Do you sound stupid?

[Talo Segura]

PHRASES WHICH CAN MAKE YOU SOUND LESS INTELLIGENT
article published by RYAN HAWKINS

“I could care less.”  the correct phrase is “I couldn’t care less.” When you say “I could care less,” you’re implying that you do care to some extent.

“It’s like, you know…”  Filler words like “like” and “you know” can make you sound uncertain or unconfident. They tend to creep into our speech when we’re trying to think of the next word or phrase.

“Literally”  often misused to exaggerate statements that are not literal at all.

“I’m not sure, but…”  Starting a sentence with “I’m not sure” can undermine your credibility. It suggests a lack of confidence and can make others doubt the validity of your statement.

“No offense, but…”  often a precursor to something that might be offensive, which makes it disingenuous and somewhat passive-aggressive.

“At the end of the day…”  this phrase isn’t inherently incorrect, but it’s overused to the point where it has become a cliché.

“Just saying…”  Similar to “No offense, but…,” this phrase is often used to soften a blunt statement or opinion. However, it can come off as dismissive.

Read the full article here: https://greyjournal.net/play/learn-culture/culture/stop-saying-these-phrases-sound-smarter/

 

[dannyportwersburghuk]

My nan go on about 2 things she hate. Like when people say 'more and more'  she get really angry and if they keep say it she throws her slippers at tv screen.  As she say to me that you can have 'more' but cannot have 'more of more' Then she say she can't listen to David Beckham on tv as he say 'you know what I mean' like every 10 seconds. I didn't use to hear it but now like all can hear him say 'you know what I mean' 

[Zombie]

58 minutes ago, Talo Segura said:

“It’s like, you know…”  Filler words like “like” and “you know” can make you sound uncertain or unconfident. They tend to creep into our speech when we’re trying to think of the next word or phrase

British English is more complicated… 

[dannyportwersburghuk]

That so funny and true. As someone only live here 2 years I still get used 2 it. When talk to 1 my USA friends, he ask me if my school not teach spelling. As I spell things like colour and he says it color. In end we both right as spell things that are the same differently. It just so confusing. 

[Bill W]

I hate to admit it, but there are certain things that I pick up on whenever I read something or listen to people say something incorrectly.  These were things that my English teachers drummed into me when I was younger and when they're used incorrectly it's like someone 'running their fingernails over a blackboard/chalkboard.'  (For you younger members, look that phrase up on Google.) 

1.  Whenever people say "Can I help you?"  My English teachers would always say, using 'can' means are you physically able to do something, while using 'may' is that you're asking permission.  Growing up in the 1950s, we often played a game called, "Mother, may I?"  If you asked the person a question, you would have to say may I, or you would be refused permission, such as "Mother may I take five steps forward?" or "Mother, may I open the box?"  When you say "May I help you?" to someone, you are asking permission to help them, not if you're physically able to help them. 

2.  Misusing less and fewer.  Fewer is used with things that can be counted.  "I have fewer quarters than Mary."  However, "I have less money than Mary," because money is a general term and you're usually talking about amounts, not actually counting.  "I have fifty dollars less than Mary." 

3.  There are other pairs that have become closer together in meaning throughout the 20th century, such as the use of farther and further.  Farther is generally talking about a physical distance that you can measure, where further is used to describe a figurative distance.  For example: "The farther I walked the more tired I became." or "We can discuss that further the next time we talk." 

4.  Another pair that has become nearly interchangeable than in the past is whole and entire.  Whole means that nothing has been omitted or taken away.  For example, "I want the whole apple, not just a slice."  My teachers used to explain that you use entire when you want to emphasize or formalize the completeness or perfection to which nothing else can be added.  "She wrote the entire novel in just seven days."   

That's my soapbox spiel for today.  

Edited September 2 by Bill W

[Ron]

1 hour ago, Bill W said:

2.  Misusing less and fewer.  Fewer is used with things that can be counted.  "I have fewer quarters than Mary."  However, "I have less money than Mary," because money is a general term and you're usually talking about amounts, not actually counting.  "I have fifty dollars less than Mary." 

One other thing that was pointed out to me long ago was that you never use the word less when referring to people. You can't have less people, but you can have fewer people. 

