Recently I stumbled into this post through my friend at SocialBrowse, “Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases” by John Scott Lewinski at wired Blog Network. The list of 10 most annoying phrases, which I think should not also be used in your blog headlines or title:
- At the end of the day
- Fairly unique
- I personally
- At this moment in time
- With all due respect
- Absolutely
- It’s a nightmare
- Shouldn’t of
- 24/7
- It’s not rocket science
The list appears in a new book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, by Jeremy Butterfield. As John said in his post, since it’s always possible for the Oxford brainiacs to “borrow you” space on the list for your own complaints, I like to invite you to offer your favorite overused or abused phrases in the comments section below.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d add “In my humble opinion” as unnecessary — we already know it’s not humble LOL.
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How about this one?
“… if I were you…”
It’s easy to give opinion or critic if it didn’t happen to yourself.
I personally agree with all of these. At the end of the day people will continue to use these sayings
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How about, “at any rate” and “it’s better than apoke in the eye with a sharp stick”.
STUMBLED!
I hate it when people use the word “Basically” in the beginning of every line.
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I don’t like this one, “It’s not rocket science”
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Quite frankly, this is a superb post, but quite frankly, you left out one phrase that quite frankly irritates the heck out of me.
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conversely, my two favorites are “it’s not brain science” and “it’s not rocket surgery”
At the end of the day, I personally think that “probably” shouldn’t of is even worse.
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I don’t normally comment on blogs but your post was a real call to action. Thank you for a great read, I will be sure to bookmark your site and check in now and again. Cheers, Amy xXx.
1. which always reminds me of tila tequilla… How can you say that??? :-/
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