30 Phrases Many People Don’t Know They’re Using Incorrectly
No one was born perfect when it comes to language. We say one thing when we mean entirely another. We mix up words, add endings, and pretend it’s all fine. Well, not quite.
You see, even though some phrases roll off the tip of the tongue as if they were almost identical, it doesn’t mean they are. From hunger pains to hunger pangs and sleight of hand to slight of hand, there are too many common phrases that are way more confusing than they really should be.
So this time, we’re gonna look at the most common mistakes we make when using these phrases, and hopefully, learn something that would have made our English teachers proud.
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We all have that one phrase or two (or too many) that pop into the conversations we have with people. These go-to expressions surely add some style to whatever we’re saying unless they’re used the wrong way.
But the more we use them, the more unaware we become of these repetitive language slip-ups. And honestly, our interlocutors are often unaware of the fact as well. Think of how many times you've heard someone say “I could care less.” In fact, this means the exact opposite as meant by the right usage “I couldn’t care less.”
Other common phrases people confuse very often are “tongue and cheek” (should be tongue in cheek), “for all intensive purposes” (should be “for all intents and purposes”), “another thing coming” (the right way is “another think coming.”)
Finally. Thank you. AMEN. English isn't my family's first language on one side, and I've spent a lifetime explaining these things. I feel so happy I'm not alone....
Even though the misused phrases may be annoying to some sharp-eared listeners, they are never harmful or intentional.
But there are some common phrases that can never work in any conversation and they can definitely turn your encounter sour. For example, saying “you look good for your age,” “this might sound stupid, but…” or “you’re so…” this and that, can be interpreted in a bad way.
So in the end, it’s never really about language and grammar, but rather the content and the way you say it that really matters in a fruitful and pleasant conversation.
The term has nothing to do with the Scotts. It comes from old Scandinavian 'skatt fri', which means 'tax free'.
True, true. The Scots are pretty bad news too, though.
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This one is misleading though because they are pronounced the same way. If you're saying them at least.
A lot of people online seem to be unable to correctly use superlatives.
I think I've heard change tactics....Now I'm questioning everything I've ever heard or said.
In Greece we say "one is worse than the other" when everything is bad and you can't tell which is worse
Note: this post originally had 46 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
One that drives me bananas is when people say empathetic instead of empathic
It being used instead of sympathy when people don't understand but are sorry for the person's plight.
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Remi Flynne good
and when people confuse sympathy and empathy...
Yep, that is the point being made by Remi Flying as well. I am glad to see people pointing this out. Sadly, it has become the norm to say empathy even though most people really mean sympathy.
From Grammarly and other sites: The words empathetic and empathic mean the same thing. Empathic is the older word, but not by much—it was first used in 1909, while the first recorded of use of empathetic is from 1932. Both words are derived from empathy, and you can use them interchangeably. In scientific writing, empathic is more common.
Empathetic is correct in British English.
As is empathic - that's the older form. I wonder if the newer use of empathetic came about because people expected it to rhyme with sympathetic.
Erin easy
The words empathetic and empathic mean the same thing. Empathic is the older word, but not by much—it was first used in 1909, while the first recorded of use of empathetic is from 1932. Both words are derived from empathy, and you can use them interchangeably. In scientific writing, empathic is more common.
Erin haha
Erin what
Erin haha
Erin no
'Fine-toothed comb' is often used incorrectly as a 'fine tooth comb' or even as 'tooth comb'
Oh, yes. That one is irritating. I see it in published novels and wonder who the hell was editing. Grrrr 🤬
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Liam Walsh lol
This is the only one I have ever been guilty of. Thank you for pointing it out so that I can correct myself now, it's good to know!
Iced tea as well. I often see "ice tea".
Terry Farnell like
Terry Farnell good
Terry Farnell no
Terry Farnell Good response!
Terry Farnell ?
Terry Farnell Good response!
I love good grammar. Can’t help but cringe when words are used incorrectly.
I completely agree. https://photos.app.goo.gl/brzaVqwtnhEohecb6
Lynn Plouff love
Lynn Plouff ?
Somewhere, my English teachers are rejoicing. And scolding. And rejoicing.
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Sad to see so many downvotes. Emily is absolutely correct here. The conventional standard is no more correct than any other. Furthermore, it's not fixed. Jonathan Swift among many others wanted to "ascertain the English tongue". 300 years later we can see how that went. I'm guessing before long most English speakers will find 'espresso' as weird and archaic as 'English tongue'.
So dumb. If English no correct form in your world then able vacuum tree cannister glasses and you should understand what I mean.
Vuun lol
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And the linguists are tearing their hair out "tHerE Is nO sUcH ThiNG aS CorRecT EnGliSh!!!" Conventional yes, Correct NO.
"should of".
