Annoying Phrases
(today’s post: 242 words)
There was a bit on the news the other night about a group from Oxford coming up with a list of their top 10 most annoying phrases - a mix of overused phrases and mistakes.
As someone who loves language my ears perked up.
Yes, I have a strange fascination with such things (specifically punctuation, etymology, and the origin of phrases - how nerdy is that?!) and I actually got a little excited when I spotted one of my “favorites” in their top ten: “shouldn’t of”. Wired commented on the list as well and surreptitiously tossed in a couple more - including “could care less“.
My favorite phrase that didn’t make the cut is “try and” - as in “I’ll try and do it”. It’s one of those things where if you say it there’s doesn’t seem to be a problem but if you think about the expression you realize it’s a mixed message of redundancy. “I’ll try - and I’ll do it.” How about “I’ll try *to* do it” instead?
The first couple errors make more sense to me because our writing is mirroring the way we speak. “Should have” is contracted as “should’ve” and sounds like “should of”. “Could care less” probably comes from a similar sloppiness with pronunciation. But “try and”? That one perplexes me. 
OK, now I turn it over to you. Comments? Your own favorites?
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Although, I’ve surely mention this before, but the continued use of phrases like “Alleged Suspect” in the media really gets my Constitutional goat… not to mention the use of “National Security” as a justification, as if it trumps the Constitution.
Then there are countless political buzzwords and slurs, like “Most Liberal” and “Democrat Party”, which really need to be retired.
Then there are the obviously false pleasantries, like “Good Morning”… Mornings are the ‘Monday’ part of every day, when are they ever good? When will these be replaced by truer statements like, “Smell you later”?
Hahaha, good additions all.