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Words or Phrases That Don't Make Any Sense to You

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A ton of people in the Southern US say they are "fixin' to" and my mom still tells stories of when she first heard that used. They moved here right around the time I was born, and someone said they were fix'n to and my mom was like fixing what? What's broken?

Honestly there's a lot of slang like this in the South that even I use growing up here that sounds funny when you actually think about it. LOL
 
Brettison said:
A ton of people in the Southern US say they are "fixin' to" and my mom still tells stories of when she first heard that used. They moved here right around the time I was born, and someone said they were fix'n to and my mom was like fixing what? What's broken?

Honestly there's a lot of slang like this in the South that even I use growing up here that sounds funny when you actually think about it. LOL
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Fixing to do something = "Having a fix" to do something.

It makes sense.
 
"All of a / the sudden."

"Shootin' the shit / breeze."

"Rest a spell."

"Over yonder."

Kinda related, but...

"Aks" instead of "Ask". Never thought the word was that hard to pronounce.
 
FStop7 said:
"All but forgotten"

All = Everything

But = Except


So if something is "everything except forgotten" that means it's not forgotten. It might be stupid. It might be ugly. It might be purple or pink. But there's one thing it isn't and that's forgotten.

And yet, the phrase "all but forgotten" means something IS forgotten.

I fucking _HATE_ that so much. I hate it. It's a bug in the English language.
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It has already been said, but to forget something is to have it vacated from memory. If one doesn't remember something then one isn't going to have a meaningful discussion about it. Saying that something is "all but forgotten" is actually more accurate than saying that it has been forgotten.
 
umop_3pisdn said:
It has already been said, but to forget something is to have it vacated from memory. If one doesn't remember something then one isn't going to have a meaningful discussion about it. Saying that something is "all but forgotten" is actually more accurate than saying that it has been forgotten.
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I am not happy with it. of course it is not forgotten. but the "all but" implies that it is many things more, before it is forgotte, meaning that it is at least still a prominent topic. When using this phrase the connotation is more like "this is almost forgotten", which contradicts "all but"
 
Zeppu said:
That's not what it's supposed to mean though.

You can't have all the money in the world and spend it all too.

It's actually very simple. You cannot have A and not A.
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The phrase is simple...the wording is awful though; thus, people don't understand what it's trying to say. There's gotta be a better world example of the lesson than having cake and eating it too...especially since when you tell the waiter "I'll have the cake" you're saying "I'm going to eat it," while, using your example, having money and spending it ARE actually different.

I can come up with a lot of examples like "Can't spend money you already spent" that portray the moral better, but are not nearly as catchy as the original.
 
Damon Bennet said:
I am not happy with it. of course it is not forgotten. but the "all but" implies that it is many things more, before it is forgotte, meaning that it is at least still a prominent topic. When using this phrase the connotation is more like "this is almost forgotten", which contradicts "all but"
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I don't think the connotation is dissociated from the phrase, but yeah it isn't concretely supported by the wording either. The "all" are things associated with forgetting/forgiveness by theme, it isn't said but it's implied if by nothing else than by the tone of the speaker. It's basically a meaningless statement if interpreted purely literally ("all things" taken literally signifying essentially nothing, as you pointed out), but how often is language used to signify nothing meaningful? The meaning is still readily grasped if for no other reason than how language is used by people. There's an omission but you can argue that it isn't necessary that it be included.
 
"Can't see the forest for the trees."

I've tried multiple times to understand how this phrase means what it means. Can't. Is there any other english usage of "for the _____" in that way?
 
FStop7 said:
"All but forgotten"

All = Everything

But = Except


So if something is "everything except forgotten" that means it's not forgotten. It might be stupid. It might be ugly. It might be purple or pink. But there's one thing it isn't and that's forgotten.

And yet, the phrase "all but forgotten" means something IS forgotten.

I fucking _HATE_ that so much. I hate it. It's a bug in the English language.
Click to expand...

This annoys me too.

I just ignore it anytime I hear it.
 
FStop7 said:
"All but forgotten"

All = Everything

But = Except


So if something is "everything except forgotten" that means it's not forgotten. It might be stupid. It might be ugly. It might be purple or pink. But there's one thing it isn't and that's forgotten.

And yet, the phrase "all but forgotten" means something IS forgotten.

I fucking _HATE_ that so much. I hate it. It's a bug in the English language.
Click to expand...

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/all+but
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/all_but

"All but forgotten" means it's almost forgotten or very nearly forgotten, not forgotten. In fact it means that it is not forgotten.

You understood the phrase wrong, it works perfectly fine the way it is.
 
"Dag nabbit"

Where the hell did this saying come from?

