[Closed] Use of the word 'Super'

Lol, I'll admit to being the same.

Hate the modern use of the word "super".

I'm not super excited about it myself.

I’m superstoked you wrote this post

"Avoid using the word 'very' because it's lazy"

I'm super thanks for asking.

Stop getting hung up over "super" and go and watch some old Reggie Perrin videos. They're "great".

I’m super thanks for asking.

@thebrick - See that is perfectly acceptable, you use it well. You can't swap that super for very can you.

I’m superstoked you wrote this post

How can you tell when Thomas the Tank Engine is happy? He is super stoked!

thank you thank you, I'm here all week, try the fish.

Every time you read it, try to hear it in an a raised-inflection American YouToober voice and it should help.

Are there any grammar experts in here who can say for certain that this new use of the word is correct?

Language evolves. You can't stop it so just ignore it.

See that is perfectly acceptable, you use it well.

I was really thinking this

EDIT: STW fail.

Is there a version of the menopause that effects middle aged men I wonder? And is expressed through the medium of evolving grammar-resentment

Vast puffy faced herds of middle aged men irrationally upset that words haven’t remained exactly how they used it when they were younger

@MisterP

I just put a deposit on a new frame today, this makes me incredibly (edit) happy" FTFY

 

It annoys me also but what really grinds away at me is “can I get” when asking for something that someone else will be getting. Obviously I’m very close to 50.

Is there a version of the menopause that effects middle aged men I wonder? And is expressed through the medium of evolving grammar-resentment

Vast puffy faced herds of middle aged men irrationally upset that words haven’t remained exactly how they used it when they were younger

If there is, where do I sign up?

This thread is rad.

It annoys me also but what really grinds away at me is can I get when asking for something that someone else will be getting. Obviously I’m very close to 50.

YES! THIS! If I hear my children say it the immediate response is "No, but you may be able to have one" Bloody America, and why is it always a SkinnyMoccaChoccaLatteonryebread they are always trying to 'GET'

@Drac, See that is fine. An abbreviation of a word used to show you think my creation is off the wall, modern, forward thinking. Nothing wrong with that. Now if you said it was Sup£$ Radical.............................

I've just read that report and can only find one use of 'super':

“I’m super excited to be moving up to the Factory program this year and keep building off last year. I guess I’ll be towing Ritchie through practice now though.” — Kasper Woolley

There maybe one or two others, but I'm not searching and it's certainly not a major issue in that article, because yes, you'd expect him to be super-excited. Very or really excited wouldn't really do his excitement justice, and incredibly excited would make him sound like Hugh Grant.

It must be a shock to some people that other people live in other countries and speak a different language, even though it's vaguely English.

Yep, hate these things too. Hate them because they come from American TV programmes (yes! programmes, not ****ing SHOWS!) Can I get, Super-excited... and English people using pissed and not meaning super-drunk! Moronic. Go and live with Trump and Biden and those idiots if you insist on speaknig like them.

The board meeting for changing the old Rugby League 1st division name would have been right up your street.

Bloody America, and why is it always a SkinnyMoccaChoccaLatteonryebread they are always trying to ‘GET’

I just try and stay super-chilled about stuff like that. 🙂

I’ve just read that report and can only find one use of ‘super’:

That one was where I stopped reading, one is one too many. And it isn't another language, it is English, and I am reasonably sure that it is used incorrectly. Anyway it is super that we see such a mixed response, muy happy I am not alone but will need to accept that some people just want to be American.

Like. 'I was like, he was like, like'. Good. 'I'm good'. Perfectly simple words abused to death.

That one was where I stopped reading, one is one too many. And it isn’t another language, it is English, and I am reasonably sure that it is used incorrectly.

Canadians will use plenty of their language incorrectly according to you then.

This thread is superb.

My kids, well my son mainly, annoys the hell out of me with his use of 'sure'. Just say yes if thats what you mean!

Super, smashing, great!

Canadians will use plenty of their language incorrectly according to you then.

So are you suggesting it is only Canadians who use that word to emphasise the(edit, damn, I am at it now using words incorrectly) following word? Because I am quite sure my daughter isn't Canadian

Are there any grammar experts in here

Seriously? Are you new here?

(-:

See that is perfectly acceptable, you use it well. You can’t swap that super for very can you.