[Zombie]

2 hours ago, Bill W said:

Whenever people say "Can I help you?"  My English teachers would always say, using 'can' means are you physically able to do something, while using 'may' is that you're asking permission

sexy guy pulls over to the side of the road with hazards on, and you walk over

he looks like he works in an auto shop

“Can I help you?" means offering help but allowing he may not need it

”May I help you?” suggests you’d like to ‘help him’…  

 

 

 

Edited September 2 by Zombie

[Mancunian]

6 hours ago, dannyportwersburghuk said:

That so funny and true. As someone only live here 2 years I still get used 2 it. When talk to 1 my USA friends, he ask me if my school not teach spelling. As I spell things like colour and he says it color. In end we both right as spell things that are the same differently. It just so confusing. 

There are many differences between American English and British English, you will find many more. One that can be embarrassing is the term fanny, in America it means something completely different to its meaning in the UK, no doubt you will come across more. Concentrate on British English for now, you will pick up the Americanisms in time. If you are using a spell checker on your computer make sure it is set to British or UK English, that will help you with your English lessons.

[Bill W]

5 hours ago, Mancunian said:

There are many differences between American English and British English, you will find many more. One that can be embarrassing is the term fanny, in America it means something completely different to its meaning in the UK, no doubt you will come across more. Concentrate on British English for now, you will pick up the Americanisms in time. If you are using a spell checker on your computer make sure it is set to British or UK English, that will help you with your English lessons.

Yes, I encountered some similar situations when I was in England.  I was staying with a host family that had a daughter around ten and a son around eight.  One day the boy came up to me and asked, in all sincerity, if I had a rubber he could use.  To my mind, he was asking me to give him a condom and I couldn't understand why an eight-year-old would need one , so I just told him I didn't have one he could use.  Later, it was explained to me that in the UK a rubber is an pencil eraser.  

Another day, I saw him playing in some dirt with his cars and he sitting on the dirt some of the time, laying in the dirt at other times, and he was also crawling in the dirt as he moved the toys along.  Needless to say, his clothes were quit filthy, so I told him that he'd probably have to change his clothes and wash up before he'd be allowed to have high tea, because his pants and shirt were a mess.  After I said this, he looked at me and started crying.  When I asked his mother why he did that, she went to see what was wrong.  When she returned, she explained that in the UK pants are the undergarment and trousers are the outer garment and her son thought I was going to have him undress outside, where everyone could see him, while I had someone get him a clean pair of pants, trousers, and shirt.   

[Talo Segura]

On 9/2/2024 at 12:48 PM, dannyportwersburghuk said:

When talk to 1 my USA friends, he ask me if my school not teach spelling. As I spell things like colour and he says it color.

You have to understand that 80% of the English language comes from French and words got changed through poor pronunciation or accents. Hence, couleur (coo-ler) French, became colour (cul-ler) British, became color (cul-law) American. That's what happens with language, just as usage changes. You might say it's lazy speech or you might say it's simply inevitable. As we progress into the future we start to find missing, mis-spelled, and wrong words, and this because often written articles are dictated if they are even published by humans!

 

[Bill W]

4 hours ago, Talo Segura said:

You have to understand that 80% of the English language comes from French and words got changed through poor pronunciation or accents. Hence, couleur (coo-ler) French, became colour (cul-ler) British, became color (cul-law) American. That's what happens with language, just as usage changes. You might say it's lazy speech or you might say it's simply inevitable. As we progress into the future we start to find missing, mis-spelled, and wrong words, and this because often written articles are dictated if they are even published by humans!

 

I disagree with how you show Americans pronounce the word color.  You're example may be true in some regional dialects, but most Americans pronounce the word the same as the British (cul-ler). 

[dannyportwersburghuk]

What do Americans call underwear is not pants. 

[MichaelS36]

12 hours ago, Talo Segura said:

You have to understand that 80% of the English language comes from French

I disagree with this percentage. All I've read about the origins of English say 45 to 60% comes from French. English is primarily a Germanic language influenced by a number of other languages, one of which is French. It was introduced in 1066 during the Norman Conquest. 

[MichaelS36]

8 hours ago, Bill W said:

I disagree with how you show Americans pronounce the word color.  You're example may be true in some regional dialects, but most Americans pronounce the word the same as the British (cul-ler). 

I agree. 

[Krista]

From the south I have checked myself, our spoken language is rarely grammatically correct. We use a lot of double negatives for example. It was beaten into us in school in an attempt to break such things. When most of your area speaks a certain way, it is most definitely a difficult thing to break. Growing up it damn near gave me a complex when I let something like a double negative slip. Or, when I used one of the more common southern sayings, like.. "over yonder.." or, "over the holler..."

