What English expression do you hate the most?

[Accy cyclist]

"We must learn from our mistakes", sometimes followed by "to make sure it never happens again"! Used quite often by government ministers, heads of social services, the NHS etc.

 

[FrankCrank]

During my office days back there, we had stake holders and movers & shakers.
You had to be one of these to get a good appraisal. I never got a good appraisal.

One fella there, after a call to his Mrs, always signed off with toodle pip, which was a tad annoying.

 

[raleighnut]

I hate it when coppers call me 'Sonny' as in "Move along sonny" when I'm probably older than their Grandfather (If they knew who he was)

I don't like being called 'Sir' either especially in that condescending voice when you can tell they mean 'Oh just fark off and die'

 

[Brandane]

English people with certain regional accents; the place where you keep your socks is a "drawER", not a "draw"! And, the past tense of buy is "bought", not "bRought" (which is the past tense of bring). As in, you bought a new chest of drawers for your bedroom. Not "I brought a new chest of draws for my bedroom". Learn to rrrrroll your RRRRR's like us Scottish people who speak prrrrroper English!

 

[All uphill]

"Your call is important to us"

 

[Drago]

"Your call is important to us"

Ooh, that's good one.

They really mean, "your call is important to us...but not important enough to answer yet."

 

[ianrauk]

Any politician who answers an interviewers question with either 'Listen' or 'Look'.
There's a special place in hell for those people.

 

[Andy in Germany]

"We reached out" annoys me intensely. No, you bloody emailed/phoned/wrote a letter.

Reach out is only ever acceptable when it's being sung by The Four Tops.

Reached out is used a lot at work. I reached out to you...no you didn't, you are in a different building, you telephoned me.

Reach out - is a much hated US import in my book.

I'm glad I'm not alone on this one. It always sounds pretentious to me, like the speaker is implying it was a particularly arduous or courageous deed for which they deserve a medal, when as others have said they simply made a phone call.

 

[Moon bunny]

My pet linguistic hate is the use of "kick start", "kick off" or "kick in" instead of "begin", "commence" or even boring plain old "start". I wonder if it shows frustrated violence is pent up inside the speaker.

 

[Jody]

”can I get…” annoys me. Not as much as “I’m good” when you ask how someone is. I always want to reply ‘good at what?’

In a similar ilk it grinds me when people say "give me a......" or any general demand rather than asking.

 

[Gwylan]

English people with certain regional accidents; the place where you keep your socks is a "drawER", not a "draw"! And, the past tense of buy is "bought", not "bRought" (which is the past tense of bring). As in, you bought a new chest of drawers for your bedroom. Not "I brought a new chest of draws for my bedroom". Learn to rrrrroll your RRRRR's like us Scottish people who speak prrrrroper English!

Draws, what you put on in winter
Drawers, where you store your draws in the meantime.

 

[Alex321]

Draws, what you put on in winter
Drawers, where you store your draws in the meantime.

What are the draws you put on in winter?

I genuinely have no idea what you are referring to there, presumably a regional thing.

 

[mistyoptic]

So. I think, like, one of my many irritants, you know, is "it is what it is" but then, like, when the guy next to me says "can I get"...

 

[Gwylan]

So. I think, like, one of my many irritants, you know, is "it is what it is" but then, like, when the guy next to me says "can I get"...

"That was then, this is now"

 

[Gunk]

"We reached out" annoys me intensely. No, you bloody emailed/phoned/wrote a letter. Use that expression near me and I'll reach out with my right fist.

I also cant stand "bear with me" fo some reason.

And the lazy, pointless, stupid shortening of words make me want to start taking hostage, "merch" being the latest example to bring out my inner Norman Bates.

“Uni” drives me mad, I still call it University, fortunately so do both my kids