So*, now that we are all clear on what are the acceptable/unacceptable imports into English, can we do a quick round up of the words and phrases we’d rather not have the shame of exporting to the rest of the world?

In no particular order, a few to start:

– “Pardon?” (pron. “Puh-duhn”).

– “Toilet”. As in, “I wanna go the toy-lit”.

– “Lounge”.

– Beginning a sentence with “what it is”.

– “Get”. Utilitarian ugliness; there’s always a better alternative.

And I’d be keen to reinstate he lost “to be”, e.g. Scottish: “That car needs fixed”; Northern: “That car’s needing fixing”. Whatever happened to “That car needs to be fixed”?

*Indeed.

That car needs fixing. </northern>

actually
x-self (myself, yourself…)
affect

If anglophones can’t be trusted to use it safely, the word should be withdrawn from circulation and only licenced operators permitted to use it.

“Cheap at half the price”

“Reception Room”

“Completely”

In fact*, adverbs need to be regulated and taxed for over use.

*and this.

“To be honest”

Opening a sentence with “Personally, I…”.

Couch.

Isn’t the Northern ‘get that ****ing car fixed, you idle ****!’?

Isn’t the Northern ‘get that ****ing car fixed, you idle ****!’?

Insofar as you are prototypical Northern Man, binners, yes. Otherwise, take it from me: you all speak very strangely.

At the end of the day..

Absolutely

Overcast. There is nothing good about that word.

Have you ever read this mate?

Its a great read, and goes into all the weird northern regional dialects, that change completely within ridiculously short geographical distances

I’m amazed there are any of us left alive up here

Actually*, it’s on the bookshelf. I’ll admit it, I am a bit Northern-curious, what with having had to endure living lived here for so long.

*Actually, “actually” was just the right actual word to put into the actual sentence in that actual place.

I totally agree with the banning of the incorrect use of “myself”, ” yourself”, “ourselves” etc.
I only noticed it creeping into use several years ago – where the heck did it come from?

You cant ban our lovely Somerset sentence wheres it to? though !!

I love starting sentences with, “not being funny mate, but…”
You can get rid of all the other ones mentioned further up.

..on the other hand, why do most johnny foreigners use ‘fer shure’ at the start of all their english sentences?

vettel: ‘fer shure, it was a tough race today..’ etc etc.

Never heard a engleesh person talk like dat.

‘At the end of the day’ a football managers favourate phrase,
‘At the end of the day we’re shit’..

“Going Forward”.(*)

You’re going to fix things going forward, are you? As opposed to what, firing up the DeLorean?

On behalf of my country, I’m very sorry, world.

(* – and it is a Britishism, blame Wordsworth)

“so” as the start of a sentence.

A lot of the words and phrases above do not need to be banned, they simple need to be used proper.

Because it replaces “certes” in French or “Gewiss/sicher/zwar/zugegeben” in German, Cheez.

When listening to English people it’s the constant use of “like” that bewilders.

The ‘Like’ has come over from America.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4sGU_eFc40[/video]Sorry this is abit long but bear with it.

You don’t get more American than Brad Paisley and here he speaks without once misusing the word “like”.

Brad Paisley

I tried interviews with like Liam Gallagher, Wayne Rooney and the spice girls and none got beyond, like, a minute, like… .

Well, the whole internet seems to disagree with you Edukator. Where ever did you get the idea that the usage of the word “like” as a kind of spoken punctuation is an Englishism?

Could be Irish I suppose, Gallagher’s family is Irish, that would explain the alternation of “like” and the f-word the swear filter stops.

You can take it from me, it’s certainly not an Irish thing either. (Though the equally annoying “like you know” was endemic when I was growing up – I had to have it beaten out of me. 🙂 )

So not Irish then, sometimes even Irishmen speak sense. “The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.”

Edit: I’m assuming/hoping that people will Google that quote and read the rest of it.

‘fit for purpose’ can do one.
‘Whilst’ has probably had its day.
Should prob also give up on sulphur.

“For sure” seems to be a motorsport thing. Lewis Hamilton says it.

Trying to emphasise to my 5yo that the D in couldn’t is quite important.

Trying to emphasise to my 5yo that the D in couldn’t is quite important.

Only for Northernists.

they simple need to be used proper.

Agreed. Glottal stopping and “somethink/nothink” really annoy me, but that’s just badly educated people identifying themselves, so I know not to talk to them. So actually, quite a handy social marker.

basically….

to be fair….

fair play…