As a pedant, I study what people say and how, and get irritated by what appears to be the 'dumbing down' of the English language. I get this wrong myself from time to time, imbibing bad habits in my speech, and I am trying to eliminate these bad habits.
Thankfully, however, I never say 'awesome' or the perennial ''aah bless'', usually uttered by people with nothing better to say. I am sick of the number of times that some people litter their conversation with ''aah bless': you show them a 'cute' picture - ''aah bless'; you tell them about an 'endearing' incident or person - ''aah bless'', and so it goes on.
Other overused words and phrases include:
'like', as in 'and she was like...' (the wrong use of the word 'like'!)
'Literally'
'Basically'
'Whatever'
'Yeah right'
'At the end of the day'
'To be honest'
'24/7'
'Seriously'
'It was a nightmare'
'Really?'
'Etc, etc, etc'
'Uptalk' is when every sentence is posed as a question, when it should an authoritative statement. The high-rising-terminal, as it is also known, is mainly used by the young, and it suggests a lack of certainty and insecurity.
