Most Over Used Word?

Coriander

So many...

'Moving forward' - mostly used absolutely mindlessly and pointlessly

'I'm loving, I'm understanding, I'm seeing...', etc. People learning English as a foreign language are taught that these verbs cannot be used like this. McDonalds has a lot to answer for.

'Prevaricate' as a synonym for 'procrastinate' - prevaricate actually means to deliberately mislead.

'Myself' used instead of 'I' or 'me' simply to try and sound more educated. It's just wrong.

There are more, many more, but I'll stop here.

Can you tell I used to be a TEFL teacher?? :roll: :roll: :roll:

pottssteve

+1 for "Like"

Pross

I have to plead guilty to "basically" and "effectively" a lot when I speak to people in work. I think I use them as stalling words while considering what I'm going to say and know I'm doing it but just can't stop myself.

"Could of" is another of my pet hates (or would of, should of). I have to fight back the impulse to shout "it's could have or could've"!!!

LazyBoycp

DAG on a bike wrote:

Judgement instead of judgment

What's wrong with using 'judgement' rather than judgment'? The OED says the former is 'the normal spelling in general contexts', but the latter is 'conventional in legal contexts, and in North American English'. (I'm assuming that you are not based in North America, of course...)

'Like' & 'you know' really get on my t1ts.

STEFANOS4784

Chip \'oyler wrote:

AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh :evil:

+1 and i find myself sayng it Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh :evil:

Flying Monkey

What annoys me is when people describe doing something as a 'journey'. What's that all about?

Pross

I wind the wife up by moaning about that on all these "talent" shows. Peter Kaye parodied it perfectly in Britains Got The X Factor........

This thread has been a remarkable journey

dag_on_a_bike

LazyBoycp wrote:

DAG on a bike wrote:

Judgement instead of judgment

What's wrong with using 'judgement' rather than judgment'? The OED says the former is 'the normal spelling in general contexts', but the latter is 'conventional in legal contexts, and in North American English'. (I'm assuming that you are not based in North America, of course...)

'Like' & 'you know' really get on my t1ts.

There is nothing wrong with either judgement or judgment...except when used in the wrong context, which is remarkably often.

Anonymous

Chip \'oyler wrote:

AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh :evil:

I am so with you on this.

Anonymous

What about,

"flag up " ?

Middle management at my place say this to highlight a problem, I go into daft question mode when they say it. Also, "re-visit", when they want yuo to look at a problem that wasn't resolved, gets right on my onions, I tend to go obscure on them then. :twisted:

domhnall_dearg

Oh yeah, and on internet forums people using the word FACT (it has to be in capitals) when they actually mean opinion. FACT

balthazar

DAG on a bike wrote:

LazyBoycp wrote:

DAG on a bike wrote:

Judgement instead of judgment

What's wrong with using 'judgement' rather than judgment'? The OED says the former is 'the normal spelling in general contexts', but the latter is 'conventional in legal contexts, and in North American English'. (I'm assuming that you are not based in North America, of course...)

'Like' & 'you know' really get on my t1ts.

There is nothing wrong with either judgement or judgment...except when used in the wrong context, which is remarkably often.

By "wrong context", do you mean using the inappropriate variant spelling (judgement) in legalese; or, do you mean the wider context – e.g. either spelling in place of another word such as "opinion"? I can't see a problem which means I'm probably doing something wrong..?

Chip \'oyler

dmclite wrote:

Chip \'oyler wrote:

AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh :evil:

I am so with you on this.

That's ironic DMC. The way you used 'so' in your sentence gets on my t1ts as well (unless you were being ironic! So 'post modern' of you!)

johncp

How about "Drawring" instead of "Drawing"? Even the well educated multilinguistic Kevin wosisname from Grand Designs does it AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JLM74

pottssteve wrote:

+1 for "Like"

+1

mercsport

"there is clearly some problems with..."

Ed Balls Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (New Labour speak for what was formerly the Minister of Education, ...I think), so frequently trips up over his tenses I wonder as to how he managed to be a product of Oxford and Harvard, and leader of men. I seem to recall his chum Yvette is prone to the same tic too.

Naturally enough, I hear the BBC and other broadcasters similarly afflicted.

Now I see it : "clearly" is another irritant too. Clearly - 'don't try and contradict me, chummy' - always comes across to my ears as a threat.

chriskempton

Categorically.

The minister categorically denied recent allegations involving an Ecuadorian au pair and a cocker spaniel.

nick hanson

dmclite wrote:

[ I am so with you on this.