*twitch*
A more subtle one that drives me nuts: when talking about someone facing a dilemma, people will say "He had to choose between (good thing) and (bad thing)." Um, that's not a dilemma - just choose the good thing!! For it to be a dilemma, the choice has to be between two good things (only one of which you can have) or two BAD things (only one of which you can avoid). For instance, some program I watched said "...he was forced to choose between defending his life's work and betraying his protege." That'd be an easy one - defend your life's work INSTEAD OF betraying your protege. What they MEANT was "he was forced to choose between defending his life's work and being loyal to his protege."
Brian Leahy good
Brian Leahy easy
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should've / should of should've been added to this list :)
that one drives me nuts
Zebwe lol
Another classic from {mostly} americans is 'voila', so many spell it like they try to pronounce it, Wa La, So wrong !
Colin Fairhurst haha
Yes!! The first time I heard this was on a commercial and I was so surprised.
One fell swoop not one foul swoop
or 'one fail(ed) swoop' 🤦🏻♀️
IrishGirl like
Andrew Vince love
People use "let alone" wrong rather often. It should be I can't do [small thing], let alone [big thing], but people often reverse it. I can't swim across the pool, let alone the English Channel.
I used to Beta read fanfiction so I think I've seen all the incorrect versions of these at some point.
I barely know the difference between week and weak so this rlly helped lol
Why do people keep commenting "easy" on my comments? Can anyone else help me on that?
You mean like johnsonanna565 - yeah, they're dodgy. Not genuine accounts. There's a whole range of this type of account and comment. Daria Z has as a response to her comment from dragonwarrior259. The comment always is made up of the person's name and some stupid one word addition like: easy, follower, haha. If you look at the account they usually have negative points and a link you really DO NOT want to use. Bored Panda really need to get on top of that somehow.
PjandBolt - there are so many of that type of comment. See above the ones that read 'Liam Walsh lol' and 'Lucas lol'. Both have 'hot sexy' people wanting you to click on the dodgy links on their profiles.
Well, Covid can easily make you feel weak for much more than a week.
My favorite: 'Apart' versus 'A part'
A pet peeve of mine is "how they look like"...
Agreed!!!
This comments section passed the vibe check more than any other I’ve seen. Good job, y’all.
Lol maybe for most, but anything I say is getting downvoted. Even my comment on "eat ur cake" it's a really bully mentality here. I might just quit this site I'm tired of bots posting and bullies downvoting those who disagree no matter how they try to defend themselves. Passed ur vibe check but the vibes I'm getting are telling me pandas want me gone. So bye y'all.
My pleasure! Glad I could be an encouragement! Hang in there.
Thanks Aragorn:) I think I was having a down moment I let it get on top of me, ur kind words mean a lot :)
Feel free to, I can’t stop you, but I think the majority of us like having you around. There’ll always be people that don’t like you, and if you define yourself by not being liked by everyone, you’ll always hate yourself. I got over that mentality a couple of years ago, and it was really freeing. If someone dislikes your opinion, as far as you’re concerned, they can go f**k themselves.
I only found two I might have used the wrong version of, and english itsn't my first language. That being said, I rarely use ANY of there, correct or incorrect
I imagine it’s easier to avoid making these mistakes if you were taught the correct way before picking up on the wrong way. Native speakers don’t get that.
🤣😄
Apologies if someone already covered this, but... the one that makes me nuts is when someone refers to a modified car, for example, as “souped up.” WTF? You added chicken soup to it, did you now? You meant “suped up” as in rendered super-duper by virtue of the application of superior enhancements.
Here's another one: "these kinds of things/situations/people" when referring to precisely ONE kind of things/situations/people. Should be "this kind of things/situations/people" (yes, even if things/situations/people is plural).
How about “show stopper” being used negatively, to imply that a project will be stopped, when the correct meaning of “show stopper” is actually positive, i.e. the highlight of the show. This may be peculiar to second language English European corporations.
Thomas Hofmann +
Oooh, I didn't know that!
Duck tape! Don’t know why they think it has something to do with ducks. It’s “duct” to wrap around joins and seal ducts.....
That might be because there is a brand of duct tape called Duck Tape here in the UK.. it really adds to the confusion haha
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Laura Broad haha
but if you wrap a duck in that silver stuff it would be a duct taped duck?? a duck duct taped?? on second thought, just don't wrap a duck in anything...
Karen Barnes yes
As a Russian, I mostly use English in written form, so it was really interesting to know the incorrect versions too :)
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Daria Z haha
My favorite is when people say a difficult action or scenario is a "tough road to hoe." It is actually, of course, "row to hoe," but it is technically HARDER to hoe a road than a row in a graden.
I say a long row to hoe. Is that wrong? Or can it be both a tough row to hoe and a long row to hoe?
My comment was just "row" vs. "road." Long or tough, its all hard ;)
i knew americans speak english worse than non-native speakers but this...this is worse than i expected.
