Profpointy
Legendary Member
Agree - I hated it when they talked about "having a workshop" at work. A "workshop" is a place, not an activity.
"leverage" as a verb is another one
What English expression do you hate the most?
- Thread starter gavroche
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Agree - I hated it when they talked about "having a workshop" at work. A "workshop" is a place, not an activity.
"leverage" as a verb is another one
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
Define "Light engineering".
I call the place where I have my wood lathe and bandsaw the workshop, but would you call woodturning light engineering?
lazybloke
Today i follow the flying spaghetti monster
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
Machines that can remove fingers; that's definitely a workshop.
Much more so than the "workshops" I get involved with; which usually are a bunch of managers arguing about software in the cloud.
What if you have your workshop in the breakout area?
DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
"Leveraged" as a past participle/adjective has been used in the finance sector for the last 40-odd years.
It's a useful shorthand to distinguish a specific type of lease.
Gwylan
Veteran
- Location
- All at sea⛵
Also the fact that the transaction might be a bit risky - especially if it goes wrong.
Code for we could make a lot of money if it goes right and we are on the right end of the lever.
Frequently used by twerps in search of low hanging fruit!
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
It has a specific meaning in finance, but I agree it does get used randomly at times when it might sound good. It's been around in financial circles for donkeys years. I think it probably originated to put a nice gloss on something that was very risky. "Being highly leveraged" sounds better than "up to your eyeballs in debt".
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Well if you're going to take things absolutely literally the alternatives aren't so great. They are all products of the fact that we're paranoid about giving orders to people.
"I would like a cup of tea" is just a statement of fact, not a request. It leaves it up to the other party to decide what to do about your desire. The response might be "Would you indeed? So what's stopping you from asking for one?"
"I'll have a cup of tea" is more like a prediction. If all goes well, in five minutes I will have a cup of tea. We still don't know how this is going to come about.
"May I have a cup of tea" is speculating on the possibility of having a cup of tea some time in future. The answer might be "Yes, you may, but first you must order it".
"Can I get a cup of tea" is not much better. It's asking whether it's possible to obtain a cup of tea. It's a bit redundant though, especially if there is a sign above the counter advertising tea. Of course you can get tea here. It's a tea shop.
But all these phrases are dancing around the fact that we are giving an instruction to the person serving. Why not just "Give me a cup of tea!", or if we are feeling polite "Please give me a cup of tea".
Best to just be brief. "A cup of tea, please." OK, it's not a proper sentence as it lacks a verb, but it's unambiguous, to the point, and has "please" on the end, so it's polite.
Of course, they all work. They all get the message across, which is what language is for.
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Jameshow
Veteran
Talking to a mate at school fair about Asda and that's gone bad pretty spectacularly since the brothers brought it!
Jameshow
Veteran
When people use the word Thankyou.
When they mean nothing of the sort.
I hate your guts would be a better option....
glasgowcyclist
Charming but somewhat feckless
- Location
- Scotland
Okay, this doesn’t relate to an expression so much as strange punctuation.
I’ll give you two examples and I’d be grateful if anyone could explain this baffling usage, which appears to be a younger generation thing.
I recently sent a WhatsApp message to my daughter, asking if she’d like to come to a dinner event with me. Her reply was, “I don’t think I’ll have time?” What is the question mark doing there?
Later, in an exchange about drinking tequila, she wrote, “I never do salt and lime?” Again, what’s with the question mark?
These are, to me, statements and not questions so I’m puzzled as to the use of the interrogative.
Anybody else come across this?
I’ll give you two examples and I’d be grateful if anyone could explain this baffling usage, which appears to be a younger generation thing.
I recently sent a WhatsApp message to my daughter, asking if she’d like to come to a dinner event with me. Her reply was, “I don’t think I’ll have time?” What is the question mark doing there?
Later, in an exchange about drinking tequila, she wrote, “I never do salt and lime?” Again, what’s with the question mark?
These are, to me, statements and not questions so I’m puzzled as to the use of the interrogative.
Anybody else come across this?
lazybloke
Today i follow the flying spaghetti monster
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
Profpointy
Legendary Member
To be fair I don't mind the finance meaning as it's quite specific. It's using it as management bullshit I find irritating
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
It seems to be noting something as uncertain, though the second one may just be querying why you had said something (were you suggesting she try it?).
But is does always seem an odd usage to me as well.
