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You’re Getting These Common Expressions Wrong
I guarantee you, things have not just taken a turn for the “worst”
Look, I’m a snob and — *gasp* — a prescriptivist when it comes to language. If your approach to English is “eh, close enough” then well, your blood pressure is probably lower than mine. You can feel free to skip to this one. However, if you’d like to know what makes me and who knows, maybe your boss, neighbours and the postman lose respect for you, it’s these…
I guarantee you, things did not just “take a turn for the worst”
They actually took a turn for the “worse”. This must be the biggest malapropism of the moment and it drives me mad every time I hear it.
When we say things have taken a turn for the worse, we’re making a comparison: the situation is worse than it was before. Saying the situation just got “worst” makes no sense. It is, ironically, literally the worst thing ever. I hate it. When someone says “turn for the worst”, part of my soul withers and dies. If you want to kill me carry on, I guess.