I've heard teens say "You gellin" and "that's wratched". WTF do they mean?
 
Korey said:
"Can't see the forest for the trees."

I've tried multiple times to understand how this phrase means what it means. Can't. Is there any other english usage of "for the _____" in that way?
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The phrase is "can't see the forest through the trees," not "for the trees." It means you can't see the bigger picture because you're too held up on the meaning of individual details, that is unless I'm missing something.
 
Seanspeed said:
Its just bad English, not 'something Americans say'. I've never heard it either.
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Well, I've never heard it from a non-American. My sample size is limited, I guess, but I wonder if I would be getting so much argument about it if I hadn't used the word American in my description of it. I'm not trying to offend Americans, it's just genuinely a phenomenon I've never observed from anyone other than an American.
 
NZNova said:
110%, eh? Let's see what the front page of a quick Google search has to say.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/this-sink-needs-fixed/

http://www.xamuel.com/it-needs-fixed/

http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?60426-Moraggo-Crystal-glitch-on-boss-wave-NEEDS-FIXED.

http://forums.endofnations.com/end-...63-mobile-forum-needs-fixed-api-question.html

http://coreldraw.com/forums/t/34065.aspx

Weird!
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It looks like it's very specifically a Pittsburgh regional thing, so I wouldn't call it American since 99% of Americans don't talk like that. I've never encountered it either and I'm Californian.
 
Saying 'half eight' to indicate 8.30 in time, which to me is absurd considering in my native language, finnish, it's to mean 7.30, which makes much more sense.. right?!
 
Atlagev said:
"It is what it is."

Seriously, what does this phrase mean? You are accepting mediocrity? I don't want to work with people with this mentality.
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i don't see how this can be linked with mediocrity. to me it has always just been a somewhat defeatist saying in the face of a problem or situation that one simply has to accept and deal with.

i agree it is a shitty phrase and one that shouldn't be said, especially as I've only heard it in the situations I've described, I just think instead of saying the phrase, they can word that we just have to work through the issue sans the defeatist attitude.
 
ciridesu said:
Saying 'half eight' to indicate 8.30 in time, which to me is absurd considering in my native language, finnish, it's to mean 7.30, which makes much more sense.. right?!
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Isn't it "half past eight"? Never heard anyone say "half eight" and mean 8.30
 
I hate how the phrase "To substitute A for B" is the opposite way from how I want to say it. I want the thing you switch out to be A, and the replacement to be B. But it's the other way around :( :( :( Confuses me EVERY TIME and I have to stop and think about it.
 
"Let me think of little things to nitpick at that won't get me anywhere." I hate it when someone says "yolo". Sure but I don't get angry about. I have better more important things to worry about.
 
Dommo said:
Ending sentences with the word 'but.' I feel like that's an Australian-bogan type thing so I'm not sure how many people experience that overseas but it kind of drives me batty. The conversation would go something like this:

Guy: "Christ that new Katy Perry song is dreadful."
Bogan: "She's got a nice pair of honkers, but."

It seems like, grammatically, the 'but' should be at the start of the sentence but for whatever reason, it's being slapped at the end. Irks me.
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This, this, a million times this.

As a Dutch immigrant living in Australia, this one absolutely kills me.
 
Eating Crow.

I get it but it's still a weird thing to say.

per se- I don't think this is even needed, people just want stuff it into their sentence.
 
Murkas said:
"Having your cake and eating it too"

Never understood this, why would you have cake if you're not going to eat it?
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Khold said:
It's impossible to both eat all your cake and still have cake
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The phrase is backwards. It should be, "You can't eat your cake and have it, too." Or, more simply, "You can't eat your cake and still have a cake." So don't go using up all your supply of something and then complain about not having it anymore. You ate your cake already. Therefore you cannot still have a cake. So quit whining.

NZNova said:
Well, I've never heard it from a non-American. My sample size is limited, I guess, but I wonder if I would be getting so much argument about it if I hadn't used the word American in my description of it. I'm not trying to offend Americans, it's just genuinely a phenomenon I've never observed from anyone other than an American.
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It's very much a regional thing. You won't hear it in most parts of the country.
 
Same difference.

It makes no sense how people use it. They could say "same thing" or "there's no difference" but for "same difference" to make sense there would have to be two different comparisons between two different sets of objects or situations going on.
 
Korey said:
It looks like it's very specifically a Pittsburgh regional thing, so I wouldn't call it American since 99% of Americans don't talk like that. I've never encountered it either and I'm Californian.
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I would call it American as opposed to non-American. The people saying it are Americans. Isn't this whole thread about colloquial oddities? I'll call it Pittsburgian if that helps. It's still something you don't encounter at all outside of America. :)
 
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