_Square_Peg_ wrote:
"You don't mind, do you?"
How am I supposed to answer that?
- "Yes, I do."
- "Yes, I don't mind."
- "No, I do."
- "No, I don't mind."
Yes, that one irks me a little bit, too. I usually mentally translate it to "do you mind?", so I answer "yes" if I mind and "no" if I don't. But what irks me more than the semantics of the question is the meaning behind it - or lack thereof. Often when people ask this they don't care whether you mind or not, they just want to give themselves extra justification for a questionable action.
Bethie wrote:
Redundancies (ATM machine, PIN number, KFC chicken)
Nitpicking, I know, but "KFC chicken" is only redundant if it refers to the company "Kentucky Fried Chicken", not if it refers to the chicken sold by that company.
_Square_Peg_ wrote:
I also get annoyed by the phrase "under the sea" and the word "underground".
You're not under anything, you're in it! You're in the sea! You're in the ground! The only time you're actually under the ground/sea, is if gravity stopped working.
"underground" doesn't really bother me, because it's a word with its own meaning, distinct from the words from which it was formed, just like "redhead" does not refer to a head that is red. You have a point with "under the sea" - though it is technically possible to be under it if you're in the ground under the bottom of the sea.