Pesky spell-check! And word characterizations do change from time to time. Anyone remember when Alexander Haig gave a speech in the 80s and turned the word "impact" into a verb? Suddenly it became popular to talk about how something "impacted" this or that.
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-22-04 AT 11:02AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Now, we've got the word "imbed" being used as a noun, to describe the media folks imbedded into the fighting units in Iraq!
My biggest pet peeve was already brought up - the mispronunciation of the word "nuclear". My husband has taken to deliberately mispronouncing it now becuase he knows I'll react harshly!
My second biggest pet peeve seems to be common in this part of the country and Pennsylvania - dropping "to be" out of a sentence. For example, "my car needs fixed" - no, your car needs TO BE fixed!
Then, there are the malapropisms that sneak into many people's language. I had a plant manager once who was always commenting on the importance of good business "ethnics" - this had nothing to do with equal employment opportunity. (He also used to pronounce "misconstrued" ans "misconscrewed".)
Here's one that I'm pretty sure is an Iowa thing: "that's not too terrible bad". It makes me flinch every time. I can handle a major crisis without even blinking, but use an adjective in place of an adverb and I go nuts.
I'm from Nebraska - so I can make fun of "Iowejans". So there.
My pet peeve: When somebody needs pens for example, maybe two or three, a common phrase is, "Can I have a couple three pens?" I don't know if that means two or three, but I'll hand some over and move on in life. Very odd.
Comments
My biggest pet peeve was already brought up - the mispronunciation of the word "nuclear". My husband has taken to deliberately mispronouncing it now becuase he knows I'll react harshly!
My second biggest pet peeve seems to be common in this part of the country and Pennsylvania - dropping "to be" out of a sentence. For example, "my car needs fixed" - no, your car needs TO BE fixed!
Then, there are the malapropisms that sneak into many people's language. I had a plant manager once who was always commenting on the importance of good business "ethnics" - this had nothing to do with equal employment opportunity. (He also used to pronounce "misconstrued" ans "misconscrewed".)
I'm from Nebraska - so I can make fun of "Iowejans". So there.
Snafu, Fubar, tango uniform and Fiigmo. :oo