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.

  • _edge@discuss.tchncs.de
    4·
    6 months ago

    “What if she was gone?”

    Not a native speaker. That’s what I was taught. Subjunctive wasn’t a thing in my English lessons. Common phrases like “I wish I were you…” were introduced as a non-standard alternative…

    • tatterdemalion@programming.dev
      2·
      6 months ago

      Interesting! It’s possible your teacher was trying to keep things simple, especially since most English speakers probably couldn’t tell you what the subjunctive mood is.

      I don’t think I learned about the subjunctive mood in Spanish class for 5 years, by which time I was in the 8th grade.