Wednesday · March 24 2004
The Plain English Campaign surveyed 5,000 of their supporters and found the phrase 'At the end of the day' to be the most annoying English phrase. I would vote for “the bottom line”, though I use it plenty. My worst overuse offenses are probably 'What I'm saying is…' or 'dude'. I know some people can't stand others who say 'dude'. I see their point, but it's a hard habit to break.
I don't consider 'like' and 'um' poor phrases. They are unconscious speaking crutches, but no less annoying. I had a public speaking teacher in high school that graded a speech on the number of 'likes' and 'ums'. Some kids were destined to fail that test.
I use, "So anyways..." entirely too often.
& I'm a victim of "dude," too.
Lately, my response to everything has been "Solid." Don't know why that one's on my radar as of late.
But that's my bottom line.
"dude" isn't so bad, but people that end EVERY sentence with "you know?" or "you know what i mean?" need to be deported. i wish i could remove "oh my god" from my vocab. i use it way too much. i'm happy to say that i no longer have to hear the guy who was my boss say "yeah, i seen dat" and "orientated"-?! ever again (and no, he wasn't trying to be funny). one of my friends loves to point out to everyone that i always say "the other day". one time he heard me telling someone about something that happened "the other day". he realized he was there when this thing happened and "the other day" was over 6 months before. recently (pretty good huh, it was so tempting to use my phrase there) i mentioned to my teacher that i had seen a certain artist's exhibit "a couple of years ago" (that is another one scott has caught me using). my teacher then informed me that the exhibit was EIGHT years ago!