"Say when." - Phrases that bother you.

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Does anyone have a certain phrase that they never understood, or that bothers them?

For example, my grandmother was from England, and she used to say to me, when pouring me a glass of milk, "Say when."

This means to tell her when there is enough milk in the glass.

It used to bug me, because there were so many other things I could say, like "That's enough" or "Stop."

I guess it could be short form of "Say when to stop." But it still bothers me for some reason.

And I always felt bound by some literal code to actually use the word "When" to tell her when to stop, because that's what she asked me to do. I would say "When" but I would feel mad doing it because why would you say "When" when you could just say "Stop"?

Anyone else?

"I just bought it a couple of days ago."

My mum commenting on the last time she bought milk/ bread/ everything else.

It annoys me because I take a couple to mean 'two' when it wasn't two days ago, it was more five, or a week, or a fortnight, or 6 months..

I just hate the ambiguity of that statement.

I have really rigid rules about how many a couple is, too. "A couple" is always two, "a few" is three or four, and "several" is five to seven.

All But...
i.e. You have all but finished your work

I have see that used many times, and I end up having to use the context of where its written to figure out what they're talking about. Drives me crazy... be precise dammit, just say "the work has been finished" or not.

A couple is always 2, it is by my definition as well, however, I just looked it up in the dictionary and "an indefinite small number" is definition #4. Now that one is going to bug me... again, be precise dammit!.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/couple

My mother says "ho hum" more times in one day than any person should ever say it in a lifetime. She may as well be sticking a cattle prod in my ribcage instead, because it produces the same effect.

I hate it when people talk wrong. "Sat when" doesn't bother me but saying "couple" and mean more than two or calling a binder a notebook is what bothers me. I also hate it when people call laptops notebooks.

I admit I talk one myself but it's based on habits. Like I keep calling my apartment my house. It's not a house, it's an apartment. I have lived in houses my whole life and now all of a sudden I am in an apartment so it's a habit I have of saying what kind of residence I live in. But I always correct myself. I even keep calling trucks cars when someone owns one because it's a habit. I can excuse that when people talk wrong based on habits.

I thought several was three.

*goes to the dictionary*

I dont understand things like

whore of babylon
tool of the state
monkey on a string
not the sharpest tool in the shed
pulling like a schoolboy

I think I arbitrarily made that rule up because several and seven sound similar.

The alliteration in the above sentence makes me happy.

You could reply with an estimated time. Say, ooh... 5 seconds from now

Last edited by Moog on 10 Oct 2011, 7:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

good morning

I looked the word up and it said it means more than two or three. Okay so three isn't several then. But what exactly is several? It didn't say what number. I guess that leaves it to semantics where everyone has their own definition of what is several. Some might think eight, some might think five, some might think four, and I wonder if anyone would think twenty.

And several should most definitely not mean two. Whenever it's used in that way, I always end up doing a double take.

I hate when someone says they'll do something "in a bit". In a bit is never the same amount of time.

I'm all for precision when possible, but those words exist because there are times when people haven't counted, and maybe _can't_ count, for example, at some time in the near future, but you don't know exactly when conditions will be right (getting something finished?) "a few days", "several days", "a couple of days" (maybe two days, maybe one or three). When you have objects, you can usually _see_ one, two, three, four, but five or more you don't necessarily count, because you just got a quick glimpse. Even fewer than five, something like chickens or cats moving around in brush or high grass, if they're all the same color. Or if you remember doing something in the relatively recent past, but you really don't know how many days, or remember which day of the week it was. That set of words is _deliberately_ imprecise words, that gives the approximate idea of how many: for example, you wouldn't say "a couple" if there were at least ten things, but they might be "a few", depending on context, like comparing a small group of cattle to a huge herd of cattle.

i am disturbed when-
people say "karry-oak-ee" instead of "kah-rah-oh-kay" [Karaoke]*
[*2 japanese words, kara=empty, oke= (corruption of) orchestra]
when tv news anchors say "oh-reh-GONE" instead of "oh-re-gun" [Oregon]
when people in the inland empire say "war-shington" instead of Washington
that's all for now.