, I will simply point out that you are wrong.

Except about LEGO. Yes, it should be all capital letters.

Hey, LEGO my Eggo!

Dannyalcatraz said:

Hey, LEGO my Eggo!

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Like this?

"Snuck". NNNNOoooooooooo! No No No no no no no no no. Bad, wrong, false. "Sneaked." "Snuck" is incorrect.
"thier". I think that one explains itself.
"alot" also explains itself.
"You Go, Girl" No, you go: go get a brain
"near miss" I loved Carlin's logic. "'Oh look, they nearly missed.' Yeah, but they still hit! When two objects come close to each other, but don't hit, that's a Near-HIT." "If fire fighters fight fire, and crime fighters fight crime, what to Freedom Fighters fight?" Oh, no wonder the USA is always supporting "freedom fighters," especially in countries the US gov't doesn't like.
Forte' pronounced "For-tay". Wrong. "Fort".
Touche' is also "Toush", not "Too-shay".
Yeah, just about any time some pompous twit is trying to show off, but mispronouncing a foreign word is grating.
Antidisestablishmentarianism is not the longest word in the English language. The actual longest word is some skin condition my last girlfriend was telling me about.
Just because something makes you feel sad, does not make it a tragedy. Sorry. Tragedy means when someone is brought down by a flaw in their own character. Bus driving off a cliff killing everyone on board: not a tragedy. Get over it.
"Communist" and "Socialist" are also victims of being badly misused within political discourse.
"Irregardless" um, not without regard? that's a double negative.
"Decimate" means to kill 1/10, not 9/10s.
Using plural for unspecified gender. Sorry, in the English language, masculine is the default. Period. Has been for centuries. Get over it. Other option is to use "it" or "a person".
Political Correctness is responsible for some truly horrific atrocities to the English Language.

sabrinathecat said:

Just because something makes you feel sad, does not make it a tragedy. Sorry. Tragedy means when someone is brought down by a flaw in their own character. Bus driving off a cliff killing everyone on board: not a tragedy. Get over it.

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Might be nitpicky but wouldn't a bus driving off a cliff actually be a tragedy then? The bus driver was, quite literally, brought down by a flaw in his character (being an insufficient driver).

sabrinathecat said:

(snip) Using plural for unspecified gender. Sorry, in the English language, masculine is the default. Period. Has been for centuries. Get over it. Other option is to use "it" or "a person". Political Correctness is responsible for some truly horrific atrocities to the English Language.

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I must admit, I prefer "they" to the relatively new practice of alternating between "he" and "she" we see in the D&D books. And, no, I am not claiming to be politically correct.

n00bdragon said:

Might be nitpicky but wouldn't a bus driving off a cliff actually be a tragedy then? The bus driver was, quite literally, brought down by a flaw in his character (being an insufficient driver).

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Or was it the triumph of the cliff?

After all, the cliff proved itself to be the cliffiest of cliffs.

Scrivener of Doom said:

It's Lego. Singular. Plural. It's always just Lego.

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LEGO rules.

For the bus driver, maybe. Or maybe it was a case of the tire blowing out at the wrong time?
For the tourists, however, no, definitely not a tragedy. If anything, what a way to go! Here they are, having a good time, then suddenly kaboom! Everything is over. We should be so lucky. (OK, not quite as good as a heart attack during sex, but still not a bad way to go.)

There was a great couple of books called "Central Casting: Heroes _____" for generating random character histories. First 2 books were all done using proper English. Third book went to default female, and slapped in all manner of PCisms that were at best unfortunate. 3rd Ed D&D did a decent job of alternating the examples. 4e lost something in the transition.

RE: LEGO - My little one got several sets for his birthday and, whatever they're officially called, they're all over the floor in the room that's suitable for gaming (fire trucks, coast guard, police helicopter.... he's an addict). And I think I've seen every official Lego City movie more times than should be legally allowed. http://city.lego.com/en-us/movies/mini-movies/coast-guard

sabrinathecat said:

Using plural for unspecified gender. Sorry, in the English language, masculine is the default. Period. Has been for centuries. Get over it. Other option is to use "it" or "a person". Political Correctness is responsible for some truly horrific atrocities to the English Language.

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I refuse to bow to the 18th-century grammar police and their Latin fetish, and when someone complains about it I tell them exactly where they can go (to any number of links like these).

http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/singular-they-and-the-many-reasons-why-its-correct/
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/t...-is-wrong-please-do-tell-them-to-get-stuffed/
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/01/grammar

And, isn't indicating that you are unsure of the person's gender or leaving it unspecified when it could be either in fact more correct ("n accordance with fact, truth, or reason; free from error; exact, true, accurate; right."), with no political dogmatics required.

I will happily take correction of my often horrible comma usage.