Things that people say that make them sound too pretentious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back on the subject:

"I have to powder my nose" or "Where is the Water Closet"....

when you could just say "where is the sh****r", or as Archie Bunker would say, "Where is the Toilet".

???

Ok, this was supposed to be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think most of these examples qualify as pretentious.

I think it's pretentious when people are speaking English and suddenly pronounce a French or Spanish word like a native speaker. Or if they have a name like Suzanne and insist that you pronounce it "SuzAHN"

Pak EEE stahn

Hmm! It is the correct pronunciation with perhaps a little less emphasis on the "e". Obama used to say it correctly. "Park ee stahn".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saying "lanai" instead of porch or deck.

Well I do this, more to make fun of my front porch....I was sitting out on the Lanai when in reality it is a stoop.

With that said, it is not pretentious in Hawaii.

This is a good point. You don't always know whether a person using a word is being the opposite of pretentious, if it's an often-used word for where and how they grew up.

Actually, a word that has pretentious origins and is commonly used is "townhome." It's a townhouse.

It's a rowhouse.

Townhouses are usually condos. Rowhouses are in DC specifically (other places usually call them other names) and are not condos...

Town house/row house/whatever is often a regional thing, not a class thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Let me call a car service' instead of just calling it Uber.

Uber is too new. 10 years from now maybe, but 5 years ago we were calling car services.

[Anonymous]

Annoying & pretentious things that I've heard within the past 3 months:

No thanks, I don't eat that processed stuff.
People are always shocked to hear how old I am.
My gifted child is bored with first grade.
This lemon ginger kombucha is terrific. Although not as good as the one I made at home.
God, living in the suburbs would be the death of me.

[Anonymous]

"It's Nordstrom not Nordstroms"

"Listening to a book doesn't count as reading it "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Annoying & pretentious things that I've heard within the past 3 months:

No thanks, I don't eat that processed stuff.
People are always shocked to hear how old I am.
My gifted child is bored with first grade.
This lemon ginger kombucha is terrific. Although not as good as the one I made at home.
God, living in the suburbs would be the death of me.

I don't eat heavily processed foods (pretty much everything gets processed - if you scramble eggs, they're processed, if you steam vegetables, you just processed them). I think though, it's best to just say "No thank you." Nobody needs to know WHY you're saying no.

I would hate living in the suburbs. When we had kids people made all these comments about us moving out to the suburbs for a big house with a yard. DH and I were both raised in NYC. Neither of us have any desire to live in the suburbs. When people comment on it I just smile and say "We're happy where we are."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Annoying & pretentious things that I've heard within the past 3 months:

No thanks, I don't eat that processed stuff.
People are always shocked to hear how old I am.
My gifted child is bored with first grade.
This lemon ginger kombucha is terrific. Although not as good as the one I made at home.
God, living in the suburbs would be the death of me.

I don't eat heavily processed foods (pretty much everything gets processed - if you scramble eggs, they're processed, if you steam vegetables, you just processed them). I think though, it's best to just say "No thank you." Nobody needs to know WHY you're saying no.

I would hate living in the suburbs. When we had kids people made all these comments about us moving out to the suburbs for a big house with a yard. DH and I were both raised in NYC. Neither of us have any desire to live in the suburbs. When people comment on it I just smile and say "We're happy where we are."

Exactly. NOthing wrong with eating healthy and having a preference for the city over the suburbs. The pretentiousness comes from how you say it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saying "lanai" instead of porch or deck.

Well I do this, more to make fun of my front porch....I was sitting out on the Lanai when in reality it is a stoop.

With that said, it is not pretentious in Hawaii.

This is a good point. You don't always know whether a person using a word is being the opposite of pretentious, if it's an often-used word for where and how they grew up.

Actually, a word that has pretentious origins and is commonly used is "townhome." It's a townhouse.

It's a rowhouse.

Townhouses are usually condos. Rowhouses are in DC specifically (other places usually call them other names) and are not condos...

Town house/row house/whatever is often a regional thing, not a class thing.

Right, it's replacing "house" with "home" that's the pretentious bit.

[Anonymous]

Hahaha about lanai sounding pretentious - to me it just sounds like a word old people use. My grandmother and all of her friends living in FL called their little sunporches "lanais" ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Let me call a car service' instead of just calling it Uber.

Uber is too new. 10 years from now maybe, but 5 years ago we were calling car services.

Exactly, and only the elite used them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Annoying & pretentious things that I've heard within the past 3 months:

No thanks, I don't eat that processed stuff.
People are always shocked to hear how old I am.
My gifted child is bored with first grade.
This lemon ginger kombucha is terrific. Although not as good as the one I made at home.
God, living in the suburbs would be the death of me.

I don't eat heavily processed foods (pretty much everything gets processed - if you scramble eggs, they're processed, if you steam vegetables, you just processed them). I think though, it's best to just say "No thank you." Nobody needs to know WHY you're saying no.

I would hate living in the suburbs. When we had kids people made all these comments about us moving out to the suburbs for a big house with a yard. DH and I were both raised in NYC. Neither of us have any desire to live in the suburbs. When people comment on it I just smile and say "We're happy where we are."

I get exactly the opposite from my friends in the city. They're always putting down the suburbs (much like some on DCUM). We love it out here and would hate living in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"It's Nordstrom not Nordstroms"

"Listening to a book doesn't count as reading it "

? listening and reading are two different things. I don't see that as pretentious.

[Anonymous]

DH's family says grocery instead of grocery store. Like, "I'm stopping at the grocery on the way home". So pretentious.

Similar to this.. labeling your moving boxes that must be placed in your new kitchen "Larder"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saying "lanai" instead of porch or deck.

Well I do this, more to make fun of my front porch....I was sitting out on the Lanai when in reality it is a stoop.

With that said, it is not pretentious in Hawaii.

This is a good point. You don't always know whether a person using a word is being the opposite of pretentious, if it's an often-used word for where and how they grew up.

Actually, a word that has pretentious origins and is commonly used is "townhome." It's a townhouse.

It's a rowhouse.

Townhouses are usually condos. Rowhouses are in DC specifically (other places usually call them other names) and are not condos...

No, townhouses are not usually condos. They could be, but it is not the norm.