Archive for the ‘Spoken English’ Category

7
Nov

Oxford University’s Top 10 Irritating Phrases

   Posted by: TimMc   in Spoken English

Researchers at Oxford University just released their top ten most irritating phrases. The researchers who compiled the list monitor the use of phrases in a database called the Oxford University Corpus, which comprises books, papers, magazines, broadcast, the Internet, and other sources.

The top ten most irritating 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

One thing I noticed is that several of these are not popular here within the US (I’m somewhat relieved…aren’t you?) I would have substituted a few other, more commonly heard phrases from my own personal observation.

Such as:

1. “a whole nother”

2. The abusive overuse of the word “like.”

3. The “umm…(pause) yeah.”

4. “…and what not.”

5. “I could care less.”

6. Near miss. (If it almost missed…then it was a HIT!)

That’s all I can think of right now. Does anyone else have an irritating phrase or two to add to this list? Let me know! Leave a comment with your suggestions and we’ll create our own list here. Thanks!

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18
Oct

New Phrase for American English?

   Posted by: TimMc   in Spoken English


Over the past few months, I’ve noticed my kids saying this phrase, “a whole nother.” Then, my wife started saying it. Now…I’m watching TV (which I rarely do) and on comes a Circuit City advertisement. The ad is showing a woman sitting in a restaurant booth discussing the price of a digital camera…with a “live” digital camera. What does she say? Yep…”a whole nother.”

We’re too lazy to say another whole…?

Listen to the conversations around you and I’m sure you’ll hear it. When it happens, just ask the person who said it, “hey, I’m just curious to know what nother means.” Most likely the person won’t immediately understand what you are talking about, so you’ll need to point it out to them.

Anyhow, it’s just a peculiar observation I’ve made over the past couple of months and now I hear it in a national television advertisement. Interesting.

Then, there’s the way my kids overuse the word ‘like’, like way too many times in the same, like conversation. But, I’ll save that for, like, another post. Or, should I say, like a whole nother post!

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