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Kooyeen Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

nuisance

Hi,
my dictionaries often say very different things.
Anyway, is "nuisance" used in American English? According to my dictionaries, yes.
Is "What a nuisance!" used in American English? According to one of them, that's BrE.

So what could I say instead? "What a pain in the neck/ass" is another I know, for example...
Thanks Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

Hi, These various uses of 'nuisance ' seem OK to me as a Canadian. . pain in the neck is, of course, more informal, while .

— Clive

  • Hi, These various uses of 'nuisance ' seem OK to me as a Canadian.
  • .
  • pain in the neck is, of course, more informal, while .
  • pain in the *** is yet more informal, to the point where it is very inappropriate in quite a range of settings.
  • Best wishes, Clive '
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3 Answers
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Hi,

These various uses of 'nuisance' seem OK to me as a Canadian.

. . pain in the neck is, of course, more informal, while . . pain in the *** is yet more informal, to the point where it is very inappropriate in quite a range of settings.

Best wishes, Clive '
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I see, thanks. Well, it's just that it seemed to me that "what a niusance" was not very common... Maybe it's not so common in the US. Anyway, do you know any other common ways to express the same thing?
Thanks
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I find that [You are / He is / ...] being a nuisance is more common than What a nuisance! though you will also hear the latter from time to time. The third person forms are fine, but the second person form is a bit confrontational unless said with a smile.

pain in the **** is less objectionable than pain in the *** (but only by a slight amount), and more o
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