Monday 31 October 2011

Words and Phrases that Annoy Me

Why do we meet with people nowadays, when we used to just meet them? I've tried replacing 'meet with' with 'meet' and 99 times out of 100 the 'with' is redundant.

On the other hand, people debate someone quite often these days when they should have a debate with someone about something, in my view.

I know I shouldn't let these things irritate me, but there's only so much deep breathing you can do on any one day.

8 comments:

  1. I'm interested in the 1 time out of 100. I think it's when the Director of Studies wants to meet with a student to discuss his poor academic performance. At least that's how I've explained it to my students. Don't worry if she wants to meet you for coffee, or meet your girlfriend. Be alarmed if she needs to meet with you.

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  2. It's is a distillation of "have a meeting with" as opposed to, say, meeting someone for lunch, right? "I will meet you in front of the restaurant and I will meet with you regarding the business arrangment we are completing." Either way it is annoying, I suppose, because most wouldn't think that hard about the distinction. I guess the 1 out of 100 might...

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  3. It always sends my blood pressure up; almost as much as the disappearance of 'and' in "Go see".

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  4. I forgot my main bugbear: grow, as in "We need to grow the business. Awful.

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  5. Polly, I don't even like it in that context - were I the Director of Studies, I'd say, 'We need to meet', 'Can we have a meeting', 'I need to talk to you,' or something else, because I still think the 'with' is redundant.
    Chris, I prefer, 'I'll meet you to talk about the business arrangement'. Again, it's the redundancy that annoys me.
    Steerforth, total agreement on both counts and, in the context of 'go see', which I think is an Americanism, I also hate the creeping rise of 'rookie' instead of 'beginner'.
    Barbara, I am racking my brains to think who that is; will have to ask you in person.

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  6. My favourite is "I'll try and do" something. You are not going "to try" and then "do" it. Well, maybe you are but surely if you know you are going to do it, you should just say you'll do it! You are going "to try TO do" it. Drives me bonkers! But there are those who argue the case: http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/try-and-think-logically/

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  7. Yay, totally agree, Whispering. And then, of course, there's 'The reason why...'

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  8. Oh, we could go on and on ...

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