We're ignoring the lack of commas are we?

Super...

We’re ignoring the lack of commas are we?

Super…

Good point, I didn't say I was perfect. Also I like the way you used the s word correctly.

😀

OP, you have made my day. At a time in my life when I was beginning to feel (super) old and approaching past-it, it's a timely reminder that there are some (super) grumpy people who are, like, less hip than me.

Thanks OP 🔥💯🔥🔥💯🔥🔥💯🔥

OP, you have made my day. At a time in my life when I was beginning to feel (super) old and approaching past-it, it’s a timely reminder that there are some (super) grumpy people who are, like, less hip than me.

Thanks OP

🙂 If I have made even one person feel better about themselves then it has been a super day. My pleasure 🙂

I'm ambivalent about 'super' but I'm psyched @fasthaggis posted that song.

Any time I feel inclined to get grumpy about the use of "super" I think they could have used "uber" instead and it doesn't seem so bad.

In trying to get my head around this I have learnt that adverbs are used to modify adjectives in addition to modifying verbs. "Super" is an adjective so should be used to modify nouns, and excited is also an adjective, so "super excited" is apparently incorrect. "Very" is an adverb so "very excited" would appear to be correct.

I am not sure why I spent some of my day finding that out but at least I now know what has wound up the OP. Knowing the way my brain works it may now start to wind me up too, despite it never bothering me in the past.

There you go OP get lashed in to that

"Super-" is a long-standing superlative in the US. I rarely if ever hear it used by British speakers.

How can you tell when Thomas the Tank Engine is happy? He is super stoked!

And well chuffed.

English people using pissed and not meaning super-drunk!

That’s been a thing for as long as I can remember, being pissed off about something or just pissed.

I like it when used by young enthusiastic mittel-Europeans.

It's crap everywhere else.

'Super' was the catchphrase of David Harris-Jones from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin....

ChrisL
Full Member

Knowing the way my brain works it may now start to wind me up too, despite it never bothering me in the past.

Takes note.

I don’t use the word super like that but don’t mind it.

My bad 😉

The thing about language is that you can often learn a lot about a person from how they use it.

Super diddums.

So are you suggesting it is only Canadians who use that word to emphasise the(edit, damn, I am at it now using words incorrectly) following word? Because I am quite sure my daughter isn’t Canadian

It seems that you are annoyed at an article where a Canadian says a word that is probably super-correct in his usage, but really you are annoyed at your daughter's use of it, because she's English and it's super-inappropriate for an English person not to speak like the Queen? Oy oy saveloy! (I think that's how you English folk speak nowadays, innit?)

I like this thread - it's very unique.

It's bad but it doesn't annoy me as much as 'can i get', as opposed to 'can i have'

Are there any grammar experts in here who can say for certain that this new use of the word is correct?

Well yes. OED recognises it as an "informal adverb"  so it's fine here or in slang, but you'd probably not want to use it formally, and notes that it's use as an intensifier as been gaining ground since the '90s (First recorded use 1946 - American cake recipe "Super-Simple" ) Miriam Webster also recognises it.

So, not new, and yes. Sorry.

If I hear my children say it the immediate response is “No, but you may be able to have one”

I recall my teachers saying the same when I said "please can I" instead of "please may I". As a sign of advancing years, it's up there with an involuntary exhalation when you sit down.

"You can, but you may not" was a favourite of one of my English teachers.

Mind you, she's probably dead now. Makes you think.

I recall my teachers saying the same when I said “please can I” instead of “please may I”. As a sign of advancing years, it’s up there with an involuntary exhalation when you sit down.

Oh dear god! I do that exhalation thing

What annoys me is they way that yout uses the word like. Like it was, like, punctuation.

I mean, why can’t they just use **** like normal people?

It’s bad but it doesn’t annoy me as much as ‘can i get‘, as opposed to ‘can i have‘

Why though? Both are shorthand constructs. One is just less formal than the other. What you mean is "Can you make/go and get/ and bring to me/ while I wait.

But you wouldn't use that instruction would you? (because it would be weird)

Server "Hello sir, what would you like today?"

You: "I'd like you to make and bring to me; a coffee, thanks..."

Use whichever you prefer, getting humpty about it is just making your blood pressure go up for no good reason.

“You can, but you may not” was a favourite of one of my English teachers.

