Fashion Girls

"With All Due Respect"

What other phrases in the English language imply (or mean) their precise opposite?

I mean, let's face it: "With all due respect" actually means "I think that you're an ignorant, incompetent, twit, but I'll attempt to explain this one more time, using one syllable words."

Other candidates for language twisting?

Mindy, engaging in an email battle of words at the day-job...
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Posted on May. 5th, 2006 at 10:11 am | | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Comments


[info]jhetley

"I could care less."
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 02:16 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

Language mavens jump all over this one, about whether "I could not care less" is the proper phrase. I think that in some regions of the country your ironic take is the settled phrase, but in others, the literal phrase still rules...
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:13 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]sartorias

"Well I hate to say it, but . . ."

" . . . just kidding!"
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 02:16 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

"Just kidding" really bothers me. It's like tickling - meant to be fun and funny but really a power trip.
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:13 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]sartorias

Yes indeed. When the kids use it at school, especially girl gangs on one victim, I ask them if the victim was laughing, and when they have to admit that she was not, I remind them as gently as possible "Then it wasn't funny, it was mean."
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:53 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]suricattus

"Needless to say..."
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 02:21 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

The real world's "As you know, Bob"...
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:14 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]kristine_smith

I take your point.
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 02:46 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]adele_cb

"I'll consider it."

"Have a nice day."

"Of course I don't mind."

"I'll call you."
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 03:44 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

"I'll call you" - yikes! Sounds like a Seinfeld episode is in there somewhere...

I distinctly remember the time I realized that people did not really want to know how I was when they said, "How are you?" Your adding "Have a nice day" to our list made me think of that...
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:15 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]quietspaces

"I don't want you to take this personally, but . . ."
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 04:12 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

As someone who has spent a great deal of my life being told that I take things too personally... Oh, yeah.
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:15 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]gwynnie

The expression 'you're welcome' always interested me, mostly because there is no good french equivalent, but also, 'you are welcome'. You are welcome to *what* exactly? Fascinating...
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 04:37 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

I learned most of the (relatively limited) French that I know when I was in elementary school. I have lots of phrases and random vocabulary at my disposal, but things like the subjunctive I still don't "get."

My husband and I took a trip to Provence a few years ago, and I found myself using "Je vous en prie" sometimes and "De rien" in others. I had to consciously step back and dissect what I knew about the phrases, and how I tossed off the latter in casual situations and used the former when I was actually trying to be polite.

Maybe language immersion really does work :-)

Mindy (whose French gets to the level where she can actually make herself understood - when she has enough time to practice :-) )
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:17 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]gwynnie

I went to french schools for the better part of six years, and it was like being dropped into another country, almost. I always thought it was funny that there wasn't a real term for 'you're welcome' in french ^^
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 05:28 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]anghara

"yeah, right" as in meaning the complete opposite. The only case in the ENglish language, AFAIK, where a double positive actually makes a negative.
Posted on May. 5th, 2006 05:35 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

I first heard that in a joke, about a professor pontificating at the front of a classroom, saying that there's no such thing as a double positive implying a negative in English, and a student saying from the back row, "Yeah, yeah..."
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:18 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]larah33

"It's not you, it's me."
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:33 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

You know, the person who *says* it might not mean it. But to outside observers, it's almost always true. (I've tried to liberate friends from bad relationships with "It's not you, it's him. Once, with spectacularly bad results.)
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:20 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]stormerider

"in my humble opinion"
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 07:28 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

Hear, hear! I actually prefer for people to say not-so-humble, and just put all their cards on the table :-)
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:20 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]french_teacher

"I know it's not really any of my business, but..."

Posted on May. 6th, 2006 10:07 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]mindyklasky

This one *may* take the cake. To me, it's the absolute intrusion... Or maybe that's just because I can recall very specific annoying conversations that began with it...
Posted on May. 6th, 2006 02:21 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]zenassassin

I hellishly, increasingly, realize that it's become standard for "literally" to mean "not literally". Most people seriously think that "I was literally flying down the road, I was driving so fast" is correct when they actually mean the exact opposite..."I was figuratively but not remotely literally flying".
Posted on May. 9th, 2006 03:42 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply