Near universal usage of the historic present in the media.
Others here probably won’t be bothered by it. It drives me up the wall. The thing being reported happened in the past !
Yes, I know Dickens used it in David Copperfield
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Hunker Down.
…Tonne.
As in a Tonne of something, describing a ‘lot of’ rather than a measurement of weight.
“A tonne of laughs”
Spent two days this week listening to ‘consultant speak’. I find it exhausting. Many examples are earlier in this thread. I think it becomes a sort of defensive armour to make the ideas sound better. When I ignore the words and look at the ideas, the ideas shared with me this week are good. I will use them and share them with others, but will do so in plain English.
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Superfluous gets an exception.
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“Amends” instead of “amendments”, as in “I’ve reviewed the draft contract and have noted a few amends to put through”
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As does,
Super Saturated Solid Solution.
That’s icecream.
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“Wayfair…exshtrordinary…”
By god, if looks could kill a TV…
In a similar vein one that does annoy me is people sending you a meeting ‘invite’. It’s a sodding invitation.
‘Invite’ is a verb to my way of thinking but it seems to be rapidly becoming a noun.
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I could care less instead of I couldn’t care less.
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That’s a famous trope tbh; it implies irony, or an implicit if I could be bothered…
UK: Blunt, to the point I couldn’t care less.
US: Evasive I could care less (if I could be bothered enough about your issue).
Anyway. Today it’s the sudden habit of writing UK monetary amounts as e.g. GBP450 (see the insurance thread). What’s wrong with £450?
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My current irritation is friends who seem to think I care how they did with the day’s Wordle. I don’t care - please don’t share!
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Professional footballers, men and women, who insist on replacing was with were and vice verse, as in ‘…he were…’ and ‘…we was…’. It’s so gratuitous it must be deliberate.
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Aaaaaargh. He said trope.
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I’ve not been on the site, but isn’t it just the old Mastermind game, with words?
No pound sign on most keyboards would be a problem. You can spend time getting it out of the code page or just use the ISO currency code.
£ is easily available on every PC and laptop I’ve ever used, all iPads, android phones and any iPhone. 'Most keyboards ’ would seem to be an exaggeration.
I’m not aware of any non UK keyboard or iPhone Android with a non UK English default environment where the pound sign is readily available.
I’ll admit, my experience is limited to US, Japanese and Belgian AZERTY keyboards and devices.
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