Language Annoyances

[MrBurns]

Heard on the radio this morning -

"My wife does all her internet banking on the internet"

 

[Glen48]

Mr.B congrats on the new greenie capitalistic logo, good thing she does the banking he doesn't sound bright enough to do it.
Still he can work an ATM machine I guess.

 

[MrBurns]

Mr.B congrats on the new greenie capitalistic logo, good thing she does the banking he doesn't sound bright enough to do it.
Still he can work an ATM machine I guess.

Thanks Glen48 I might change it again, people might think I have a mining company

 

[burglar]

... an ATM machine ...

Automatic Teller Machine machine Mmmmm!

I never now when you are sirius!

 

[Julia]

Automatic Teller Machine machine Mmmmm!

Yep, just like "PIN Number" which is just about universal, despite the word 'number' being redundant.
Why are people uncomfortable just saying 'my PIN'?

 

[johenmo]

Yep, just like "PIN Number" which is just about universal, despite the word 'number' being redundant.
Why are people uncomfortable just saying 'my PIN'?

Because the Kiwis who live over here would be very confused.

 

[burglar]

Orient or Orientate?

 

[Julia]

Orient or Orientate?

Whichever you prefer.
'Orient' tends to be more used in America.

 

[MrBurns]

I think I just created a new shortcut -

khow

for know how, was a typo but I still read it the right way.

 

[wayneL]

I can cope with most of the quirks of the NZ accent, but the one thing that givs me the irrits here.... the pronunciation the plural 'women' as if it was the singular 'woman'.

It pervades every level of society and it grates every time I hear it... which is nearly every day.

 

[Miss Hale]

I can cope with most of the quirks of the NZ accent, but the one thing that givs me the irrits here.... the pronunciation the plural 'women' as if it was the singular 'woman'.

It pervades every level of society and it grates every time I hear it... which is nearly every day.

Ha! I have a Kiwi friend that says that and I thought it was just her

 

[Julia]

Thou shalt not mock the NZ accent without some rejoinder.
A peculiarity of Australian speech is to utter single syllable words as though they have two syllables.
e.g. "hour", pronounced as "our". One syllable.
But so many, especially ABC presenters and newsreaders, say "ower" making two quite distinct syllables.
It drives me nuts.

And there is still the pervasive "you know" added meaninglessly all over conversation.

Worst of all is the response to a clear and direct question:
"yeah, no, ........."
Grrr

 

[wayneL]

Ah yes, the Australian dipthong.

The one the gets me is the dipthong that replaces the long e sound.

Kilogram for instance. Instead of k-i-logram or k-ee-logram...
becomes k-uueeee-logram.

 

[Julia]

What is it with this silly trend to include superlatives and hyperbole in everyday speech?
I have just now read a few posts which include the adjectives
'amazing' 'brilliant' 'fantastic' none of which are genuinely appropriate to the context.

Such silly over use just renders perfectly good descriptors inadequate when describing something that is truly amazing, brilliant or fantastic.

 

[Miss Hale]

Thou shalt not mock the NZ accent without some rejoinder.
A peculiarity of Australian speech is to utter single syllable words as though they have two syllables.
e.g. "hour", pronounced as "our". One syllable.
But so many, especially ABC presenters and newsreaders, say "ower" making two quite distinct syllables.
It drives me nuts.

I suppose we do say it like that but I thought that was how it was supposed to be pronounced Unless of course you are a South Australian then you say 'ar' in stead of 'our' a la Alexander Downer, Christopher Pyne and Penny Wong.

It's funny how sometimes you don't realise how strange your accent sounds to other until it is pointed out to you somehow. Many years ago I was in Italy and being shown the sites by a friend of the family whose English was pretty basic. This friend was keen to learn new words and so asked me what we called the thing down the middle of the road. "Oh", I said, "you mean the white line", "Ah", he said "It's called a wyatt lion" Eek!!! Is that how I sounded

And there is still the pervasive "you know" added meaninglessly all over conversation.

Worst of all is the response to a clear and direct question:
"yeah, no, ........."
Grrr

Yes, I agree this is annoying and rampant amongst footballers!

 

[Ruby]

One which I had forgotten about until it offended my ears this morning. Someone asked me if I have had my dog "spaded" yet. cringe!!

 

[Calliope]

What is it with this silly trend to include superlatives and hyperbole in everyday speech?
I have just now read a few posts which include the adjectives
'amazing' 'brilliant' 'fantastic' none of which are genuinely appropriate to the context.

Such silly over use just renders perfectly good descriptors inadequate when describing something that is truly amazing, brilliant or fantastic.

I was surprised to read the other day that the ABC still retains "ABC’s Standing Committee on Spoken English" (SCOSE), and it has been operating for 50 years. Why then do ABC announcers still mispronounce words so badly. As Julia said "hour" is one of them, but my pet hate is that, almost without exception, they pronounce "tion" in the final syllable of a word as "shern", e.g. they pronounce "election" as "elecshern". This practice is almost universal now.

Can it be that SCOSE endorses this?

 

[DocK]

Thou shalt not mock the NZ accent without some rejoinder.
A peculiarity of Australian speech is to utter single syllable words as though they have two syllables.
e.g. "hour", pronounced as "our". One syllable.
But so many, especially ABC presenters and newsreaders, say "ower" making two quite distinct syllables.
It drives me nuts.

And there is still the pervasive "you know" added meaninglessly all over conversation.

Worst of all is the response to a clear and direct question:
"yeah, no, ........."
Grrr

I always thought that was common in NZ - I must admit mainly due to the character Kevin on Go Girls whose most frequent utterance was "yeah, nah"

 

[Julia]

I always thought that was common in NZ - I must admit mainly due to the character Kevin on Go Girls whose most frequent utterance was "yeah, nah"

I never heard it until I came to live in Australia, and then only to a pronounced degree in the last few years.

 

[Doris]

Yep, just like "PIN Number" which is just about universal, despite the word 'number' being redundant.
Why are people uncomfortable just saying 'my PIN'?

I read the ANZ is working on technology for thumb/finger prints to make a PIN redundant with their cards.
I always find it interesting that my retina and thumb print are checked as I enter Canada from the US.

I had two months in Canada and the US last year and never once was asked to enter my PIN nor sign my name so they could check with the card -- hotels, airlines, restaurants, department stores...
They check that the last four digits on their registers match those on the card.

And I was told in New York that credit card fraud was not a problem over there!
In Calgary, my girlfriend's husband filled the Suburban and paid $90+ on MY Amex. They didn't even look at the name on the card nor notice he was a different sex!

= language becoming redundant!