this is not so much for you. it is really more for that one guy at work, that one friend of yours, or your teenage son or daughter. but, most certainly, it isn’t for you. it’s for the other guy, really…
in an attempt to do my part in minimalizing annoying words, here is a list of some recently released polls ranking the most annoying phrases in the english language:
- whatever
- you know
- it is what it is
- anyway
- at the end of the day
- at the end of the day
- fairly unique
- i personally
- at this moment in time
- with all due respect
- absolutely
- it’s a nightmare
- shouldn’t of
- 24/7
- it’s not rocket science
lake superior state university, 2008
- green
- carbon footprint
- first dude
- bailout
- wall street, in comparison with main street
- <3 (yes, the emoticon meaning “heart”)
- iconic
- game-changer
- desperate search
- not so much
- staycation
- it’s that time of year again
i would like to add, “i have a headache.”
which word/phrases would you like to add to the list?
related posts:
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
-like- the #1 word that -like- makes me -like- super annoyed.. and which is -like- very, very often used by -like- american girls is -like- the word LIKE!
*lol* -like- I mean.. how many times can you -like- stick that in one sentence? ;)
Greetings from the Netherlands!
circle back
skill set, skillset, skill sets (they should just say skills)
value proposition
sort of
adding an i to mischievous and pronouncing it mischievIous
mispronouncing virulent. they say virIAlent.
never learning difference between subjective and objective case
staycation was mentioned, but I would add more stupid buzz words like it: “bromance,” “murse” (man purse), “moobs” (man boobs), and others I can’t think of at the moment….
It looks like you could stick all five of those words in the marist poll in a row and a semi-coherent sentence, or totally coherent on a college campus.
*and get. And get a semi-coherent sentence. Whoops.
I’m all for de-cluttering, particularly the folks who talk about “losing” something and spell it “loose”.
I would add: “I’m just saying…”
“I hate Mondays”
If you hate Monday’s at your 9-5 so much, then choose a different life path already. You shouldn’t hate any day of the week.
Thanks for letting me air my frustrations….
David Damron
The Minimalist Path
the one thing i absolutely cannot stand is the use of “LOL” in text. once you are past middle school, this should not appear in your writing. EVER.
“Pivot” seems to be big in corp-speak these days.
Wow – I must the most annoying person on the planet. I’ve used all of these at some point, including LOL.
I guess it shows you that what’s annoying is different to everyone. I generally find the lack of capitalization in writing to be annoying because it leaves me with the impression of immaturity, lack of confidence or laziness. When the content is good enough, I don’t worry about it. :)
I also have no idea what the difference is between subjective and objective case is and I wrote for a living for several years. Odd..
I never really thought of “fairly unique” as annoying, but then again I never really noticed it. It’s ridiculous. How in the crap can something be fairly annoying? It either is, or is not, unique.
I won’t speak on the rest of the list, as I’m guilty of quite a few. (Goes off to hide in the corner shamefully)
Sorry, “fairly unique” , not “fairly annoying”. I’m terrible with words, I have no business writing on the internet. :(
I would like to add:
“To be honest…” (implying that at all other times, this person is lying)
“Get over it…” (simply being dismissed), and
“I/we would like to -verb goes here-…” (either do it or don’t)
Fun post, thanks for sharing!
RE: i would like to add, “i have a headache.”
… is minimalizing causing a dryspell? lol ;)
/omg i used lol! and all lowercase. whatever, at the end of the day this comment is still amusing.
“in this economy.” Everyone says it and I hate it.
@Kahnrad “To be honest” is one of my pet peeves! On the rare occasion i catch myself saying it, I mentally slap myself. As soon as someone says it, he is calling himself a liar up until that point. Ugh!
“I was just wondering if”- I hate this phrase. In every instance it can be replaced with “do” or “will”.
And the following words are unnecessary in every circumstance: only, just, still, basically, anyways, though.
I’m tired of “epic” and “fail” already. Gamers have been using it for at least 5 years now. To hear it on TV just makes the novelty of it, well, “epic fail”.
“Wildly popular”, “if you will”, and “bottom line…” All of these are “wildly disturbing”, and I’ve made it my work to eliminate them wherever I can.
How about “irregardless” – it’s not even a word! I also hate when interior designers on those design shows repeatedly say “space” instead of “room” – what’s wrong with “room”!
at one point, every journalist or “expert” interviewing or being interviewed continually used the phrase “if you will.” If you will WHAT! Believe what I’m saying? Also…the use that is now totally accepted I guess… “and he goes” and then “I go” and “I went like Hey man!” Instead of he said, I said, she said. A certain age group has totally stopped saying says or said! Amazing. Sorry. I’m venting.
Ending ALL sentences in “or whatever” and inserting “like” into every possible place in a sentence, such as:
“I think she’s like going to like finish that job first or whatever”
And this is coming from a 50 year old’s mouth, not a teenager’s! :)