Its so not me innit!

[Weedon]

Its probably always been the case but as I have long been a "grumpy old man" is it only me that thinks that there are more dopey figures of speech now.  Sentences that start "It is so not me" for example, and I saw a young lad on the tv the other day who ended every sentence with "innit", and is it only in football where you get "beat".  I also noticed that during the Athens games commentators started using the expression "its a big ask"

I ask you, is it only me thats getting really WOUND UP.

Weedon(53)

[SaligoBay]

TOH (poor soul, he has to work) was doing a conference call with some Americans last week.

He said he laughed out loud when one of the American ladies said that her colleague had left the room momentarily for a bio break.

Hadn't heard about the big ask, are you sure they weren't saying "it's a big ass"?

The things you miss when you don't have access to English TV.  I feel kinda left behind in the evolution of my native tongue, innit.

[Weedon]

Hadn't heard about the big ask, are you sure they weren't saying "it's a big ass"?

 

Nice one, I hadn't considered that. The bit about the bio break reminded me of the day a man came into my place of work and asked if he "could turn his bike round" when I looked at him in astonishment he said "you know, the little boys room"

[JohnM]

I get fed up with football managers wanting a "Result" - I really can't understand why they don't hope for a win or a least a draw. A result is a foregone conclusion! Oh and "Scoreline" what's wrong with "Score". Oh and let's not forget those that want to qualify absolutes....almost unique for example... oh and Govment or Goverment instead of Government, people who don't realise that Ophthalmologist starts Ophth so is Off.... not Op.... Chiropodist pronounced Shropodist instead of Chiropodist (as in Chiropractor).... What have people got against the letter T, it gets dropped nearly as often as the humble H (That is NOT pronounced Haitch).

Bet I'm grumpier than you. (But I bet Dick can correct me on loads )

 

[Patf]

We get tired of "reely reely reely" great/ disgusting/ funny etc. And when people keep interspersing what they're saying with "like" - eg we were , like, hoping, like, that you would, like, help us - it reminds me of my youth in geordieland  when every sentence would end with "like" eg do you fancy him like? Are y'gannin yem like? I suppose there will always be fashions in language as in other things. Pat.

[Teamedup]

 

Ah Patf, you missed 'like, ya kna, like,' slight hestitations usually, and it continues 'man, woman, man, like, ya kna'  It can go on forever, but I don't really mind that. Although it does vary slightly depending on whether it  is geordie or durham and where in County Durham.

 

Don't like draw ring, instead of drawing, I think that that drives me madder than anything.

I can even put up with people from the south saying  an 'ar' sound instead of an 'a' sound.

 

And the Gus speak............. what utter cxxp that is. I used to love Drop the Dead Donkey..... but how can anyone take anyone seriously when they come out with such rollocks.

Does anyone on here speak with that australian questioning end to each sentence....... well apart from Eleanor, who may not, as I realise that there are some australians who don't. How did that integrate itself into the language, now that is weird....... every sentence being a question. (ps I'm sure that there is an expression for this, but I don't know it)

[Later]

That "like" thing really gets on my wick.  A friend of my wife does it all the time.  She got a degree at Cambridge and she keeps saying "like".  I mean what's she like (now that's OK, because I said it ...) ?

If I were not so PC I would lean across and smack her. 

[Teamedup]

Weedon, do you talk to the telly........?

My grumpy old man does. Sometimes I really would like it to answer him back.........

[Later]

I sometimes shout at the telly 

[Later]

Teemedup you've got over 1,200 posts ! I'm not sure whether to be very impressed or agitated like a grumpy old man, like ya know.

[Teamedup]

Ignore the number of posts anyone has made, sans posts there is no board.

[Penny29]

My last boss never called meetings, she used to like us to "touch base" instead. So we used to "touch base" regularly on the third Friday of every month regardless of whether there was anything to discuss.

We even had this stupid "Six Talking Hats" thing and she would suddenly announce, in the, middle of a meeting (oops I meant a "touching of base"), "I want everyone to put on their red/green/white/red hats now."

We were never allowed to refer to problems as problems, they were "challenges", and solutions to "challenges" were found by us "thinking outside the box" but heaven help us if we strayed outside the damned box too often, as then she would accuse us of not "singing from the same hymn sheet." She wouldn't ask you to repeat something, she would ask you to "rewind", and when a subject became too hot for her to handle she would "fast forward" to the next item on the agenda. Disagreeing with her was called "being negative," agreeing with her was called promotion!

I look back on all that now and wonder how on earth I put up with it all for so many years.

