“We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism,” author Jeremy Butterfield says. “The same seems to happen with some language.”
University of Oxford researchers seem to have had a bit of free time on their hands, so they consulted the Oxford University Corpus and made a list of the phrases they found the most annoying.
As a blogger I tend to write without doing a lot of editing. So I tend to use some phrases more often than I should, repeat myself, and well, sometimes annoy my readers. At the end of the day, using a lot of clichéd and tired phrases is not fairly unique. I personally don’t use most of these annoying phrases, at this moment in time, but the temptation to use them here is pretty strong. It’s not rocket science to be annoying in a blog post about annoying phrases.
The most annoying phrase to me is one that has to do with portrait photography-I’m gonna break your camera-I hear this everyday. You Go Girl, My Bad, Don’t Go There and pretty much everything ever said on Seinfeld would find a place on my list of the most annoying phrases. But then, I’m not an Oxford researcher.
Top Ten Most Annoying Phrases
1 – At the end of the day
2 – Fairly unique
3 – I personally
4 – At this moment in time
5 – With all due respect
6 – Absolutely
7 – It’s a nightmare
8 – Shouldn’t of
9 – 24/7
10 – It’s not rocket science
The list appears in a new book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, by Jeremy Butterfield. The book is named after the frequent linguistic confusion between “squid,” the sea creature, and “squib,” a type of British fireworks.
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Great post and excellent topic!! I am heading out to get this book today because I, like you, find this extremely annoying and I am sure I am a habitual offender as well.
Absolutely! Okay, I just couldn’t help myself. Have a great weekend. 🙂