"taken for granite"
DNOKVAH yes
"Should have" not "should of" and "me neither" not "me either"
Andrea Rafanan haha
These are all good. Mock my words, I have seen them all. However, I was somewhat disappointed not to see strait-laced/strait jacket and camaraderie, not comradery.
Do you mean 'mark my words'? Sorry. 😁😜🙃
Very nice and interesting article.thanks!
ingion1 what
If you liked this post, then you will also enjoy this list of 100 EGGCORNS (that was a new word for me) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2090909-eggcorns.html
That list was well worth the read. Thank you! And anyone who has read Winnie-the-Pooh knows that the word is “haycorns” and not eggcorns. 😉
I cringe when I hear the comparative and superlative misused on BBC Radio 4... every day I hear at least an example or two. I think a lot of mistakes in the use of language is due to laziness and the promulgation of poor habits...
I am honestly struggling to believe that somehow, the more prevalent misunderstanding between the antonyms entitled and self-entitled does not appear on this list.
Molly Cule good
This was dumb
"Sooner than later" is the one that drives me nuts. It's "sooner *rather* than later"!
Jay Weigel Good response!
This maybe goes to show that people don't read as much anymore, so the words get passed orally, hence the mistakes (mostly similar phonetically). I learned English as a foreign language from the age of 15, so mainly in books and grammars, so I actually knew most of the correct answers here (not to brag ;) just to prove my point of "oral" vs "written" learning)
People who say ‘third world problems’ instead of ‘first world problems’.
Vivienne Bristow -
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He cut off his nose to spite his face is one I use a lot to describe people who are passive aggressive...because it's an excellent description of passive aggression. Most people have no idea what I'm saying, and one friend thought I meant Despite instead of 'to spite'. A lot of the confusion comes from years of being miss heard, also from learning disorders like dyslexia. 1 in 5 people are dyslexic, I'm one of them, so some of those I've messed up. I love things like this which help me correct my knowledge.
Seriously? English is my third language but I learned nothing from this.
It drives me nuts when I hear people say "whenever I came here" or "whenever I was 5". WHEN!!! It's "when I came here" and "when I was 5"
Laura Craig +
Down here in the Deep South US, it is not uncommon to hear such perversions of the English language as “Me and him went to the store” or “The boss gave the keys to Kevin and I.”
The wrong ones are so bad I don't think I ever heard most of them, must be used by the same people who say "we was"
Only number 12 for me, although it's a word I don't think I've ever used in full, referring instead to expats. And shoo-in is a word I've never used or heard used either..
Numbers change as users vote.
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DogMatic haha
Who else didn't know half of these?
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People are getting more stupider
More stupider... that’s grammatically incorrect and stupider isn’t a word. Unless you’re being ironic?
Fairly sure Damon Tripodi was making a point.
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Damon Tripodi yes
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Many are the result of mishearing someone who didn't speak clearly. This can easily happen even with native speakers let alone those learning English as a second language.
It's actually often the other way around, since learners usually see things written first and then learn how to pronounce it and for native speakers it is the other way around.
I have a feeling that more often than not these are mistakes picked up during childhood - by native speakers. Languages always change. Sometimes the meaning of a word or a phrase will change so much that it will actually reverse. It must be said, too, that there is not a single language that is used solely by well-educated, linguistically savvy and on top of it intelligent people. However, 'proper' use of language is often used as a tool to hit less well-educated/less well-heeled people over the head with.
Sorry Monika, im the selected target it seems, and as you stood up for me you seem to be getting more downvotes. Im sorry about that :(
My pet peeve is when people use "draws" instead of "drawers" (like: 2nd hand IKEA drawers on sale...)
Pamela Richards yes
My mom says draws. And she refers to her underwear as drawers. But pronounces it draws. All very confusing as a child. Put away your draws in the draws.
Who is getting these wrong? It’s common knowledge!
Dear fellow Panda's before making declarative statement about the existence of eggcorns based on ones own personal experience please consider doing a quick google books ngram search you may discover something unexpected... like the fact "Bored Panda" has not appeared anywhere in the google library or boring cocktail factoids like the word bored appeared in the text consistently more than the word panda until 1980.
I think half of these were just made up! I think there are more annoying errors, like "supposably" and "irregardless".
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I love irregardless. You can pry it from my cold, dead hands. Long live irregardless!!!
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Some of these are people using the wrong words/mishearing common expressions, and some are expressions that have changed over time. Once an expression has changed permanently, I don't think you can say it's "wrong" anymore - more like "isn't it interesting that this expression used to be different?"
