Topic: | Irritating words and phrases | |
Posted by: | Andy Murray | |
Date/Time: | 25/03/15 11:52:00 |
' To be honest...' (why, were you lying before?) 'The truth is...' (much used by our American cousins) - see above. 'Your call is important to us..' (while demonstrating the opposite). 'Do you know what I mean?' (Yes, if you've explained it - no, if you're just using it as a stopgap). 'At the end of the day..' (not improperly used, but over used). Perhaps alternatives could be 'ultimately', 'in the final analysis', 'overall', 'definitively' or something else. As mentioned by Colin, 'To be clear' when uttered by a politician means 'I will now change the subject to include an utter irrelevancy of dubious provenance'. 'Most people think' = 'I think, and I want most people to think, but I haven't actually checked, and can't substantiate it anyway'. |