Anonymous

Chip \'oyler wrote:

dmclite wrote:

Chip \'oyler wrote:

AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh :evil:

I am so with you on this.

That's ironic DMC. The way you used 'so' in your sentence gets on my t1ts as well (unless you were being ironic! So 'post modern' of you!)

Post modern is the new pre post recession movement. Its so passe already.

Its an ironic thread if you take all the words at face value with the common denominator of uber-analysis. :P

mr_hippo

Ands wrote:

"Can you borrow me a fiver?" :shock:

I had never heard anyone use it until I moved to Liverpool/NW.

Spoken by the Head of English at a parents' evening - "Can you lend me the borrow of your pen!"

skyd0g

The phrase 'Let's park that' when used in the context of 'let's just ignore that fact as if it doesn't exist, so that I can push through a really bad idea regardless of anything else.'

deptfordmarmoset

mr_hippo wrote:

Ands wrote:

"Can you borrow me a fiver?" :shock:

I had never heard anyone use it until I moved to Liverpool/NW.

Spoken by the Head of English at a parents' evening - "Can you lend me the borrow of your pen!"

I don't mind the simple ''borrow'' for ''lend'' - it's dialect (I hear it locally as well), and like ''I done it,'' it's regarded as incorrect grammatically. However, as so many - if not most - dialects are happy to swap for example, ''done'' for ''did'' and as everybody knows what it means, I see no problem. It's only wrong according to RP rules and, as it's not RP, RP rules don't apply. (''A language is a dialect with its own army'')
But when people start farting around with language when they're paid to teach English, eg ''lend me the borrow,'' it's pretty hard to swallow. They need stabbing in the eye with a pen.

redjeepǃ

I used to deal with a very large American technology company. We used to play buzz word bingo and write them down on a whiteboard (this was at their site) until we got told to remove it.

Favourites were:

Strategise. (used far too often).
Pick the Low Hanging Fruit.
Cherry pick.
Think outside the box.
Brainstorm or it's funnier alternative BLAMESTORM (meaning lets all think who we can blame for this one).
Stake in the Ground (I still use this one and wince everytime I say it).
Teamwork (only ever used when they'd f*cked up but wanted us to share the blame).

Plus loads more that I can't think off.

Or how about 'De-plane' meaning to disembark from an aircraft, or 'momentarily' meaning I'll do it shortly (not that it will only take a moment).

brin

that idiot philip schofield, when he announces the successful pair to get though on the ridiculous dancing on ice............." the next pair safely through the next round is" when has a pair ever been regarded an is? when i went to school anything plural was regarded as are.

deptfordmarmoset

brin wrote:

that idiot philip schofield, when he announces the successful pair to get though on the ridiculous dancing on ice............." the next pair safely through the next round is" when has a pair ever been regarded an is? when i went to school anything plural was regarded as are.

How many pairs were there, though? Grammatically, a pair is singular, the 'a' preceding it proves it's single, but in general there's a bit of interchanging with group nouns. The Liverpool team are trying to grind out a draw. (Citeh 0 - 0 Liverpool.) But there's only one team, there's only one Liverpool, so why doesn't it look completely wrong? Because English, especially British English, leaves a degree of flexibility.

mercsport

brin wrote:

that idiot philip schofield, when he announces the successful pair to get though on the ridiculous dancing on ice............." the next pair safely through the next round is" when has a pair ever been regarded an is? when i went to school anything plural was regarded as are.

Exactly. 8)

You made the point I was trying to make yesterday- but better and more succinctly- when I was attempting to illustrate the paradox that Ed Balls- in charge of this country's education- is a poor exemplar of English usage. I can almost guarantee whenever he speaks, he will slip up on that very point.

Nor am I any great shakes come to that, now I've re-read some of my previous utterances here. :oops:

jrduquemin

FransJacques wrote:

Laterally stiff but vertically compliant. Hell, my bed is laterally stiff and vertically compliant. As is a pint of beer.

Cyclingnews are in love with concentric. Any technical description invariably contains concentric something or another. Obfuscation.

"Begs the queston". Most people use it as "raises the question".

there, their, they're and know, now, no. These could just be sloppy typing.

I'm not a snob about much but bad language and grammer kill me.

That's grammar :-D

Here cometh the grammar nazis :-)

JLM74

dmclite wrote:

Chip \'oyler wrote:

AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh :evil:

I am so with you on this.

Like, totally.

mercsport

Just saw a BBC reporter, otherwise well spoken saying "wanna" and "gonna", in lieu of 'want to' and 'going to'.

But to slur your speech these days appears to be nearly normal. :?

de_sisti

Use of the word Exclusive by any of the media.