But, as it has slowly disappeared with younger generations no longer speaking like older generations - I tend to miss it. Now I'm finding myself smiling when one of my older patients speak in a way that I was taught made me sound stupid/unintelligent.

If I'm a guest lecturer at a College/University, I script my entire lecture to keep myself on task and not to slip. It is a rare time now that I've grown up, that I want to sound distinctly different than how I was raised. So, I tend to stay away from all those listed above, as I also read that article or one similar, years ago and realized I was guilty of damn near all of them. The one that unnerves me from the list above is the overuse of Like. I know it is mostly a nervous habit when someone attempts to organize their thoughts while speaking. The words, "so," "but," and "um," are also in that category, but "um," and "like," are the ones that bother me when hearing it in a conversations. 

I also think there's nothing more adorable than a country bumpkin toddler that sounds like they came right out of the backwoods or swamps.  

[Ron]

3 hours ago, Krista said:

like.. "over yonder.." or, "over the holler..."

Don't forget: "Down the road apiece." 

Although I grew up in Northern Ohio (which doesn't have an accent) my extended family came from Southern Ohio and Kentucky. I learned all kinds of sayings, and such.

[Krista]

12 minutes ago, Ron said:

Don't forget: "Down the road apiece." 

Although I grew up in Northern Ohio (which doesn't have an accent) my extended family came from Southern Ohio and Kentucky. I learned all kinds of sayings, and such.

Oh gosh, there's a ton of them... lol. There's a topic here that lists most of them somewhere if I'm remembering correctly. I have family members that are walking examples of that entire southern slang mess and I love them for it. Where I grew up, it was rather mixed, either the person you're talking to was heavily influenced and had an accent, or there was no influence and little to no accent at all.

Where I live now is vastly different, there aren't any southern accents and more northern or mid-western accents. I have heard a lot of different terms, usages, and slang that are distinctly mid-western or north eastern. 

[Mancunian]

7 hours ago, dannyportwersburghuk said:

What do Americans call underwear is not pants. 

I'll try to answer your question. According to a Google search men's underwear is referred to as boxers or briefs depending on what style is worn, women's underwear is referred to as panties. Maybe one of our American members can tell you if that is right or wrong.

[Jason Rimbaud]

On 9/4/2024 at 9:41 AM, dannyportwersburghuk said:

What do Americans call underwear is not pants. 

What we call "pants" in America varies from region to region. 

1. Underwear--a generic term for anything that directly touches your bits, male or female. 

2. Boxers--invented in 1925 for actual boxers to use while they were fighting. Now it has become a generic term for underwear, all types and styles of men's underwear.

3. Panties--a blanket term for all female undergarments

4. And lastly, undies, my favorite term and not used broadly but I'm bringing it back.  

There are also a slew of terms from my generation that were used

Undergarments, underclothes, longjohns, slips (a term used to mean men's briefs later versions a woman's dress like garment worn between the skin and dress, especially if the dress was lightweight enough that it might be see with a strong backlight), underpants. Not many of those are used anymore except for small pockets around the country. 

J

[dannyportwersburghuk]

Ok thanks. Yeah use some them terms like undies and boxers. 

[Talo Segura]

Underwear, trousers and pants!

This forever comes up as a difference between American and British terms, but it is simply a divergence founded in the history of the evolution of the terms. Trousers originates from Scottish and Irish origins, trews, trossers (1600s, about the time America was being colonised by Europeans). Pants originates from pantaloons (mid 19th century: abbreviation of the word). 

The term for mens underwear in British English has always been underpants, which is logical, it's what is worn under your pants. This got shortened to pants because trews or trossers became trousers and hence no confusion. Really American English is correct and pants are not underpants else that distinction would not exist, would it?

[Bill W]

All I know is that when I was in the UK in the early 1970s, I was told pants was the term used for the undergarments and the out garments were referred to as trousers.  The confusion in my use of the terms upset the young boy and he was leery of being around me from that point on.  At the time, if I was referring to the undergarments I would have said underpaints or briefs.  However, if I was still in the US I probably would have referred to them as tighty whities, because that's what most guys were wearing at the time.  

Edited Saturday at 05:13 AM by Bill W