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What cliches do you dislike the most? Thread poster: jyuan_us
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| Airline-speak | May 5, 2023 |
Philip Lees wrote:
Isn't this airport-speak?
We've noticed another one on planes recently. We do advise you to keep you belt on... We do ask passengers to stay seated... We do offer a wide range of delicious snacks...
Although in the last case the "do" makes a little more sense, because they clearly don't.
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Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 03:23
French to English
Baran Keki wrote:
Another (old) annoying American expression... I don't see it used very often these days.
I remember reading a comment on an Iron Maiden video on Youtube more than 12 years ago, which said something along the lines of "Up the Irons! Maiden is the shit", and somebody replied to him saying "You are a shit" and receiving shit loads of upvotes (including mine). Served him right I thought...
https://i.etsystatic.com/38337408/c/1304/1036/340/473/il/2ad92e/4533938388/il_340x270.4533938388_fm28.jpg
for some reason I can't post the actual meme sorry
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:23
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Like..."like". I like hear a lot of like non like native English speakers, and children, like putting like "like" into like nearly everything they like say.
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:23
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Ice Scream wrote:
We've noticed another one on planes recently. We do advise you to keep you belt on... We do ask passengers to stay seated... We do offer a wide range of delicious snacks...
Although in the last case the "do" makes a little more sense, because they clearly don't.
I'm glad to hear you're as much a pedant as those whom you accuse of pedantry.
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| Back to basics | May 6, 2023 |
When used as a distracting tactic…
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:23
Member (2008)
Italian to English
We no longer contact people - we reach out to them.
[Edited at 2023-05-06 10:08 GMT]
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 05:23
Member
English to Turkish
Tom in London wrote:
Pendant.
I know what 'pendant' means, but I can't seem to find what 'pendantry' means. Can a native-English speaker explain this to me, like?
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:23
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| worderful wondplay | May 6, 2023 |
Baran Keki wrote:
Tom in London wrote:
Pendant.
I know what 'pendant' means, but I can't seem to find what 'pendantry' means. Can a native-English speaker explain this to me, like?
One thing you haven't acquired is the ability to spot wordplay. You probably thought I had made a mistake.
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:23
Serbian to English
+ ...
| Sure about that? | May 6, 2023 |
Tom in London wrote:
Like..."like". I like hear a lot of like non like native English speakers, and children, like putting like "like" into like nearly everything they like say.
I stumbled once (before Brexit) on some kind of "user manual" written for the benefit of MDs coming from all over the EU to work in UK hospitals, those who only ever learned English as "foreign language" at school in their own countries.
One of the peculiarities explained to them - so that they can understand their very native patients - was about a subset of the very native population in England who keeps adding "like" as seasoning to almost everything they want to say. The same very native people who keep using "me" instead of "my" ...
Want to take a look at this "user manual"? Probably scrubbed from the NHS website by now.
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 05:23
Member
English to Turkish
Daryo wrote:
One of the peculiarities explained to them - so that they can understand their very native patients - was about a subset of the very native population in England who keeps adding "like" as seasoning to almost everything they want to say.
I was told that people in Newcastle, England would end almost every sentence with 'like', as in "what's the matter, like?"
But then they might as well be foreigners:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sphSfeFc__Y
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Tom in London wrote:
wordplay. You probably thought I had made a mistake.
But a play on words needs to refer to something vaguely relevant?
Daryo: There’s a difference between natives and non-natives using “like”, or swearing. Natives somehow abuse the language more naturally. It’s hard to explain.
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Tony Keily
Local time: 03:23
Italian to English
+ ...
| So what you're saying is... | May 11, 2023 |
This has always driven me nuts, because whatever follows it is never really what you've said.
I was always fishing around for a good come-back but never quite happy with my options. Then (around 2014) I was watching South Beach Tow, a 'dramatised re-enactment' reality TV series about a towing business in Miami Beach, with my young son. The series featured an imposing woman called Bern... See more This has always driven me nuts, because whatever follows it is never really what you've said.
I was always fishing around for a good come-back but never quite happy with my options. Then (around 2014) I was watching South Beach Tow, a 'dramatised re-enactment' reality TV series about a towing business in Miami Beach, with my young son. The series featured an imposing woman called Bernice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakatriona_Brunson). Generally nobody questioned Bernice, less still messed with her. But one day someone was gormless enough to use the above offending expression to her. Reply: 'What I'm saying is... WHAT I SAID!!!!' Thank you, Bernice.
[Edited at 2023-05-12 07:29 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
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I realize this is an older thread, but I guess cliches aren't dated really... And not sure this counts, as most examples here seem to be of business jargon, but one stupid cliche I really dislike is "Life's too short for [add anything]"... Way overused, and usually followed by something I either actually like doing, or is a necessity I can't avoid. Oh well. Life's too short for caring what other people think life's too short for! 
Kay Denney wrote:
Baran Keki wrote:
Another (old) annoying American expression... I don't see it used very often these days.
I remember reading a comment on an Iron Maiden video on Youtube more than 12 years ago, which said something along the lines of "Up the Irons! Maiden is the shit", and somebody replied to him saying "You are a shit" and receiving shit loads of upvotes (including mine). Served him right I thought...
https://i.etsystatic.com/38337408/c/1304/1036/340/473/il/2ad92e/4533938388/il_340x270.4533938388_fm28.jpg
for some reason I can't post the actual meme sorry
You might like this Finnish comedian's skits (in English) about the very same https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igh9iO5BxBo
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:23
Member (2008)
Italian to English
I literally can't stand it the way a certain generation of people who must be literally into their forties by now insist literally on inserting "literally" everywhere even when it makes no sense, as in, for example "I literally visited the Grand Canyon last week".
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