Wyn Drabble: Here’s why there are words and phrases I avoid

When it comes to language, Wyn Drabble avoids anything "vaguely corporate." Photo / NZME

We all have our own pet hates in all sorts of areas of life.

They can be very different from one another’s but that’s what creates the varied and interesting tapestry that is us.

So when, as asked by a reader, I share with you some of the words/phrases I steer clear of, they might well be an integral part of what makes you distinctive but not using them is possibly part of what makes me distinctive.

“Going forward”, for example, I find clunky and pointless and it smacks of corporate-speak. Same with a “heads up”. I avoid anything even vaguely corporate.

A couple of my pet peeves have to do with veracity. If someone begins an utterance with, “To be honest with you,” I can’t help but feel that a lot of what that person says must be untrue. Even more so if they slip the word “perfectly” into it.

“In actual fact” is curious simply because of the gratuitous adjective. There are plenty more of those: 3am in the morning, absolutely essential, depreciate in value, at the present point in time, postpone until later, final outcome.

Then there’s “general consensus of opinion”. The word “consensus” by itself makes the point succinctly without the two intruders.

“In the final analysis” can successfully be replaced by “finally”.

“Grab” has become a very common colloquialism. People on the phone might ask you to hold on while they “grab a pen”. In a shop, customers might say, “Can I grab a pie and a Coke?” Its connotations of a clutching fist have not lessened its popularity.

”Kick off” I’m happy to use for a rugby match but “The church service will kick off at 11am” sounds incongruous and silly. The image of the Pope “kicking off” a Mass at St Peter’s is charming but wildly inaccurate.

“Literally” is too liberally used. It usually either adds nothing or is just wrong. “I was literally getting on the bus” is exactly the same as “I was getting on the bus”. “I was literally boiling” is open to question.

At formal ceremonies, you will often hear, “Please be upstanding”. That generally gives me a giggle. “Please stand” does the job without the silly double entendre.

”It is what it is” sounds silly to me though I do understand its intended meaning. Similarly, “It’s the least I could do” sounds like the speaker has made a list of possibilities and then chosen the most trivial.

“Unique” is a stand-alone. If something is the only one of its kind, unique, it cannot have degrees of uniqueness (“so unique”, “very unique”). The same goes for “perfect” and “full”.

I don’t think I’ve ever said, “Yeah, nah”, except perhaps satirically.

I plan to continue with that.

As for the classic fillers, um, I mean, you know, like, I try hard to eliminate them. Some radio interviews are hard to listen to because of the ubiquity of these. It’s quite common to hear the answer to a question begin, “Um, yeah, well, you know, I mean...” before any information is imparted.

Beginning an answer to a question with “So...” is now heard everywhere, as is ending it with “So, yeah” when the speaker has run out of things to say.

As for adding “s” to daylight saving, I don’t understand that either.

I also tend to avoid saying the word “phlebotomist” aloud but that’s simply because it makes my lips go all funny.

I reiterate my opening comment. These are observations/preferences, not necessarily criticisms. They are shared to stimulate debate. You might even use all of these but that’s what makes you you.

Not using them makes me me.

Let’s celebrate that.