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What linguistic constructions do you hate that no one else seems to mind? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by TootSweet@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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It bugs me when people say "the thing is is that" (if you listen for it, you'll start hearing it... or maybe that's something that people only do in my area.) ("What the thing is is that..." is fine. But "the thing is is that..." bugs me.)

Also, "just because doesn't mean ." That sentence structure invites one to take "just because " as a noun phrase which my brain really doesn't want to do. Just doesn't seem right. But that sentence structure is very common.

And I'm not saying there's anything objectively wrong with either of these. Language is weird and complex and beautiful. It's just fascinating that some commonly-used linguistic constructions just hit some people wrong sometimes.

Edit: I thought of another one. "As best as I can." "The best I can" is fine, "as well as I can" is good, and "as best I can" is even fine. But "as best as" hurts.

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[–] sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 6 months ago (2 children)

my peeve is the chopped infinitive, like “it needs fixed” instead of “it needs to be fixed”

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

IME that's only really a thing among non-English speakers

[–] tiredofsametab@kbin.run 11 points 6 months ago

Nope. Native US English speaker born in Ohio and a lot of the region into Appalachia uses this construction. IIRC it came from Irish and/or Scottish folks that settled there.

[–] Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm guilty of this, and for some reason "the dishes need doing" in particular tickles my brain. That one doesn't even make sense with an infinitive!

[–] sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 6 months ago

that one doesn’t bother me at all. “needs fixing”, “needs to be fixed”, same thing. but “needs fixed” can fuck right off.