Common sayings that are commonly misstated

[Ayce]

"The whole kit and kaboodle" is commonly used, but actually wrong. "Kaboodle" is a contraction of "kit and boodle", a tradesman's bag and tools. So the common expression is redundant.

I always say "odds and ends", which is a bit silly in itself. As George Carlin noted, if you have 24 odds and ends on a table, and 23 fall off, what's left, an odd or an end?

One that gets me is when someone says MRA for MRI.
One is a medical procedure, the other is a was department store here.

 

[Munjibunga]

I think you just paraphrased what I said.



Were you correcting me or are we in violent agreement? I don't think James was singing about his health BTW.

Hey, I don't have time to read the whole post. And I'm old. But I feel good.

 

[BigOkie]

I always say "odds and ends", which is a bit silly in itself. As George Carlin noted, if you have 24 odds and ends on a table, and 23 fall off, what's left, an odd or an end?

One that gets me is when someone says MRA for MRI.
One is a medical procedure, the other is a was department store here.

I hate to burst your bubble on this one, but there IS such a thing as MRA. It stands for Magnetic Resonance Angiography. The imaging focuses on the vasculature of the area in question.

 

[Ayce]

Whoops, didn't know that.
The person that said that was going for an MRI and she said MRA.

 

[gigslut]

Hey, I don't have time to read the whole post. And I'm old. But I feel good.

When you're old like us, that's all that matters.

 

[interp]

People saying "chomping at the bit" instead of "champing at the bit." Chomping is not wrong per se, it's just that the original is 'champing' and it is used that way only in this expression.

Aside from that, I hate to see your instead of you're. Most people who write 'your' when they mean 'you are' make the lame excuse that "it's easier to type" or "it doesn't make any difference as long as people understand what I'm talking about." The fact is that they are simply ignorant of the mechanics of their native language and are too lazy to use it correctly.

Let the bashing begin...

 

[twocargar]

I didn't see it listed (but I didn't scroll through 11 pages), but I love to see CL ads with the word 'duel' in them--as in duel processors, duel pickups, etc.

My Mother-in Law has a whole list of things she says wrong, but some of it is her weird Southern accent (I think it's a mix of NC, VA & and 'prolly' Hawaii, Guam, and South San Diego). It's entertaining, to say the least, to listen to her:

Refridgidaire = refrigerator
Mold = mole
Boss = Bose
Winda = window
spoll = spoil
Oll = oil
Pah = pie

Pretty fascinating to hear things said living in New England versus San Diego (where I was raised)--not necessarily wrong, just different. I never heard "$hit the bed" until we moved here. "Where's your amp?" "It $hit the bed, I gotta buy a new one." Carriage, versus shopping cart, trash barrel versus trash can, draw versus drawer (mentioned before).

 

[fmoore200]

the word is ASK not AKS or AX...that may be a new york thing, I'm not sure, but it's annoying

 

[Ben Noblit]

I feel like a decent portion of this thread is just hating on people who speak a different dialect of English.

 

[Batmensch]

I feel like a decent portion of this thread is just hating on people who speak a different dialect of English.

I wouldn't say hating necessarrily, but it does indeed seem like a lot of it is just accent and dialect related, and not actual misuse.

 

[Richland123]

My former boss could never say "six of one, half dozen of the other" and she always said, "six of one, six of the other".

She also could never say "are we there yet?" and would say "are we here yet?"

I hear many people say he went for a prostrate exam instead of prostate exam. Either way, I don't want one anytime soon.

 

[bassteban]

I only officially *hate on* deliberate mangling. If you KNOW it's wrong, get it right. Slight derail- *hate* is WAAAY overused.

 

[bassteban]

I hear many people say he went for a prostrate exam instead of prostate exam.

I wonder if it might be more pleasant if one were indeed prostrate...

 

[bass12]

I only officially *hate on* deliberate mangling. If you KNOW it's wrong, get it right. Slight derail- *hate* is WAAAY overused.

Yep. Criticize anything these days and you're likely to be branded a "hater". I hate that. Another one (and no, it's not a "saying" either!): i.e. vs e.g. Contrary to popular belief, they don't mean the same thing.

 

[bassteban]

I'll plead ignorance- I don't really know what i.e. or e.g. mean, so I never use either.

 

[fmoore200]

e.g. I believe stands for "example given" not sure about i.e.

I have lived with Puerto Ricans my whole life, and if their native language is Spanish, they have an annoying habit of saying "paper toilet" instead of toilet paper..

my 8th grade teacher (English teacher, btw) used to ask a student to close the lights before watching a film.. that always irked me me...

 

[Richland123]

Here is a phrase that never made sense to me. Tie your shoes. You can't tie your shoes. You tie your shoelaces.

 

[gigslut]

From "Wag the Dog" ... "You don't change horses in midstream"

 

[nashman]

Santa came down the "chimbley".

 

[Ayce]

I.e. is an abbreveation for the latin phrase meaning "that is"