If the title of this post sounds familiar, then you must also be reading Paul Yeager’s new book, Literally the Best Language Book Ever. A man after our own hearts (especially Dan’s, who prides himself on his grammatical prowess) Yeager identifies hundreds of illogical expressions and language miscues he wishes we’d all quit saying.
My favorite is Chapter 3: Verbifications
This is when you use nouns as verbs and it’s particularly common in the business world. Want an example? I’m going to challenge myself to write four in one sentence. Ready … go!
“Oh honey, normally you know I’d love nothing more than antiquing with your chain-smoking, freak-show sister, but I have to architect a new business plan for the Tuesday meeting I chair-oh, I almost forgot, you DVRed Dancing with the Stars, right?”
Okay, I’ve never said these exact words (I don’t even have a sister) but I do catch myself verbifying all the time. And if we don’t break this habit someday soon we might find ourselves asking the counter girl to “Cup me some coffee.” But can we stop? I don’t know, but I task you to try …
So what drives you crazy?
Share your own pet peeves here-or write your own verbified sentence!
