It bugs me when people say “the thing is is that” (if you listen for it, you’ll start hearing it… or maybe that’s something that people only do in my area.) (“What the thing is is that…” is fine. But “the thing is is that…” bugs me.)
Also, “just because <blank> doesn’t mean <blank>.” That sentence structure invites one to take “just because <blank>” as a noun phrase which my brain really doesn’t want to do. Just doesn’t seem right. But that sentence structure is very common.
And I’m not saying there’s anything objectively wrong with either of these. Language is weird and complex and beautiful. It’s just fascinating that some commonly-used linguistic constructions just hit some people wrong sometimes.
Edit: I thought of another one. “As best as I can.” “The best I can” is fine, “as well as I can” is good, and “as best I can” is even fine. But “as best as” hurts.
A before u
“A university” sounds fucking weird to me. It melds into a single syllable. University doesn’t start with a consonant unless you have a strong accent.
Huh, how do you pronounce it? I would say “a university” because in my head it’s “yoo-ni-ver-si-tee”
ew-ni-ver-si-tee
yoo- sounds so weird and unnatural to me
That’s how it’s pronounced in an American accent, so saying “a university” works for about a third of a billion people.
If it blends in your accent use “an university”
University begins with the same sound as Yes or Yankee. Would you say An Yes? An Yankee?