Not nice

Posted by: Sniper on 16 September 2012

The Nice thread has prompted memories of English lessons at school. My English teacher would hit the roof if anyone ever used the word 'nice' in an essay. 'Nice is not a nice word' she would say. I agree. It is so vanilla, so vapid. Ditto 'big' ('a small word for small people') and 'very' ('very tedious indeed') and 'a lot' ('used by a lot of morons'). She was very entertaining. I was tempted to write something like 'a lot of big cars are very nice' just to enjoy the inevitable rant.

What words irritate you?

Gotten? Snuck? 'like' in every sentence?

Posted on: 20 September 2012 by Conortsun

Normalcy.

Oh, I was introduced to the verb 'de-plane' on a northwest airlines flight... I went into a huff and disembarked.

In fact, 'airplane' also gets on my pip.

Posted on: 20 September 2012 by Staedtler

"Can I lend you pen?" was one such expression when I was at school, to which I would reply, "Who are you going to lend it to?".

Posted on: 21 September 2012 by TWP

Originally Posted by Staedtler:

"Can I lend you pen?" was one such expression when I was at school, to which I would reply, "Who are you going to lend it to?".

I always thought that was a Shropshire expression, confused me totally when i moved to shropshire as a 13 year old. and was asked at school " Can you borrow me a pen"

Posted on: 21 September 2012 by Staedtler

It should actually have read, "Can I lend your pen", but too late to edit it now... I grew up on the Wirral so definite Scouse influences rather that Shropshire .

Posted on: 21 September 2012 by Forester

Not an issue with an individual word or phrase but a good example of not knowing when to stop. The 2012 Ig Nobel -

Literature Prize: The US Government General Accountability Office for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.

Other winners http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...environment-19667664