Your Biggest English Language Gripes

Maeve is in now, similar to Mavis. I can see Doris coming back. It is quite a cute name with a little weight because of the sound. And younger parents don’t have the associations.

With the regrettable popularity of creative spellings it'll probably come back as D'orrhysz.

In all seriousness I used to teach a child called L'-a.






(pronounced Le-dasher.)

I've just been reminded of one my particular bugbears SO STRONGLY that I simply had to dig this thread out of retirement (and read the whole thing again just for fun):

"I'm sorry but"

It's bad enough if you are actually trying to apologise, as the very presence of the "but" immediately invalidates the apology part (in an apology, you're meant to be taking ownership of the deed you're apologising for, not justifying or explaining it), but so many people aren't even trying to apologise. They're almost always using it as shorthand for "the following statement is what I think and I want you to know up front that I will not be apologising for it".

Either way, whether you're using it as part of a "genuine" apology or whether it's just the way you've chosen to start your sentence, it's just about the most insincere three-word phrase I can possibly imagine, and the world would be a far better place if people just stopped. If you want to use "but" then it's not really an apology in any way, shape, or form, and you can save valuable seconds by just not pretending you're sorry in the first place.

It doesn't even come from insecurity half the time. It's difficult to read tone when people are using it on an online discussion board, but the most frequent offender in my everyday life uses a very confident, strident tone of voice when saying it. I don't mind an unnecessary "I'm sorry" coming from a person who has nothing to apologise for (I think this is a cultural difference; in the US, it seems "I'm sorry" is an admission of guilt, whereas in the UK we more frequently use it as an expression of empathy ), but I do mind when it's said with absolute blistering insincerity.

"Should of", "could of" and "would of" drive me insane

I think they mean the use of "of" instead of "have."

Thank you for bringing this up again. I’m seeing it on a daily basis at the moment and it baffles me how this still continues to happen.

“Excited for...” is a newish one. You can only be excited for someone else. As in, “Oh you’re going to Las Vegas! I’m so excited for you!”

It’s “excited about.” I’m excited about seeing the new production of Absolute Hell.

I often use the phrase “I’m sorry if you feel” etc when I am exhausted by a circular argument and want to bring it to a conclusion. In such cases both parties disagree and there’s no way of bridging the divide so I express my genuine concern that the other person is upset but can’t apologise for something which I think is a misunderstanding.

It feels like “gotten” is slowly creeping over this side of the pond too. Every time I hear someone use it who isn’t from USA/ Canada I cringe inside.