As a professional freelance writer, I can be a bit of a stickler when it comes to word choice, spelling and punctuation. That’s part of the reason why I have the Grammar 101 series on this blog, but then there are other terms that have been accepted as part of the common vernacular that I just don’t like. It really grinds my gears when I hear people talking about a six-month anniversary, for example, because that just doesn’t make any sense. And there are more.
It’s My Friday
The conventional work week runs from Monday to Friday. Many common terms and concepts have emerged from this kind of schedule, like how people might refer to Wednesday as “hump day.” Wednesday is right in the middle of the work week, so if you get over that “hump,” you’ll be able to survive the rest of the week and prepare to enjoy the weekend. However, not everyone works a conventional schedule.
Since I run my own business and I work from home, I have a habit of working on public holidays and on weekends. People who are on shift rotations might find that they have Thursday and Friday off instead of Saturday and Sunday. For these people, Wednesday isn’t the “hump” day, because it is the end of their work week. However, I don’t feel they are at all justified in referring to Wednesday as “their” Friday.
Wednesday is still Wednesday and Friday is still Friday. The days of the week don’t change their names because your schedule differs from the conventional norm.
I’m 40 Years Young
As Aaliyah once told us, “Age ain’t nothing but a number.” There are high school students who act far more mature than people twice their age, just as there are middle-aged folks who are far healthier than their teenage counterparts. I’m not debating that. However, when you reach the age of 40, you are still 40 years old, even if you “feel” young. Stop saying that you are 40 years young or 50 years young. You wouldn’t say that a young child of eight years is “8 years young,” would you?
Let’s Lunch
Somehow, we have increasingly gotten in the habit of turning everything into a verb. We see this all the time with social media. Are you going to YouTube that? Let me Facebook him.
Even before the rise of the Internet, though, we’ve already experienced this phenomenon. While I don’t have much of an issue with people who say that they want to “do” lunch, it just doesn’t sound right to me when someone says, “Let’s lunch.” To me, lunch is still only a noun and not a verb. Of course, word usage changes over time, but it just feels wrong right now.
A Case of the Mondays
It’s funny, really, that I have a problem with people who say it’s “their” Friday, but I have no trouble with people who say they have a “case of the Mondays.” Maybe it’s because I enjoyed the Office Space
What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to phrases like this? What about marketing catchphrases and buzz words? Are you ready to break through the clutter, get to the next level, disrupt the industry and instigate a paradigm shift with the 4G synergistic energies you bring to the table?
“My internet’s down.”
This is a double barrel one for me. No. The internet is NOT down. The internet CONNECTION is down. Secondly, it’s not YOUR internet. You can’t own it.
As an IT person Lesley I will have to disagree with you on one point.
Technically, the user can own the Internet. If they are always plugged into the same data port, they have get the same IP address all the time, even if they internet connection goes down or the lease is renewed. The only time that would change is if the ISP changes switches, the user gets a new router (flashes the firmware) or the user changes computers or gets a new network card with a new MAC address. For the average user, only the ISP changing switches and getting a new computer are likely to ever happen.
I agree with the internet being down as a major piss me off pet peeve. But, while technically if our district cannot connect to the Internet, to the user the internet is down. They don’t care that it is the connection, but when I send an Info email explaining the problem I say the server connected to the internet is down. Most of the time they have access to the internal network, which really baffles most of the end users that they have access to Angelweb or Blackboard or webmail, but not to an outside the firewall source.
Michael, mine big one is an actual one you have blogged on in the past <a href="https://btr.michaelkwan.com/2010/03/25/grammar-101-the-pin-number/" Grammar 101 The PIN Number . In our district student are given a userID and a PIN. But when I talk to people on the phone or see a service ticket for a reset I always hear or see PIN Number.
Well that sucks…. Word wrap killed the formatting on my href.