Trivial things that annoy you

rant
Those people who queue for ryanair an hour before the gate opens.
The people who block the aisle on the plane as they're too thick to move into the middle of the plane.
People who eat loudly.
People who play music on buses.
People who take up extra seats on buses.
Nigerians on their phones.
Bad spelling.
People who complain about prices. go somewhere else if you don't like it.
Families taking up an entire path with no interest in letting anyone else past.
People who complain about where they sit in a restaurant.
Attention-seeking facebooking
Walking with your dog off the lead wherever you like.
The idiots who get their purse out way later than they should.
The stocking type tights with designs and patterns - slutty.
The way gypsey kids dance.
Crying kids and parents who can't hear them.
Small-talk

/rant

Ted_YNWA

People who rant.

Pumpkinseeds

I get seriously annoyed at people who strew broken glass on footpaths and public areas. I regularly pass broken glass around my town and it sickens me when I see bloodied paw prints near it. What kind of ignorant twat thinks its funny to smash glass for the hell of it, without a thought to the animals that might be injured by it? I also get annoyed when its outside someones house and they just ignore it. If I saw that in my street I'd sweep it up and dispose of it safely, wrapped and taped up in newspaper:mad:

andym1

Rasheed wrote: »

Going along in the car listening to the radio and a good song comes on. And then the other person decides to sing along, badly, and ruins the whole fecking song for me.

How long have you been seeing my wife ? I WILL find you etc

languagenerd

Sneezing just after applying mascara

ScumLord

The signage at Gatwick airport and square wraps.

Rasheed

andym1 wrote: »

How long have you been seeing my wife ? I WILL find you etc

I'm a girl! And I'm sure your wife is lovely but I don't swing that way!

retalivity

people over the age of 12 wearing baseball caps
Idiots who wear sunglasses indoors/at night/in the winter but not when skiing.
advertising something minus the tax

simply simple

A big basket of fruit on the dining table with just one banana left on it

Lando Griffin

People who, when you are reversing out a space and half way through your manovure either walk behind the car or worse try to drive through the ever decreasing space.

Ruudi_Mentari

simply simple wrote: »

A big basket of fruit on the dining table with just one banana left on it

amidst a mountain of rotting oranges

Ihatecuddles-old

Ruudi_Mentari wrote: »

amidst a mountain of rotting oranges

I thought that only happened in my parents house!

The King of Moo

The King of Moo wrote: »

Do you mean the "h?"
Regardless, you're not "supposed" to pronounce it any particular way. "Thomas" and "Tommas" are both very common. I personally don't care how someone pronounces it as there's barely any difference in the sound.
The same goes for "Thailand." In fact, even though I know the generally-accepted standard pronunciation is not to sound the "h," I was so used to pronouncing it phonetically as a child that I still find myself sometimes pronouncing the "h."

Sorry I meant the 'h', yes.

You ARE supposed to pronounce it without the h. 'Thomas' with the h pronounced is unheard of outside Ireland. If you don't believe me, ask anyone from any other English speaking nation. There IS a big difference (it's a completely different form of articulation!) and pronouncing the 'th' in Thomas by putting your tongue between your teeth sounds ridiculous to most people. Honestly.

When I first moved to Ireland, I thought people were taking the p*ss. It's not even one of those 'well, it depends on your accent' words. Pronouncing the h in Thomas is just incorrect. Same as saying Thighland for Thailand. It's not an accent, it's a mistake. A foreign student who says 'Thighland' in an English language exam will be marked down for pronunciation. It's just plain wrong. It's not an alternative pronunciation, it's not Hiberno-English, it's just wrong.

jkell061

I only ever seem to walk into tables or doors when I've no shoes on n bust my toes! Never with shoes on! Wtf !

The King of Moo

Kara Yummy Shortbread wrote: »

Sorry I meant the 'h', yes.

You ARE supposed to pronounce it without the h. 'Thomas' with the h pronounced is unheard of outside Ireland. If you don't believe me, ask anyone from any other English speaking nation. There IS a big difference (it's a completely different form of articulation!) and pronouncing the 'th' in Thomas by putting your tongue between your teeth sounds ridiculous to most people. Honestly.

