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And why....

Tell me words that make you cringe when you hear them....I have two:

1. "Like", but only when it is, like, used in, like, all the wrong ways. Like when a, like, teenage girl, like, uses it, like, all the time, you know?

2. "Literally", because it is used in exactly the wrong way sooooo often.
I got thinking about this listening to Monday Night Football, and one of the announcers said, "The Jets just literally shot themselves in the foot with that play." No they didn't. They figuratively shot themselves in the foot. If they had literally been using guns on the field, the stadium likely would have had to have been evacuated.

I'm a HUGE user of "like". I HATE when people use "literally" for the same reason as CP.

The other one that bugs me is "per se" and when people say "orientated" instead of "oriented."

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

CaptainP wrote:And why....

Tell me words that make you cringe when you hear them....I have two:

1. "Like", but only when it is, like, used in, like, all the wrong ways. Like when a, like, teenage girl, like, uses it, like, all the time, you know?

2. "Literally", because it is used in exactly the wrong way sooooo often.
I got thinking about this listening to Monday Night Football, and one of the announcers said, "The Jets just literally shot themselves in the foot with that play." No they didn't. They figuratively shot themselves in the foot. If they had literally been using guns on the field, the stadium likely would have had to have been evacuated.

LOL! I LOVE what you're saying in No. 2

Along the same lines is people saying absolutely instead of just yes.
And I hate reading a book or article where the writer thinks they have to keep coming up with synonyms for "said," i.e, expostulated, exlaimed, retorted, stated, ad nauseum.

buffettbride wrote:I'm a HUGE user of "like". I HATE when people use "literally" for the same reason as CP.

The other one that bugs me is "per se" and when people say "orientated" instead of "oriented."

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

or "located at" instead of just "located" or just "at."

"Where are you at?" instead of just "Where are you?"

I have to think. Hmmmm.

I hate these words - but really only in this order: "You have no money."

That's just Crap-town Mega.

Or in giving directions, when they say, "When the road dead-ends, you take a left and keep going." If the road dead-ends, you can't keep going.
Why not just, "when the road ends"?

by the way, Mings: SPEW!

Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"

How many authors WAY overuse that word? WAY too many.

Here's an example from Alexander McCall Smith's latest book, FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE....He's a much too good a storyteller to be this sloppy.

"He moved away. It was the longest conversation THAT Isabel had ever had with him, and she was suprised by the fact THAT Eddie had picked up on Cat's attitude toward Tomasso. She had assumed THAT he would be indifferent to such matters, but now she realised THAT this might be a serious underestimation of the young man's powers of observation...We ignore quiet people...we forget THAT they are watching."

Take out the THATs, the prose reads the same. So where the HECK was the editor on this one?

Journalists are letting the word creep into their reporting, too. TIME, NEWSWEEK and even my morning paper....just wears me slap out!

East Texas Parrothead wrote:Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"

How many authors WAY overuse that word? WAY too many.

Here's an example from Alexander McCall Smith's latest book, FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE....He's a much too good a storyteller to be this sloppy.

"He moved away. It was the longest conversation THAT Isabel had ever had with him, and she was suprised by the fact THAT Eddie had picked up on Cat's attitude toward Tomasso. She had assumed THAT he would be indifferent to such matters, but now she realised THAT this might be a serious underestimation of the young man's powers of observation...We ignore quiet people...we forget THAT they are watching."

Take out the THATs, the prose reads the same. So where the HECK was the editor on this one?

Journalists are letting the word creep into their reporting, too. TIME, NEWSWEEK and even my morning paper....just wears me slap out!

That's quite a shame...isn't that?

"aks" instead of ask.

Typed, the word "alot". It's A LOT.. do you type "alittle"?

There's more.. but I'll have to think on it.

Not the words so much as the way people use them!

I stay over in Tampa. You STAY in a hotel... you live in Tampa!

I am done! Dinner is DONE...you are finished!

oh Oh! I got another one. It's a phrase (does that count?). I can't stand when people don't finish their question. For instance, when people say "Have you been?" or " Do you want to come with?"
WTF! Can't they say the final word?!!? It's not that hard. I'm all about syllable conservation but this is just ridiculous.

East Texas Parrothead wrote:Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"

How many authors WAY overuse that word? WAY too many.

Here's an example from Alexander McCall Smith's latest book, FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE....He's a much too good a storyteller to be this sloppy.

"He moved away. It was the longest conversation THAT Isabel had ever had with him, and she was suprised by the fact THAT Eddie had picked up on Cat's attitude toward Tomasso. She had assumed THAT he would be indifferent to such matters, but now she realised THAT this might be a serious underestimation of the young man's powers of observation...We ignore quiet people...we forget THAT they are watching."

Take out the THATs, the prose reads the same. So where the HECK was the editor on this one?

Journalists are letting the word creep into their reporting, too. TIME, NEWSWEEK and even my morning paper....just wears me slap out!

