Expressions You Hate!

[serious crayons]

Now, spoken, it would just be "shouldn't've" which is altogether okay.

But for me, "shoont've" is going too far.

[Brown Eyes]

And then, of course, we have the qualifier close, as in "close personal friend."

I presume as opposed to more distant personal friends. ... 

I think this makes sense actually... there are degrees of relative closeness among "personal" friends.  I know in my real life I have personal friends who (not that... or is it whom?) I feel are more distant than others.

[serious crayons]

I think this makes sense actually... there are degrees of relative closeness among "personal" friends.  I know in my real life I have personal friend who (not that... or is it whom?) I feel are more distant than others.

There are close friends vs. regular friends, I agree.

"Whom" is a funny one, because using it correctly can sound stilted. In your sentence above, "whom" would actually be correct. It's

"I have a personal friend whom I call every week."

but

"I have a personal friend who calls me every week."

In other words,"who" is the subject, doing the action, whereas "whom" is the object being acted upon.

So in grammatically discerning audiences, I try to use the correct form. But if I'm talking to a friend who says "The boss talked to Sally and I," a friend whom I love despite their use of less-than-perfect grammar, I might use "who," even knowing it's incorrect, because "whom" can sound so highfalutin.


Here's another one that's widely misused: lay/lie. As in "Why don't you go lay down?" or "I have a personal friend who I think should lay low for a while."

[LauraGigs]

^ OMG, "lay" and "lie" — hardly anyone gets that right anymore, it seems.

I would hear the song "Lay Lady Lay" and laugh my ass off.   

[Jeff Wrangler]

There are close friends vs. regular friends, I agree.

Ah, but are those close or regular friends also personal friends or, perhaps, impersonal friends? 

And be careful. I seem to remember there are some people around here who dislke categorizing some friends as cyber friends, so I shudder to think what they think about parsing friends as close personal or just personal or regular friends.

If you have any irregular friends, I recommend Metamucil. 

[delalluvia]

Jeff: Webster's been dead a long time, and anything that's good enuff for Annie [GEFA] is good enuff for me! Besides, they're not as cutesy as "Veejay" and "poopie" or whatever. Same goes for "ain't" -- GEFA!

I'm with you on "hopefully" Katherine...though hopefully, people will not use it too often!!

This is not something I hate but it's starting to get on my nerves...people who say BTW when talking rather than by the way. Also those who say WTF or LOL or ROFLOL or BBF, etc. Those things are fine on the boards or texting, but not in a business meeting FCOL!!

How about expressions we love? Can we discuss those too? The other day my friend Rodney said his dog could destroy a ball in "two shakes of a lamb's tail." I love that expression!!

A friend in college used to nod and sagely say about someone who got on your nerves, "He knows where your goats are tied."

I was like 

She looked at me and said, "He knows where your goats are tied...So he can get your goat."

 

Been a serious favorite of mine ever since.

[Ellemeno]

"Definitely," when used by someone who doesn't mean it. 

[serious crayons]

A friend in college used to nod and sagely say about someone who got on your nerves, "He knows where your goats are tied."

I was like 

She looked at me and said, "He knows where your goats are tied...So he can get your goat."

 

Been a serious favorite of mine ever since.

That's a good one! I'm going to keep a lookout for a chance to use it.

[oilgun]

Ah, but are those close or regular friends also personal friends or, perhaps, impersonal friends? 

And be careful. I seem to remember there are some people around here who dislke categorizing some friends as cyber friends, so I shudder to think what they think about parsing friends as close personal or just personal or regular friends.

If you have any irregular friends, I recommend Metamucil. 

Metamucil is the food of the gods! 

At Christmas time I assign dollar values to my friends.  I have $25 friends, $50 friends and $100 friends.  Is that bad?   

[serious crayons]

At Christmas time I assign dollar values to my friends.  I have $25 friends, $50 friends and $100 friends.  Is that bad?   

I think most people do the same, if not quite so systematically. You sound very generous! 

Just about all of my friends this year are $0 friends. Mainly because my kids are three-digit friends.