Which are the ones that have changed over time? Not sure I saw any bar maybe the US buck/butt naked I suppose but us Brits don't use that (no Brit has a butt, we have bums or arses!). I think that there may be quite a few differences in usage depending on your country. I've never heard anyone in the UK say 'I could care less' instead of 'I couldn't care less'. That one seems to be a US tweak. Some I don't think would matter terribly - expresso/espresso. You'd still be asking for the same coffee, it's not like an expression where the actual meaning is altered completely.
No. They're flat out wrong. if you can't be bothered to learn your own language, then that's your problem.
þu bist riht. ágenspræc scolde náwa áwendaþ.
I know, but for some reason I really object to some but not to others....
True, I feel the same way. Maybe it's because some of the altered phrases still make a bit of sense but others sound like jibberish. For example, I think "jive with" sounds okay because to dance with someone would still show you were in sync. But then something like "doggy dog world"... what would that even mean?
You are absolutely right. That is often how a language evolves. But a lot of times these kinds of mistakes are pretty hilarious so let's enjoy them.
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A.M. Pierre +
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Language is a habit, not rules. When a term becomes widely used and accepted, albeit by mistake, it is then the correct one. And the original term becomes outdated.
Actually there are a lot of rules and words have to be used for either a long time or ian ntense amount to become established and the original still stays as accepted.
Lili lol
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My pet peeve is "you can't have your cake and eat it too" - it's pretty hard to eat cake if you don't have it first. "You can't eat your cake and have it too" makes much more sense.
It means you can't eat a cake and continue to possess that cake once you've consumed it so I am afraid you have misunderstood the intent of the expression.
Yes expressions change over time but to change an expression from something that makes sense and has meaning to gobbledygook and thinking this is okay? The cake expression - no matter how the wording with that one has changed the original meaning hasn’t and it makes sense. So, changes by all means but mostly these aren’t actually changed expressions. They're being used wrongly. Should we not want to prevent the dumbing down of the language where the changes are nonsensical? If the phrase changes because a better way of expressing the point comes along, great. Eg the American one - buck-naked/butt-naked seems to make the same point (not one we use in the UK so if I'm wrong apologies). Whereas ‘I could care less’ has a very different meaning to ‘I couldn’t care less’. So change is fine but as long as it still makes sense.
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Notice you reversed the order to explain it - that's what I'm talking about.
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Please read and ponder over how expressions change over time. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20FOB-onlanguage-t.html
Reversing it still makes it mean the same thing.
I think it means, if you eat the cake, you don't have it anymore. So you can't have your cake and eat it too means: you can't both have something and use something up. Such as, you can't spend all your money and have a large savings account at the same time. I could be way off on this one.
"The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs quotes a 1546 compendium by John Heywood, “Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?” In his Yale Book of Quotations, Fred Shapiro supplies a more typical phrasing from John Davies in 1611: “A man cannot eat his cake and haue it stil." https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20FOB-onlanguage-t.html
Yeah but that still means the same thing no matter how differently it's ended up worded.
Tracy Saritzky yes
Tracy Saritzky haha
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Tracy, it was originally eat your cake and have it too, I think it got swapped over time, but the original phrase definitely makes more sense :)
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Thank you. I'm on a one woman crusade to change it back but without being obnoxious (haven't figured that part out yet).
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Yeah, omg I've just reached the end of the list this is really badly researched and put together. A shame really it had potential if it had been done properly.
Not all entries were bad of course there were a few good ones, but a lot of erroneous ones
I missed the erroneous ones. Do you remember them? Not doubting you, I promise, just very curious. Some of the explanations they give for words are a bit, um, off. It is 3,52am and words are escaping me!
I am sorry but it is 'another THINK coming' and not thing.
I'm a little curious which ones you thought were erroneous as they looked fine to me and I'm writing this as a sociolinguist.
"Another think coming" is correct, by the way.
Please tell us which ones are incorrect...oh right. None.
Lauren Caswell, BP is a strange crowd sometimes, downvoting even after you present a perfectly plausible explanation for your initial comment.
Wow pandas calm down. I'm allowed my opinion, and it's rife with errors. Well it was when I posted, they have removed the ones with errors mostly. But when I posted that I wasnt wrong.
Dogmatic: where I come from "another thing coming" Is correct, and "another think coming" Is incorrect. I've never heard someone ever use the phrase "another think coming"
@remi: the only one I can think of off the top of my head is they stated that "another thing coming" Is incorrect, and it should be "another think coming" which seems bizarre! I can't remember the others. And thank u Monika and kesam :)
Aunt messy - if you'd read the article when it was released- lots. Duh. (Edited: sorry for saying duh, i let my anger get the better of me)
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Lauren Caswell no
Monika.. just for info this is a sex link (look at their profile) and not a real account so they aren't really disagreeing with Lauren... could just as easily have said 'Lauren Caswell easy'.
Lauren Caswell is referring to the original list, the one that has been shortened down. Obviously it is the better examples that have been kept so cut her some slack, please, even though her first comment here was maybe a bit too categorical.