When I first moved to Ireland, I thought people were taking the p*ss. It's not even one of those 'well, it depends on your accent' words. Pronouncing the h in Thomas is just incorrect. Same as saying Thighland for Thailand. It's not an accent, it's a mistake. A foreign student who says 'Thighland' in an English language exam will be marked down for pronunciation. It's just plain wrong. It's not an alternative pronunciation, it's not Hiberno-English, it's just wrong.

As I've said many times before, you can't say things like that about the pronunciation of the English language. There are few globally-accepted standards of pronunciation. As long as a pronunciation is close enough that the meaning is clear and there's no jarring difference in sound, there's no problem.

For the record, the word "Thailand" hasn't come up in any of the speaking sections of English-language exams I've dealt with, but if it did, it the pronunciation of the "h" would only (possibly) be marked down in a proficiency-level exam, or maybe advanced if the student made few other mistakes. Most students have bigger things to worry about, pronunciation-wise.

And if I took such a strict attitude towards pronunciation with students, they'd never get anywhere.

I can understand people getting a little annoyed by slightly deviant pronunciations, but I don't think you can say such minor differences are wrong.

EazyD

When I'm paying for petrol and the "regular" behind me in the queue cuts in before either myself or the till guy has a chance to talk and exclaims "I'll just leave that tenner there for ya", and saunters off, I mean really, could you not wait all of 10 seconds?Argh

The King of Moo

The King of Moo wrote: »

As I've said many times before, you can't say things like that about the pronunciation of the English language. There are few globally-accepted standards of pronunciation. As long as a pronunciation is close enough that the meaning is clear and there's no jarring difference in sound, there's no problem.

For the record, the word "Thailand" hasn't come up in any of the speaking sections of English-language exams I've dealt with, but if it did, it the pronunciation of the "h" would only (possibly) be marked down in a proficiency-level exam, or maybe advanced if the student made few other mistakes. Most students have bigger things to worry about, pronunciation-wise.

And if I took such a strict attitude towards pronunciation with students, they'd never get anywhere.

I can understand people getting a little annoyed by slightly deviant pronunciations, but I don't think you can say such minor differences are wrong.

Well, I don't agree with you. There is a line between 'regional variation' and 'incorrect pronunciation'. What I do agree with is that it's not always clear where that line is. I think it's also important to recognise when your pronunciation of a word is only used in your area. Saying that Thomas with the 'th' pronounced is a common pronunciation is just plain incorrect. It's pronounced like that by a minority of Irish people who were brought up by well-meaning parents and teachers telling them to pronounce their 'th' sounds and distinguish between 'tree' and 'three', because a lot of Irish people don't make that distinction. The problem is that sometimes 'th' is correctly pronounced as 't'. Such as in Thomas and Thailand.

I don't really get why you think it's such a minor pronunciation error. It's not really less of a big deal than any of the other common mistakes students make. Teachers always freak out about Asian students not being able to distinguish l and r, but it's usually obvious from the context which one they meant to say. Lice/rice, Thai/thigh, they're both minimal pairs. I agree that the most important thing of all is making yourself understood, but I also think good pronunciation is extremely important. I start making students aware of sounds and articulation at beginner level and I am strict about it, because I've met so many Advanced and Proficiency students with crap pronunciation and ingrained bad habits who wish they'd just learned good pronunciation from the beginning.

The King of Moo

Kara Yummy Shortbread wrote: »

Well, I don't agree with you. There is a line between 'regional variation' and 'incorrect pronunciation'. What I do agree with is that it's not always clear where that line is. I think it's also important to recognise when your pronunciation of a word is only used in your area. Saying that Thomas with the 'th' pronounced is a common pronunciation is just plain incorrect. It's pronounced like that by a minority of Irish people who were brought up by well-meaning parents and teachers telling them to pronounce their 'th' sounds and distinguish between 'tree' and 'three', because a lot of Irish people don't make that distinction. The problem is that sometimes 'th' is correctly pronounced as 't'. Such as in Thomas and Thailand.

