10 Phrases You Have Been Saying Wrong All This While

So, here’s the thing about incorrect phrases. They are commonly used, heard, and seldom rectified. You say it incorrectly, in a wrong situation; no one realizes your mistake and hence continues the glorious (not really) journey of your mistaken phrase. Someone uses it again, and then it becomes a commonly used incorrect phrase until someone finally uses the correct one!

Here are 10 phrases that need some serious attention:

1. “I made a 360 degree change”

Take a minute and think about this one. When you make a 360 degree change, you come back to your starting point, which clearly means, you haven’t made a change at all! Just doesn’t make sense. The correct phrase is – I made a 180 degree change!

2. “On your face”

This happens when you are too aggressive after beating someone in a game or when you prove something and make a point. “On your face” is the phrase that quickly falls out of your mouth. Nevertheless, you need to first relax and correct yourself. Because, the correct phrase is – In your face! 

3. “By mistakely”

A lot of people use this phrase when they do something wrong unintentionally and later feel sorry about it. Well, they should instead be guilty about what they said. ‘By mistake’ or ‘by accident’ is what they should be saying.

4. “Irregardless”

A lot of us would want to laugh at this one. But, people actually use this and hence awaken the grammar nerds. You can either have ‘irr’ or ‘less’ in a word, not both! Some people honestly need to get their choices sorted. The correct phrase is – regardless.

5. “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”

This one totally sounds right and hence even grammar nerds fail to correct this one. But, seems like, we’ve been living in a delusional world. The correct way to say this is ‘You’ve got another think coming.’ It comes from an old expression from the 1800s: “If that’s what you think, you’ve got another think coming,” which means, if that’s what you think, you should think again.

Yes, even we were surprised!

6.  “Wreck Havoc”

This one has been said, read and written a lot of times. Do you see the mistake? If not, just check the meaning of the word ‘wreck.’ Ah, okay. We’ll reduce your effort. Wreck means to destroy something. You don’t want to say the earthquake destroyed the destruction, do you? The correct phrase is to wreak havoc, which means to cause or inflict something.

7. “Doing good”

Most of us say this. “How are you doing?” “I am doing good.” No, you aren’t saving the city and doing good. We have superman for that! “I am doing well” is what you should be saying.

8. “Less than 140 characters”

Shocked? Well, even Twitter is. You use ‘less than’ when you want to compare something singular and ‘fewer’ when you want to compare multiples of something. The correct phrase is ‘fewer than 140 characters.’

9. “Expresso”

We don’t know who came up with this word, but we definitely don’t know what that person was trying to express. It’s Espresso. There is no word as Expresso, unless, you are that person. Of course.

10.  “One in the same”

This is clearly for the ones who couldn’t attend their grammar class. The correct phrase is – One and the same. One in the same is downright criminal.

So, next time someone floats any of these or an otherwise meaningless phrase, it should buzz an alarm to your conscience for immediate damage control!

Know of any other phrase used incorrectly?