A language learners’ forum

Your vs you're (really is so damn easy to remember the rule!!!! So there's no excuse)

"Could care less" when it's "couldn't"

People in England saying " to be fair...." and "I'm not going to lie...."

tarvos wrote:d/t mistakes in Dutch.

^
sgat, tog, gezigt.... Those sort of Dutch spelling mistakes annoy me. Actually, the reason it annoys me is because most of the time it's not a mistake but a conscious choice. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

mercutio wrote:People in England saying " to be fair...." and "I'm not going to lie...."

And similarly, English speakers everywhere who say: "To be honest ...", and "To tell you the truth ...", leaving the impression that normally they are not honest and truthful.

tommus wrote:And similarly, English speakers everywhere who say: "To be honest ...", and "To tell you the truth ...", leaving the impression that normally they are not honest and truthful.

Why? It's a tag that informs the listener that some people might not like what you're about to say, and that you're not 100% comfortable about saying it.

Language has an interpersonal dimension, and without this sort of language it would be sterile, soulless and unwelcoming.

People in England saying 'can I get' rather than 'can I have'.

ed_phelan wrote:People in England saying 'can I get' rather than 'can I have'.

Isn't the goal of the exchange to obtain something? "Get" seems far more correct.

Also, why doesn't it bother you in Scotland or Wales...?

Please forgive me if I have missed this in the previous 19 pages, but "I seen." It should be "I saw" or "I have/had seen." The worst is the negative as "I didn't seen."

Cainntear wrote:

tommus wrote:And similarly, English speakers everywhere who say: "To be honest ...", and "To tell you the truth ...", leaving the impression that normally they are not honest and truthful.

Why? It's a tag that informs the listener that some people might not like what you're about to say, and that you're not 100% comfortable about saying it.

Language has an interpersonal dimension, and without this sort of language it would be sterile, soulless and unwelcoming.

"To be honest" "honestly" and "tbh" annoy me, too.

Cainntear, I think your definition of it is spot on and I agree totally about the interpersonal dimension of language BUT there is something going on here.

TBH has had a huge boom over recent years and i think its meaning has changed. To me it is now often used seemingly redundantly - when people are about to present information that is - or at least, used to be - quite uncontroversial. Maybe people feel uncomfortable more easily when expressing an opinion or even a fact these days?

On matters such as this ie when I am interested in a new word, a new acronym or I suspect a recent change in meaning I usually go to the urban dictionary. I only read the first two pages of definitions and no one seemed to really nail it but I liked the one that said it is overused and gave the example sentence, "The french come from France tbh."