Slovenly speech, incorrect grammar etc.

And how about people who use 'could of' instead of the correct 'could have' etc? I find that so annoying.

What is really getting to me lately is leaving the "s" off.
"She weighs 8 stone" "It cost fifty pound".
NO!!! It's "stones" and "pounds".

Love this thread, thank you ladies for letting me know I am not alone ....

I'm absolutely with woodlark on the 'haitch' pronunciation. I'd also like to add "mischeee-ve'us. It makes me want to curl up and cry. ???

One of my pet hates is rising intonation at the end of a sentence, which suggests that it’s a question when it’s actually a statement.
I’m always tempted to say “Are you asking me or telling me?”
Another annoyance is ’Ibeetha’ (Ibiza). When I learnt Spanish there was no ‘I’ sound in the language, just ‘ee’. It should be pronounced ‘Eebeetha’.
The use of ‘good’ in answer to “How are you?” is infuriating; have you been a good boy/girl, or do you mean you are well?!

That's a bit harsh hillwalker America has its regional accents too. There are lots of loud opinionated Brits as well.

I am stood here, I am sat here, and worst of all, every time I turn on radio 4 there is a wretched American speaking, I use the term lightly, we have wonderful regional accents, we have Welsh, Scottish, Irish accents, why do we have to have loud opinionated yank voices that grate and irritate, stay in America and leave us to our own melodious accents.

Pacific instead is specific

Long and thin instead of long and narrow always makes me yell at the tv. I've never seen a thin room or garden, any more than I've seen a fat one!

grannyben I don't know where your GCs went to school in Scotland but at no time did I learn or teach Hitch Eye Jeye!

grannyben ?
My current irritations when it comes to spoken English on the BBC are ter for to and beginning a sentence with So
When My DC went to school in Scotland they had to relearn the alphabet. Aitch, Eye, Jay became Hitch Eye Jeye (to rhyme with eye)
Nostalgic strains from Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady and why can't the English teach their children how to speak and to set a good example to people whose English is painful to your ears. The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears. There even are places where English completely disappears, In America they haven't used it for years.

My favourite is Chester draws

Some of the examples quoted are, I agree, examples of incorrect speech - such as prostrate for prostate. However, language does evolve. If you listen to recordings from the 1950's, people speak completely differently. Many people had cut-glass accents which, by today's standards, sound very affected.

I like to speak reasonably well so I can be understood by anybody but without a posh plum in my mouth.

I love the variety of accents we have in the UK and other English speaking countries.

I'm a bit of a glottal stopper. but I never say would of or could of.

My most hated speech defect is the glottal stop, or missing "t". E.g. par*y, nine*een, li*le etc.
"Would of" and "should of" both give me apoplexy.
At grammar school in the 1950s I was taught "similar to, different from" but apparently it no longer applies.
But the worst is "HAITCH". As in HaitchBos, HaitchR2,
HaitchIV etc. OMG, whatever happened to Aitch?

Pollyperkins I do agree especially about "issues". 'Issues' is a metaphor which has become debased by inappropriate usage. 'Issues' meaning problems or troubles is still a good metaphor when the word refers to a source problem from which the other problem or problems issue. Like a wound issues blood or pus.

mabon1. Do you really say “from where did it come?” That should be “from whence did it come?”, surely? I’m an old rebel, I say “where did it come from?” ?

I think it is always valuable to know the rules before you decide to break them. Many poets, including Shakespeare, broke rules about the use of language to great effect. Just as many painters and musicians knew the rules before they broke them. It is important to know what you are doing.

She "was sat on the floor". No. She was sitting on the ground!

She "laid on the bed". No. She lay down on the bed.

Looking back in retrospect
Forward planning
Very unique

All of these leave me cross

My DC talk about having 'issues' when they mean problems. Sounds vaguely medical to me ! And alternate for alternative as well as in Ive got an alternate plan.! Sounds as if he changes his plan every other day. An Amercanism I think!

People that have 'windows' in their diaries tickle me too!
Also 'it is what it is' to me states the blatantly obvious but 'I know where they're coming from' so I'm 'good'

"One pence" has me foaming at the mouth! It's singular, for goodness sake. One PENNY, please! I heard Jeremy Vine say this on R2 yesterday and was so busy shouting at the radio that I completely missed the rest of the item.

Oh, and when did "signpost" become a verb? (He was signposted to the Customer Service department, etc)

Magrithea - I have to disagree. As children develop they often mispronounce words. It is up to the parents to correct speech in the same way as we would correct any other mistakes.

Defiantly instead of definitely!

But the way people speak is partly to do with where they grew up and the local accent, nothing to do with poor parenting!

On the matter of teaching children the difference between the "f" and "th" sounds – as in fink and think – I once chatted to small boy who told me that he had collected some tadpoles and now he had "thour throgs".