Every time I hear someone say ‘eh’ in a questioning tone or to mean ‘um actually’ I lose my shit. Or even just to play something down.

Like I literally come to hate the person instantly. Its a very strong feeling on a very small sound.

Instant downvotes if I see it on Lemmy too. HATE IT.

How about all y’all?

  • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
    7·
    9 days ago

    I literally dislike it whenever anyone uses the word literally when they clearly mean figuratively.

    Its just extra syllables to lie to me.

    • tal@olio.cafeEnglish
      2·
      9 days ago

      There’s this process in language where intensifiers — words that amplify the strength of the meaning of the rest of the phrase — tend to become used in areas that they aren’t really truly appropriate in and thus “weaken” in meaning.

      So, for example, “awesome” once truly meant “awe-inspiring”, but it’s been used enough in weaker senses the past several decades here in California that it doesn’t really mean that any more. It just means “very good” now.

      I don’t think that the Brits do that with “awesome” — or at least not as much — but they like to use “colossally” in a similar way.

      The above Wikipedia link has a list of intensifiers, including “literally”, and you can probably recognize a bunch of them that have “weakened”.