Phrases/sayings that drive me mad!

What you see is what you get
There you go

Reaching out - for contact.

A recent letter to me from people not too far away from this website, thanked me for "reaching out" to them and I was so tempted to explain I wasn't drowning or falling of a wall - but simply asking a question.

GrandmaPam
'...he turned round and said..'

You have just reminded me of a dear lady who was my carer after I'd been involved in a motor accident.

She would bring me a cup of tea and sit and talk.
'So I turned round and said to my daughter, "you're making a rod for your own back" and she turned round and said to me, "well, Mum it's my back isn't it" and I turned round and said to her, "but not when the kids are at my place" but she just turned round and said..."

I had visions of these two whirling dervishes...

Her husband had 'prostrate' troubles; when her granddaughter began having nightmares, she was told 'the monsters are just a pigment of your imagination' and when her neighbour (turned round and) said she was considering a wood-fired heater, "You ought to get a pot belly like mine."

I'm sure it improved my recovery time with all the laughing I did, though it had to wait until she'd gone home, poor soul.

Good thing you all don’t live in South Wales ?

'Train station'

It's been a 'railway station' for a good 150 years or more, why the sudden change?

(I know, I know; train station is more logical...)

British people giving each other high fives and on television, characters are now saying ‘coffee to go’.

Lots of people here in Brum say 'babby' instead of 'baby'. It's annoying but I agree it's just a regional thing.

KatyK
Yow awright, bab?

But Farnorth I like "tell them I was asking for them" I use it a lot.

Even if you haven't asked anything or even mentioned the person at all, Grammaretto?

I don't think we can be pedantic about the past tense of 'text'.
It's quite a recent thing for the word 'text' to be used as a verb so it didn't have an accepted past tense.
If common usage has resulted in it having an irregular past tense then that's what it has.

All of the above, also

I was sat (sitting)
Can I get (in a restaurant)

You do you.

Thanks MaizieD

And no, 'train station' is not more logical - it's not a station for trains, it's a station on the railway.

Even in the USA, they are railroad stations - train station is just lazy slang.

Watching "Silent Witness" the other day, I noticed that the Detective Inspector was frequently called over to be shown something, and they kept saying - 'over here Detective".

Or something similar.

In the UK and in the past on that show, he or she has always been called by their rank - i.e. "Inspector"

Perhaps the BBC are trying to sell this show into the USA a little harder, but it sounded a bit odd on this particularly English show.

Anybody happy with "how are you guys?"

A particularly annoying/bad/illogical phrase for me is:

"speaking to your question" when they mean either in answer to, or in response to .....

The nightmare phrase is always "can I get ..." when whoever it is, is asking for a cup of tea, slice of cake, etc. aarrgghh!!

I know this might sound a bit odd too, but I hate the phrase - "I'm sorry for your loss" when referring to a death.

The person who died was not an inanimate object, neither was he or she found when they were born.

Ah - maybe we should replace being born with being found day!

Love this one GrannyBeek:

Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it

I think it was used in the film "12 Angry Men" too.

Sorry all - got carried away with this one!

Seems like we're all on the same page.

Comprises of
So beloved of estate agents up and down the country.

It’s not rocket science.
At the end of the day.
We was (were):
Must of (have).
“like”:every other word.
I was sat (sitting). ‘Sat’ means someone else put you in that position.
We were sat (sitting)

I am hanging my head in shame - and well aware that no one cares a fig but me.

I forgot to preview my last post (a telling phrase) and wrote, "falling of a wall.." oh dear, I do know it's "off".
Fancy a pedantic person like me being caught out this way - shocking!

I am Elrel. As some say round here
'How am ya?'

Anybody happy with "how are you guys?"

Yes, I'm good with it.

railman Despite the fact I've posted here, none of these things irritate me enough to say they drive me mad. Nor does 'you guys' because, frankly, how else would you ask three or more people? 'You lot' 'You people' ??
'How are you all' sounds pedantic in itself as if the speaker will not lower themselves to casual or common usage - which is what so many of these phrases are.

I deplore the current fashion for, 'I was like...' rather than 'I said...' but these things come and go and I won't let it annoy me enough to mention it to the speaker (currently my grandson) as it would upset them.

Nor does the constant use of 'you know' often without the speaker even being aware of it, fall softly on my ears.
But then who am I to criticise?
As an English and Creative Writing teacher, I used to tell students that what we write and how we write it is dependent upon the situation.
Academic work needs a totally different kind of language to a novel.

The English we write is different to the English we speak.
Speech is different to narrative. Slang and dialect in narrative is wrong, in the spoken word it isn't.

Perhaps I should also remember that writing long screeds in a forum is irritating to the reader (if any).