• Replies 7 replies
  • Subscribers 27 subscribers
  • Views 3790 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Annoying words/phrases/uptalk

Hope

 

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.

Parents

  • Jon said:

    I say words in the wrong order, use totally the wrong words, use 'fillers', create my own words, say things in a different way, get 'hooked' on a particular word because I like saying it. I think I would drive you mad (not literally, although it depends on what you use the word 'mad' for).

    Out of interest, have you any strategies to save everyone from this evil affliction? Wink

    Oh yes, I swear too!

    Hi Jon,

    I do this a lot of the time.  In fact most of the time.  I keep a list in my head of things to say, topics, anecdotes, facts, expressions, idiosyncratic neologisms, reversals in syntax.  So many weird way of talking.

    I tend to find it an advantage, compared to at least the alternative, which would either be silence or total gibberish.  But this has the side effect of making me very tired.

    But when things breakdown and I use the wrong words for thing I run into problems, for example, I use the phrase 'the other day' to refer to any day in the past even yesterday (which is apparently wrong), I also call buses trains and vice versa.

    I guess the only means of coping with this is to talk your time (a long time) in articulating sentences and concentrate on what you are saying.  Although the effect will be tiredness.

Reply

  • Jon said:

    I say words in the wrong order, use totally the wrong words, use 'fillers', create my own words, say things in a different way, get 'hooked' on a particular word because I like saying it. I think I would drive you mad (not literally, although it depends on what you use the word 'mad' for).

    Out of interest, have you any strategies to save everyone from this evil affliction? Wink

    Oh yes, I swear too!

    Hi Jon,

    I do this a lot of the time.  In fact most of the time.  I keep a list in my head of things to say, topics, anecdotes, facts, expressions, idiosyncratic neologisms, reversals in syntax.  So many weird way of talking.

    I tend to find it an advantage, compared to at least the alternative, which would either be silence or total gibberish.  But this has the side effect of making me very tired.

    But when things breakdown and I use the wrong words for thing I run into problems, for example, I use the phrase 'the other day' to refer to any day in the past even yesterday (which is apparently wrong), I also call buses trains and vice versa.

    I guess the only means of coping with this is to talk your time (a long time) in articulating sentences and concentrate on what you are saying.  Although the effect will be tiredness.

Children
No Data