Mark, Jay — That’s all fine. Go ahead: Use foreign words for jobs American words just won’t do.

But, my one (relevant) peeve is when people deliberately use foreign words when English ones work just fine. Admittedly there’s a fine line stylistically, but it can be crossed.

For instance, when I was a TV producer my colleagues and I used to have an informal competition to spot the most egregious use of a foreign word where an English one would do just fine (yes, I’ve told this story before).

One day my buddy came running into my office with a rolled-up copy of The American Spectator, insisting he had the all-time winner. Michael Vlahos (a really sharp and decent guy, for the record) had written an essay in which he used the German “konzept” where the English “concept” would have worked just fine.

I will admit that saying “köööhhhhhhhnnzzzzzzeptt” with a little spit at the end a la Siegfried from Get Smart, is a lot of fun. But köööhhhhhhhnnzzzzzzepttually, it just doesn’t work for me.