Figures of Speech That Should Disappear Forever

[nobody]

Something I've seen some people here do, as well as my sister in law: They say things like, "The yard needs mowed.", instead of "The yard needs to be mowed."

Hamlet would sound much different. "Or not...That is the question."

My wife is an English teacher. I do that JUST to drive her nuts. "Honey, this blanket needs washed" It's actually more common in the central states like Illinois, etc.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Something I've seen some people here do, as well as my sister in law: They say things like, "The yard needs mowed.", instead of "The yard needs to be mowed."

I hate that, too... Seems to be a relatively recent trend.

There are a hundred of these for me. One is the overuse of "generational," as in talent. Another is the rampant misuse of "begging the question," which it seems everyone was doing a couple of years ago.

One current one for me is, "It feels like..." to begin sentences. It's funny to me when it's used in sports arguments when ten seconds earlier the person was using analytics to argue a point. They're all hard data and science and therefore more sophisticated than you, but now here's what they feel.

 

[Runwildboys]

Here's one I'm as guilty of as anyone else is: "I can't wait until..."

Of course you can wait. You may not like it, but you don't have much of a choice.