100%

H

Henny Penny

Registered User
Messages
559
Why do people when referring to effort insist on saying things like ... I'll give it 110% or we expect 150% effort etc. It's a paradox ... you can't give more than you have.

... it really bugs me every time I hear someone saying it. When did giving it your all (i.e. 100%) become not enough!
 
It'll come back! it only started cos of the paradox. We REALLY REALLY mean it. Like the hundred thousand welcomes, when one is sufficient.
 
Phrases can be funny and often seem to mean nothing to the people saying them. Years ago every sales person you dealt with in New York would always finish the deal with "Have a nice day". This was obviously insufficient as a couple of years ago i found "Have a good day" to be more common. Then started the "Have a GREAT day" more recently. I was wondering what was next... I found out in Macys a few weeks ago...

"Have an outstanding day!".... at least the same false smile hasn't changed over the years!
 

I told you a million times, stop exaggerating!
 
The use of the word awesome to describe the most mundane experience gets on my wick. Americans are particularly prone to this. Sentences such as “that burger was awesome” are just plain wrong. Seeing the birth of your child, swimming with wild dolphins, diving on a barrier reef; all of these things could be described as awesome but not a table or a burger or a new bathroom etc.
 
What about the word "preparedness" that the Americans are so fond of. I know it is a real word but its irritating when I hear it, like a made up word that sounds wrong.
 
don't misunderestimate their prepardedness for another conflagration.
 
How about "Don't disrespect me". Why can't people say "don't be disrespectful to me?"
 
One that bugs me is where people say something like "The new product is 3 times smaller than the original"

This cannot be correct, except possibly in some weird physicists head or in some parallel anti-universe. Once something becomes 'one times smaller' than something else it ceases to exist in my books. Three times bigger I can understand - it is 300% of the size of the original. Three times smaller would be something like -200% (or maybe -300%) of the size of the original. The negative element is where the physicist comes in.

What they should be saying is "The new product is one third the size of the original."

z
 
Yea, and what about people who are really pedantic?
 
Marie M said:
What about the word "preparedness" that the Americans are so fond of. I know it is a real word but its irritating when I hear it, like a made up word that sounds wrong.
Click to expand...

It's the normality of listening to 'normalcy' that makes us think it's real!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register