Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Its 'different from' - not 'different to'

The Telegraph has stirred up its readership into a right lather about words and phrases that annoy. We all use such words without realising we do it - and its difficult to stop. It took several years of spousely reprimand to stop me from saying "I aren't", and "Different to", and "Compared to". And I still haven't driven out the utterly meaningless "I mean".

A friend of mine, who used the word "f***" in almost every sentence, was elected to the local Community Council. The first time he made a speech to the Council was a report back after an air show elsewhere in the County. For five minutes, total concentration kept his contribution totally f*** free - but as finishing his last sentence he said "The show finished with two planes looping the loop and the one plane was up the a*** of the other. Fellow councillors still smile whenever the occasion is mentioned.

My pet hates are "joined-up Government", Enjoy" when the main course arrives and "Tony" instead of Prime Minister.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about 'going forward' which consultants use to sound modern and 'early doors' which football pundits use. I cant make sense of either.

Matt Withers said...

I like "this is something we need to have a national debate on" as shorthand for "this is something I don't want to talk about".