Have you ever been talking to someone, only to be corrected for a phrase you’ve used and being completely flabbergasted that you were incorrect all these years?
You’re definitely not alone! It’s quite easy to get some common sayings wrong, because English is a complex and confusing language.
Here’s a list of common phrases you might not have realised you were saying incorrectly.
Nipping something in the bud means that you’re putting an end to it before it has a chance to start – nipping something in the butt means something else entirely!
Saying that you could care less about a topic mean that you do care about it. What you do mean is that you don’t care about the topic at all.
“One in the same” doesn’t really mean anything at all. “One and the same” means that two things are the same.
You can do something on purpose, but not on accident. It also sounds more correct to say ‘by accident’.
A mute point would mean that it is unable to be articulated, but that’s not what this idiom should mean. A moot point is a debatable question, or one of no importance.
This is more or less just a mistake in what we have read and then said. Depreciating is an economic term to indicate the value of something drops over time, whereas deprecating means to undervalue oneself.
“Ir” is a prefix that negates the phrase that comes before it, which is unnecessary when “less” is already doing that.
We can see how this one makes sense as peak means the reach the high, but in correct English grammar, pique means to provoke or arouse.
Baited breath would mean your breath is tormented, but bated is waiting in suspense.
This is an easy mistake to make as we think free reign means to give a leader the ability to do what they want but the original phrase was derived from loosening the reins on a horse.
Like other phrases, the way we say it makes sense – if we’re hungry it can be painful. However, hunger pangs is the original phrase, as in the sharp jolts you feel from hunger.
Tell us, were you saying any of these incorrectly?