Oh yeah. "Anyone can go to the toilet, but they may only do so with my permission. Now sit down".

He's probably dead too.

Are there any grammar experts in here who can say for certain that this new use of the word is correct?

If the meaning is unambiguous, it's grammatically correct. It may not agree with style guides, but our grammatical processing has no problem with it. The objections are just old people complaining about young people.

Oh dear god! I do that exhalation thing

Me too. But I try to not be annoyed by evolving forms of expression where the meaning is perfectly clear.

After all, back when I were a lad, "wicked" was used to mean "really good" so I would be a bit of a hypocrite to complain...

Well yes. OED recognises it as an “informal adverb” so it’s fine here or in slang, but you’d probably not want to use it formally, and notes that it’s use as an intensifier as been gaining ground since the ’90s (First recorded use 1946 – American cake recipe “Super-Simple” ) Miriam Webster also recognises it.

So, not new, and yes. Sorry.

Well bugger me! I guess I am going to have to let it wash over me like the overuse of the word 'absolutely'

After all, back when I were a lad, “wicked” was used to mean “really good” so I would be a bit of a hypocrite to complain…

Did you flap your fingers in a snappy fashion when saying it? Trying to think of a word that was used when I was a yoof. We used "Ace" a lot, and "Brill"

Why though? Both are shorthand constructs. One is just less formal than the other. What you mean is “Can you make/go and get/ and bring to me/ while I wait.

So if I said to a person " Can I get a coffee?" to me that would be me asking the person if I was allowed to sort a coffee out for myself?

So if I said to a person ” Can I get a coffee?” to me that would be me asking the person if I was allowed to sort a coffee out for myself?

Do you think that the person serving would be in any way unclear as to what you wanted? I don't like it much either, but by the same argument "can I have" is also wrong.

But equally "May I have a coffee?" can also be answered very simply and correctly with "Yes, you may"

Context is everything, and most probably the irritation comes from what you're used to hearing, and what setting you're in. Like I said, both are shorthand for please make and bring to me the item I want. Neither are right or wrong.

Wait for "super awesome"

Wait for “super awesome”

Well, "awesome" literally means an overwhelming feeling of reverence, and its usage largely replaced "marvellous" which means a great wonder. Both evolved to mean "really good".

But equally “May I have a coffee?” can also be answered very simply and correctly with “Yes, you may”

My wife does this. I hear the kettle boiling and shout "May/can I have a coffee" she says "Yes" 5 mins later she walks through with one cup of tea and no coffee. I say "Did you make me one?" She says "No, you didn't ask me to" Smiles, and wanders back to her office with a spring in her step

Nothing wrong with it. Very standard usage in physics - super cooled, super heated.

It grated a bit when I first noticed it being maybe over-used in surfing, snowboarding media, but over the 15, 20 years since then, I've got over it.

Whilst "can I get..." makes my shit itch, we're perhaps getting excessively pedantic here now. If you go into a coffee shop, there is a prior understanding that you might just be there to buy coffee and the person on the other side may well in fact be employed to provide you with a cup of hot, brown, caffeinated goodness on request. If you asked "may I have a coffee please?" and the server replied "yes you may" then stood there looking gormlessly at you awaiting further instruction, would you consider that a sensible response?

Can I / may I / could I have... is really just English hyper-politeness. We all know what it means.
Would you prefer "hey, make me a coffee, bitch" ?

This thread is ill

While we are on, how about "perfect", it's all the ruddy time at work.

Great feedback too

It is a Latin prefix you proles - it means "above, extra". So to say I am "super excited" is correct usage if one is more than averagely excited.

"Great, super, knockout" is also acceptable as it is from The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, one of the best, dare I say perfect, comedy shows made.

This thread is ill

This made me super laughy

It's a lazy word to use. I can't stand how it's increasingly used these days.

Schwalbe tyres, Super Gravity, Super Trail, Super Gravity & Super Race....

Avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s very, very lazy

So to say I am “super excited” is correct usage if one is more than averagely excited

It would be if we spoke Latin.

But saying 'may I get a coffee' rightly gets an eye roll and a question about which coffee would you like whereas 'can I get an oat milk latte with a shot of hazelnut syrup' will result in a reply of 'sure' and following bleeping your phone on the counter you will be presented with something undrinkable.