It bugs me when people say “the thing is is that” (if you listen for it, you’ll start hearing it… or maybe that’s something that people only do in my area.) (“What the thing is is that…” is fine. But “the thing is is that…” bugs me.)
Also, “just because <blank> doesn’t mean <blank>.” That sentence structure invites one to take “just because <blank>” as a noun phrase which my brain really doesn’t want to do. Just doesn’t seem right. But that sentence structure is very common.
And I’m not saying there’s anything objectively wrong with either of these. Language is weird and complex and beautiful. It’s just fascinating that some commonly-used linguistic constructions just hit some people wrong sometimes.
Edit: I thought of another one. “As best as I can.” “The best I can” is fine, “as well as I can” is good, and “as best I can” is even fine. But “as best as” hurts.
I have zero gripes with my mother tongue borrowing English words for new concepts. It might be the best thing it can do, second only to dying.
But every one in ten words it borrows the wrong form. “*What’s that board? That’s a surfing. How do I call the one riding it? Why, a surfinger, of course. *” “My sister sent me another reels-- pluralize what, reelss? Of course it’s reelss, you weirdo.” Makes me wanna scrape my eyes and ears out.
I hate that punctuation is “supposed” to go inside quotation marks. If you doing anything more complex than a simple statement of a quote, you run into cases where it doesn’t make sense to me.
Did he say “I had pancakes for supper?”andDid he say “I had pancakes for supper”?mean different things to me.Similarly:
That jerk called me a “tomato!”andThat jerk called me a “tomato”!It feels to me that the first examples add emphasis to the quotes that did not exist when originally spoken, whereas the second examples isolate the quote, which is the whole point of putting it in quotation marks.
I go out of my way to rephrase sentences due to this. That jerk called me a “tomato” for some reason!
One thing I try to avoid when I’m writing is when two words repeat. Kind of like your example “the thing is is that.” If I catch myself writing it, I try to rearrange the sentence.
Although a pretty extreme example tickles me: “The cookie he had had had had no effect on his appetite.”
James, while John had had “had”, had had “had had”. “Had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.
Misusing words like “setup” vs “set up”, or “login” vs “log in”. “Anytime” vs “any time” also steams my clams.
So I use both, depending on context. “Setup” is a noun, “set up” is a verb. “Login” is a noun, “log in” is a verb.
I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out different proper contexts for “anytime” vs “any time,” but honestly, I can decide one way or the other.
To me, “log in” can only be used
verballyas a verbal phrase, but “login” could be used as a noun or verb. Though I still wouldn’t say, “As a lumberjack, I login the woods up north”
