(no subject)

[eirias]

New favorite phrase: "On further reflection." It lets you change your mind and not sound like an idiot. I have been way overusing this one lately.

Readers, what word/phrase have you been overusing?

Comments

[marphod.livejournal.com]

I need to shoot someone.

Argh.

This sucks, change it. or This sucks, I never win.

Its your call.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

"really". i've done it for years. i've almost but not quite stopped trying not to.

[ex-miang438.livejournal.com]

"To be honest..." Which is rather silly, because I would never start a sentence with "To be dishonest..."!

I think I'm abusing "totally" lately too, but on the plus side, I think I'm finally over "fabulous."

[ex-miang438.livejournal.com]

Oh! Also, "to the extent that..." All the time, seriously.

And I've been frustrated at not finding a good alternative for "I can't believe s/he did that!" It's particularly a problem when objecting to the behavior of two specific people -- I can (and do, in fact) believe it, but I can't find any other suitable way to express my shock at how flagrant a violation of acceptable behavior I deem the action to be.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Oh! Also, "to the extent that..." All the time, seriously.

Oh yeah, that one's a common one for me as well.

[jpfed.livejournal.com]

"inherently".

I'm all about the null hypothesis, so I'm always saying that (group) is not inherently (property).

[harleybitch.livejournal.com]

i noticed that i use a lot of phrases over and over when writing like: furthermore, in addition, for example, which is to say, etc.

[kirin]

This is begging to be made into an LJ-processing meme. Feed in your public posts, have a utility that spits out the most commonly used phrases. Might have to tweak it to give negative weight to phrases that show up in *everyone's* writing. Oooh, keep a global database, weight less-commonly-seen ones higher. Just like Amazon's "unusual key phrases in this book" feature. Ok, who's written this already?

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Wow, interesting idea... if any readers have seen something like this, I'd love to know!

[tiurin.livejournal.com]

I use "however" and "hilarious" and "amusing" a whole damn lot. Also, "this cannot end well."

[gieves.livejournal.com]

*sighs* I have been woefully overusing "you know" and "sort of" as filler phrases of late. I also abuse "totally", but am doing it somewhat deliberately because it amuses me. It probably amuses others less...

Sadly I have no erudite words or phrases that I overuse, though I do seize on words while writing that I repeat in short spurts until I find a new word to repeat. My advisor (who is an amazing and terrifying copy editor) calls me on this a lot.

[jpfed.livejournal.com]

I totally overuse "totally".

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Me too! Totally!

[chilimuffin.livejournal.com]

ostensibly.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Of course! Totally glad I was around to help. (See, there, gieves and jpfed, case in point.)

[gieves.livejournal.com]

Hee! It's nice to see "totally" in action. It's such a useful display of enthusiasm!

[vfoxy.livejournal.com]

'so, I would say that'

[drspiff.livejournal.com]

"knock on wood." which is ussually followed by banging my head with my fist. I think it's accidently become my catch phrase.