For Serious
Sat, 22 Nov 2008
Top 10 Most Irritating Phrases of the English Language
In his book Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, Jeremy Butterfield outlined the top 10 most irritating phrases of the English language. (Why damp squid?)
… the book’s author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and “synergy”.
Other phrases to irritate people are “literally” and “ironically”, when they are used out of context.
Mr Butterfield said: “We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language.”
Here they are:
- 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
Found via Neatorama
I like it – can you think of any others?
8 Comments
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An ex-co-worker drove me wild with “don’t get me wrong”. Did he permanently assume I couldn’t understand him?
I think that translates to, “I’m about to say something unintelligent. Make it work for me.”
11. Mommy, mommy, mommy!
12. Mommy, where are you?
13. Mommy, are you done working on your machine?
Sorry– I shouldn’t of added these, but I hear them 24/7– having a toddler you know, it’s a nightmare. They absolutely won’t qualify for the next edition of Damp Squid, but with all due respect to Mr. Butterfield and his devotees, at the end of the day, I personally would rather hear all of the top ten most annoying phrases in a single paragraph… hey, it’s not rocket science; at this moment in time I’m just starved for adult conversation.
How do you like me now?
“don’t get me wrong–if anyone’s wrong, it’s YOU”
Trish what was BB’s again? I forgot and wanted to add it – it was a good one.
I could probably create quite a list:
-as I was saying
-I personally think
-positively
I literally peed my pants reading these entries!! Odd that “fairly unique” made the list but not “very unique”. Oh well.
literally peed your pants. nice.