I don't really get why you think it's such a minor pronunciation error. It's not really less of a big deal than any of the other common mistakes students make. Teachers always freak out about Asian students not being able to distinguish l and r, but it's usually obvious from the context which one they meant to say. Lice/rice, Thai/thigh, they're both minimal pairs. I agree that the most important thing of all is making yourself understood, but I also think good pronunciation is extremely important. I start making students aware of sounds and articulation at beginner level and I am strict about it, because I've met so many Advanced and Proficiency students with crap pronunciation and ingrained bad habits who wish they'd just learned good pronunciation from the beginning.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think the "th/t" issue is a minor one. I will pull up students on pronunciation issues which cloud their meaning or make their English sound unnatural (eg. "l" and "r" being swapped, pronouncing "-ed" at the end of regular past simple/past participle forms that don't end in "d" or "t").
Otherwise, like most of my colleagues, I don't focus too much on pronunciation.

The King of Moo

The King of Moo wrote: »

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think the "th/t" issue is a minor one. I will pull up students on pronunciation issues which cloud their meaning or make their English sound unnatural (eg. "l" and "r" being swapped, pronouncing "-ed" at the end of regular past simple/past participle forms that don't end in "d" or "t").
Otherwise, like most of my colleagues, I don't focus too much on pronunciation.

With all due respect, I think more teachers should. I don't think pronunciation ever really gets the respect it deserves. The problem is that no matter how good your grammar is, your English is always going to sound sh*t if your pronunciation is bad. A lot of students are also self conscious about practising English because they're afraid they won't be understood so it ends up affecting their fluency as well. Most of my students have been really, really happy about actively studying pronunciation and phonemics and finally understanding where they're going wrong and how they can fix it. My last school even got me to do a special pronunciation class for two hours a week and it was always packed. I think with a language like English, where the written word often doesn't resemble the spoken word, teaching pronunciation is really important. We'll have to agree to disagree, not least because this is going way off topic.

CorsetIsTight

When the 'Search' in a site's search box doesn't disappear when you click in it and you have to delete or highlight the 'Search' before you can type what you want to search for.

It's especially irritating if you don't notice and type your search, for instance 'cotton', you hit enter and you get a "No results for Seacottonrch found" message.

osarusan

"Pronunciation is that part of the student's English which is the same at the end of the course as it was at the beginning."

Jeremy Harmer (or was it Scott Thornbury...or Luke Prodromeau?)

Czarcasm

osarusan wrote: »

"Pronunciation is that part of the student's English which is the same at the end of the course as it was at the beginning."

Jeremy Harmer (or was it Scott Thornbury...or Luke Prodromeau?)

There's a couple of posters around here that are torn over the thorny issue that is proper pronunciation

Said with tongue firmly in cheek, not behind the teeth!

pitythefool

Czarcasm wrote: »

There's a couple of posters around here that are torn over the thorny issue that is proper pronunciation

Said with tongue firmly in cheek, not behind the teeth!

THONGUE in cheek

Czarcasm

pitythefool wrote: »

THONGUE in cheek

That makes it sound like you have a lithp! :pac:

Unless you mean a thong, which goes between a girl's bum cheeks?

Wouldn't be too keen about picking up a pack of thongs from Thailand with a set of tongs now myself tbh!


I could nearly write a thong about that! :pac:

Lucena

Czarcasm wrote: »

That makes it sound like you have a lithp! :pac:

Unless you mean a thong, which goes between a girl's bum cheeks?

Wouldn't be too keen about picking up a pack of thongs from Thailand with a set of tongs now myself tbh!


I could nearly write a thong about that! :pac:

* gets coat *

FYP

simply simple

journey of rice from plate to my mouth via Fork

Faze11

Automatic doors or elevator doors that open to slowly.

People who stick m3/m5/gti badges on their bog standard cars.

andym1

maximoose wrote: »

Just tayto bags, or all other brands of crisp bags?




Back on topic: When people call all brands of crisps Tayto.

When people call every brand of vacuum cleaner a ''Hoover''

Three Seasons

It causes me anxiety and deep frustration that the presenter on "Man vs food" wears a jacket when eating. It really annoys me.

Suckler

People not knowing (roughly) where countries and cities are located; A primary school teacher I know thought Wales was up beside Scotland;One guy thought New Zealand was close to New Guinea / Vietnam; A friend announced that he wanted to go to California, when asked what part - "I dunno, the best bits of the city" - Thought L.A. was one city, California another, Hollywood another city etc.

Granted there are some smaller countries I wouldn't know exact locations and borders but I'd have a fair idea of the direction I'd be heading!