You're going to edit my book, right? The one about following Jimmy on tour, right after I win the lottery....

And I bet if you were Janet Evanovich's editor, she wouldn't have misspelled "Jimmy Buffet" [SIC]

When someone lives in the northern part of the country, and they're going 'up' to somewhere in the south.

East Texas Parrothead wrote:Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"

How many authors WAY overuse that word? WAY too many.

Here's an example from Alexander McCall Smith's latest book, FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE....He's a much too good a storyteller to be this sloppy.

"He moved away. It was the longest conversation THAT Isabel had ever had with him, and she was suprised by the fact THAT Eddie had picked up on Cat's attitude toward Tomasso. She had assumed THAT he would be indifferent to such matters, but now she realised THAT this might be a serious underestimation of the young man's powers of observation...We ignore quiet people...we forget THAT they are watching."

Take out the THATs, the prose reads the same. So where the HECK was the editor on this one?

Journalists are letting the word creep into their reporting, too. TIME, NEWSWEEK and even my morning paper....just wears me slap out!

AGREED ETP! Also, my HS English teacher would give us an automatic F if we ever started a sentence with "It was" or "It is" or "There is." Just lazy writing.

CaptainP wrote:

East Texas Parrothead wrote:Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"

How many authors WAY overuse that word? WAY too many.

Here's an example from Alexander McCall Smith's latest book, FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE....He's a much too good a storyteller to be this sloppy.

"He moved away. It was the longest conversation THAT Isabel had ever had with him, and she was suprised by the fact THAT Eddie had picked up on Cat's attitude toward Tomasso. She had assumed THAT he would be indifferent to such matters, but now she realised THAT this might be a serious underestimation of the young man's powers of observation...We ignore quiet people...we forget THAT they are watching."

Take out the THATs, the prose reads the same. So where the HECK was the editor on this one?

Journalists are letting the word creep into their reporting, too. TIME, NEWSWEEK and even my morning paper....just wears me slap out!

That's quite a shame...isn't that?

That's such a shame that you can't realize that it's just not worth it to do that all the time when you could do the other thing before you did that, isn't that?

SchoolGirlHeart wrote:

East Texas Parrothead wrote:Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"

How many authors WAY overuse that word? WAY too many.

Here's an example from Alexander McCall Smith's latest book, FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE....He's a much too good a storyteller to be this sloppy.

"He moved away. It was the longest conversation THAT Isabel had ever had with him, and she was suprised by the fact THAT Eddie had picked up on Cat's attitude toward Tomasso. She had assumed THAT he would be indifferent to such matters, but now she realised THAT this might be a serious underestimation of the young man's powers of observation...We ignore quiet people...we forget THAT they are watching."

Take out the THATs, the prose reads the same. So where the HECK was the editor on this one?

Journalists are letting the word creep into their reporting, too. TIME, NEWSWEEK and even my morning paper....just wears me slap out!

You're going to edit my book, right? The one about following Jimmy on tour, right after I win the lottery....

And I bet if you were Janet Evanovich's editor, she wouldn't have misspelled "Jimmy Buffet" [SIC]

You have a deal, Waikiki Wahine!

East Texas Parrothead wrote:Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"." !

wow ....brings back memories of english class...11th grade... Mrs Odrabena said... when you finish a paper go back and eliminate every THAT you find and replace it with a real word...LOL

had to edit my THAT out....

CaptainP wrote:

East Texas Parrothead wrote:Unnecessary use of the word - "THAT"

How many authors WAY overuse that word? WAY too many.

Here's an example from Alexander McCall Smith's latest book, FRIENDS, LOVERS AND CHOCOLATE....He's a much too good a storyteller to be this sloppy.

"He moved away. It was the longest conversation THAT Isabel had ever had with him, and she was suprised by the fact THAT Eddie had picked up on Cat's attitude toward Tomasso. She had assumed THAT he would be indifferent to such matters, but now she realised THAT this might be a serious underestimation of the young man's powers of observation...We ignore quiet people...we forget THAT they are watching."

Take out the THATs, the prose reads the same. So where the HECK was the editor on this one?

Journalists are letting the word creep into their reporting, too. TIME, NEWSWEEK and even my morning paper....just wears me slap out!

That's quite a shame...isn't that?

I was always taught to avoid using "that," "which," and "who" as much as possible.

carolinagirl wrote: AGREED ETP! Also, my HS English teacher would give us an automatic F if we ever started a sentence with "It was" or "It is" or "There is." Just lazy writing.

Passive voice. Not good. Not good at all. Lazy writing...but what about the editors/publishers who let the authors get away with it? I know budgetary restraints have reduced the number of working editors, but egads!

Alexander McCall Smith is an attorney and has taught in Africa and Scotland. He wrote the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, for Pete's sake.

I had a difficult time finishing the book because of all the THATs. I counted 10 in one paragraph.

Blech.

I literally didn't know that, like there were so many things that people, like, don't like!