PEEVE ››
Your describing someone I don't know as "really smart."
This fails as a stimulating description of someone I'm supposed to want to know. Besides, I'll make up my own mind about that.
— Tom from nyc | Conversation | 2.24.2009 | Comments (10)
COMMENTS ››
Couldn't this extend to any opinion that anyone has about anything? What if someone describes a film you haven't seen as 'really good'? Assuming the person making this comment is your friend, you might, and hopefully will, agree with it, but it's known that you're still entitled to your own opinion. I can see this being an issue with an advertisement where some booming voice is telling you how great something is.
— Biffy
What I do loathe is when someone says, "you guys will get along soooo well." Because then it has to do with predicting your impression. That should be its own post.
— Biffy
I hate when people refer to intelligent women as "brainy."
— Molly posted 2/24/2009
It depends on the person and what sorts of qualities they associate with "being smart." If everyone seems really smart to that person, including you, you have to take that with a grain of salt or maybe a small pile.
— Kerrin posted 2/24/2009
Not everyone is smart. Therefore, this description narrows it down. It's like saying, You'll like her, she has a gigantic ass. But I agree with Kerrin, it depends upon your assessment of what the speaker, based on previous uses of the word, means by Gigantic.
— Stu posted 2/24/2009
yeah, reassuring someone of someone elses intellegence is wierd. its like friendship is dependant on IQ, or perhaps its like "oh they act stupid, but dont be fooled"
— personaldecay posted 2/24/2009
I think it's annoying, too, because it makes me feel like when I finally have the great pleasure of meeting the person, they are going to put on this big Smart Person Show for me, which I definitely don't want. On the flip side, if someone is described as "really nice" or "really funny," I assume the best and totally want to meet them.
— julia posted 2/25/2009
Whereas my pet peeve is people not bothering with the difference between "your" and "you're". I don't think I can trust someone to make up their mind on whether or not someone is/is not smart when they can't manage basic grammar we all learned in 5th grade.
— Yvie posted 3/12/2009
If you're referring to the peeve you're commenting on, he has it right!
— Katie posted 3/12/2009
Katie's right. The correct way is in fact to use the possessive pronoun + the gerund verb form, unless you are trying to construct a declarative sentence. So, for example, you would write "I am bothered by your being bad at grammar" or "You're bad at grammar" but not "I am bothered by you're being bad at grammar."
— Diana posted 3/13/2009
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