Anyone else remember pseudo-workspeak expressions?

 

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

I can't stand this innit business either and another thing which really irritates me is when people say "enjoy". I just feel that enjoy needs an "it" or a noun after it e.g. enjoy your meal. I can't stand text speak either. When people respond to my website in text speak, it makes them sound really stupid. My daughter had some information come from Connexions (I can't stand incorrect spellings of things either - don't some people have enough problems?) the career people and she wrote to them stating that she couldn't possibly take them seriously if they were going to be so patronising using text speak on teenagers. I've actually told my children that if I find them using text speak in e.mails, I'll ban them from using the e.mail!

Also, no offence intended to Americans here present, but it really does annoy me how American expressions have infiltrated English. Call me old fashioned if you like, but I'd still rather hear the English of Olivier or even Lawrence or Sillitoe in local slang, but English is English and I'd like to hear it stay the way it has been for a long time.

[Later]

Jill

Did you watch or listen to Bragg's series on the English language?  I was particularly interested to learn that many expressions and words in common usage in English English, orginated outside Britain and, in particular, that lots of expression I took to be British English were in fact from abroad (especially America).

The other thing he banged on about was that English is and has always been a language in transition ... constantly changing.  It's strength comes from its adaptability.

I read recently some letters from my 86 year old father to his sisters, written during the war.  The slang was hilarious (to me at least) and very much a reflection of the time and circumstances in which they were written.  For example, I crashed my aeorplane was I had a wizard prang.  His use of language has changed and he is now more likely to say something along the lines of crashed my blardy car (again). 

I love listening to Scots, Welsh, Jamaicans, Zimbabweans, and people from the southern United States.  I think they can add a beauty to the spoken language that you don't get in many parts of England.

[Coco]

Whilst I agree with virtually everything said on this thread I really cannot see ANY RELEVANCE TO FRANCE WHATSOEVER!!!!

Why is this posting on a French forum?  It's the increase in this kind of posting and lack of postings about France and the French that is slowly killing this forum....... innit.

[Dick Smith]

John wrote

Bet I'm grumpier than you. (But I bet Dick can correct me on loads )

Bet you aren't. My current bugbears are the male and female bimbo newsreaders on BBC24 and Sky asking appallingly trite/insensitive/ stupid questions so as to avoid 'dead air'. Presumably it's better to replace it with brain-dead air. And why do they have to have a reporter (or correspondent) standing at some site where something happened two days ago spouting on, often just repeating what the bimbette just told us, in their halt and inarticulate manner? Omigod, my head just exploded...

[Miki]

Dick,

Why do you have Gerry Adams as your avatar now ?

[Penny29]

It ain't Gerry Adam's - it's Bamber Gascoigne

[Dick Smith]

I changed the avatar because no-one has taken the p**s for days, and I was missing it...

Yes, it's me.

[Miki]

You were what age then Dick, 11 or 12 perhaps a teenager and just starting to shave ? You have to admit though, the "Gerry" look is there.

Stop taking the Michael,  Penny !    Bamber........ nothing like him  

[SaligoBay]

Was it before or after your head exploded, Dick?

[BG]

I agree with Miki - no resemblance whatsoever.

[Dick Smith]

I'm afraid my head explodes on a regular basis these days.

[Miki]

[quote]I agree with Miki - no resemblance whatsoever.[/quote]

Blige me Bamber, welcome to the forum. You don't look a day older than when I met you last and then it was:

"Hi my names Miki, reading the Beano, Dandy and the Hotspur 1958-1961"

Mr & Mrs Opas will be over the parrot to know you are wiv us.

[Hewitts]

[quote]Ah Patf, you missed 'like, ya kna, like,' slight hestitations usually, and it continues 'man, woman, man, like, ya kna' It can go on forever, but I don't really mind that. Although it does vary sligh...[/quote]

Does anyone on here speak with that australian questioning end to each sentence....... well apart from Eleanor, who may not, as I realise that there are some australians who don't. How did that integrate itself into the language, now that is weird....... every sentence being a question. (ps I'm sure that there is an expression for this, but I don't know it)

It is an Australia thing that drives me crazy although either it doesn't happen as much or I have am used to it.  I hate it. It is also a regional thing and dare I say it a "class" thing.

The reason it has become part of your language in certain areas is too many people watching our dreadful soaps!! Home and Away, Neighbours etc. 

I have noticed that a lot of Australian expressions are now quite common place for example "whinging", but I sincerely hope "innit" and "like" doesn't creep in here.  That nearly drove me bonkers in the SE England recently!!