<p>Could be pet peeves or just ummmmmm… What? Moments :)</p>
<p>I’ll start. It drives me nuts when I ask a question and the response is do what now? How about… Can you repeat that… Or I don’t understand… Or just what? But no… It’s do what now. This definitely seems regional in certain areas of the country.</p>
<p>Also, when I say thank you and someone responds with you welcome. I hear this around here all the time. Am I missing something or did you welcome somehow become the new you’re welcome? How did the word are get removed from you are welcome?</p>
<p>I could quasi understand a slang of y’ welcome but these people clearly pronounce the word you. It’s very bizarre to me!</p>
<p>Do you think it sounds better to say where are you at then just where you at? Or any sentence ending in at? See, that’s another one that I hear where are was removed!!</p>
<p>Mstee… I believe it to be a way of saying what. it’s usually said when someone doesn’t understand what you said our doesn’t hear you correctly… It’s usually in certain states that I hear this from. It may be an older generation thing because I usually hear it from older (over 65) people.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to make this political, but I noticed in the last election that the red states are, for the most part, the states I refer to as the do what now states. It’s usually the southern region and out to the mid west.</p>
<p>Me: What’s your name? Person: Do what now?</p>
<p>Where do you live? Do what now?</p>
<p>What are you looking for? Do what now? </p>
<p>The first time I heard this I believe I said excuse me? I beg your pardon sounds even better.</p>
<p>I cringe when someone leans to me and says “May I ask you a question?” For some reason it drives me nuts…it always makes me think…what is the world do they want to know. Also, I really don’t ever recall saying no…maybe sometimes I say…depends on what it is…but why can’t people just ask. Usually the question isn’t that bad anyway. Maybe it just drives me crazy because I am thinking of one person in my life that constantly does it, ha!</p>
<p>I’m not bothered by regional differences or group-based dialect differences. For example, living in Detroit, it was common to hear the use of “be” for “is” or “are”. Not sure if that is only African-American or if it comes from some other tradition. But you’d hear, “Where be your bathroom?” or if you ask how are you to a few people, you’d hear, “We be fine.” But so what? I knew what they meant. They just talked different from me - and I from them. To hear, “where be yo baffroom” is no different now to me hearing “I tinks dats brilliant” from the Irish kids.</p>
<p>I’m also not bothered by conversational hiccups. I’m more interested in how they spread. It became common a few years ago to say “the x is is”, a construction that only makes sense when you think of the first 3 words as a glyph which attaches to the rest of the sentence. So I hear “the thing is is” or some other version which repeats “is”. Weird but it won’t survive. When people ask a question to ask a question or some other hiccup like that, I take it as a form of expression which has spread, virus-like, and will likely die out unless it offers real value.</p>
<p>The content of what people say often makes me scratch my head.</p>
<p>au contraire, there are silly little things that I find charming, for example, I think it’s a Philadelphia thing, the plural of “you guys” is “yous guys.” It is so wrong I enjoy hearing it. Locally (here in North Carolina) I absolutely love it when someone tells me to “have a blessed day”</p>
<p>Not so fond of “ax” instead of “ask”.</p>
<p>Nobody would ever say this: “Where be your bathroom?” “Where the head at?” would be more likely.</p>