What English expression do you hate the most?

[Beebo]

I heard one today in a cafe when ordering food
“Can I swap out x for y”

Why say swap out? Just say swap.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I heard one today in a cafe when ordering food
“Can I swap out x for y”

Why say swap out? Just say swap.

I'm imagining you grabbing the confused and surprised offender by the lapels and demanding an explanation.

 

[yello]

I don't like the term 'passed' when they mean 'died'.

In France, they sometimes say 'left us'. That one had be baffled at first. My instant thought was 'where have they gone?' but obviously you twig in context and don't make an embarrassment of yourself.

 

[Moon bunny]

Well here's a the merriam-webster definition.
: hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women
And Cambridge
feelings of hating women, or the belief that men are much better than women

Others are similar.

Maybe the definition's become a bit broader or you just remembered the first bit.

Remember , dictionaries record, they don’t prescribe (on the whole). If the population use a word with a certain meaning that is what it means. Still, there are far more important things to worry about, I won’t get hysterical about the meaning of misogyny.

 

[DaveReading]

I heard one today in a cafe when ordering food
“Can I swap out x for y”

Why say swap out? Just say swap.

If you say "Can I swap beans for peas?", which do you want to end up with?

 

[Beebo]

If you say "Can I swap beans for peas?", which do you want to end up with?

Which ever one wasn’t there in the first place.

 

[yello]

If the population use a word with a certain meaning that is what it means.

This. A thousand times over.

 

[Gwylan]

If you say "Can I swap beans for peas?", which do you want to end up with?

The answer is yes?
But do you want to?

 

[Yellow Fang]

Remember , dictionaries record, they don’t prescribe (on the whole). If the population use a word with a certain meaning that is what it means. Still, there are far more important things to worry about, I won’t get hysterical about the meaning of misogyny.

I should have told my English teacher that when I flunked my spelling tests. The whole population uses the word 'literally' wrong. In fact they use it to mean the opposite of what it meant. This is because people started hearing the word, thought they understood its meaning from the context, but could not be bothered to look it up before using it themselves.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I should have told my English teacher that when I flunked my spelling tests. The whole population uses the word 'literally' wrong. In fact they use it to mean the opposite of what it meant. This is because people started hearing the word, thought they understood its meaning from the context, but could not be bothered to look it up before using it themselves.

Literally the whole population?

 

[Yellow Fang]

Literally the whole population?

Virtually or effectively.

 

[Ian H]

William Barnes had the right idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_purism_in_English

 

[yello]

I enjoy a creative and original usage of language. Children can be good at it exactly because they don't know the rules and just use it as they feel it. I'm not a fan though of usage that sounds like a thesaurus has been used. You can be original and make yourself understood without trying to sound clever.

 

[Yellow Fang]

In my case it will probably mean "passed wind, then died."

Probably because you tried to light it.

 

[Aescott]

Not a thing I can imagine I would do twice

You’re lucky you’ve got one that only needs told once.