shesus

People have fillers or phrases that they use often and may not even be aware of. Some people may not notice them, but to others these verbal repetitions are annoying.

I had a student last year who constantly started his sentences with, "Actually, dontcha know,..." It took him forever to make a point. His moms were annoyed by it too and didn't know where he picked it up. When we'd talk we'd often joke about it and start our e-mails and conversations that way.

I recently started volunteering at a food pantry. The coordinator always says, "To tell the truth,..." when she is explaining how to do something.

What are phrases or words that drive you crazy?

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KellyC

A friend of mine uses "The thing is..." every time he makes a point.

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Bear Cub

Oh gee golly dontcha know!




I get annoyed by the usually fillers, especially "like." You know, like, when someone, like, is trying to, like, explain something...

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xepherys

It annoys me in general, but I know that I am guilty of doing it as well. I say, "fair enough" in agreement more often than not. It annoys me, too, but I'm too lazy to put forth the effort to stop it.

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girldetective

What bother me the most I think is my ex saying thing, rather than the name of the actual object, feeling, or whatever it is he's referring to. Such as Im looking for that thing I attach my keys to or I like that thing your wearing (as if!) or Remember that thing...

Okay. Thats enough. Im starting to cringe.

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Charlatan

I have a bunch of them that I use and I get annoyed when I catch myself using them.

I am trying to break the habit.

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sapiens

In college, I spent a lot of time in deep holes, telling backhoes where and how much to dig. Nearly everyone I worked with expressed agreement by saying "ya der ay-na-hey":

"Do you think it's gonna rain?"

"Ya dare ay-na-hey. Looks like rain."

It didn't drive me crazy, but it was odd.

shoegirl

Back in high school I had an English teacher who would start nearly every sentence with "Really, truly" - it drove me nuts!

Redjake

Can you translate ay-na-hey into words? I'm having a hard time hearing it in my head. Or is it just a sound they make?

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ngdawg

There's a very popular host on the Food Network that gets on my nerves with his constant "uhh"'s as he's talking. He speaks rather fast then goes "uh" and right back to his fast speaking. Maybe if he slowed down, he wouldn't be so freakin irritating!!
Me, I'm really trying to catch myself with "actually..."
The spouse can drone on and on about most anything. And he'll start out with "You know, that couple with the -insert car description and their names here-..." And then I'll say, "Nope. Don't know them", to which he starts insisting I do. ARGGH! Just get ON with it!!!

sapiens

it was just a series of sounds they made. I'm not sure whether or not "ay-na-hey" represented words.

pig

My first thought was "you're damn right is" or variants thereof.

i catch myself making a variety of different fillers and other annoying verbal sounds. it amazes me i can make my point at all, particularly professionally when i speak at meetings or conferences or the like. i've been told that i remind people of boomhauer from 'king of the hill,' so i cna only imagine what those poor sons of bitches have to endure when i'm trying to talk.

the worst i've observed is when i was helping to mentor a class of freshmen in their orientation class in college. they had to give a little personal history presentation for the rest of the class as a ice-breaker. at least half of them started every single sentence with "whenever i was..."

'and whenever i was 13, we moved to a fancy trailer with flamingos and everything. and then whenever i was 15, i started making love to my cousin in his 4x4 with the 36' swampers. and then whenever i was 17, i won the paintball championship for my church group. and then whenever i was 18, i started college.'

it drove me nuts.

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Redjake

I'm sorry man, that had to be extremely annoying. I don't know if I would be able to handle that!!!

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mrklixx

"Yenum Sayun?"

No, actually I didn't catch most of that.

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Baraka_Guru

"To tell you the truth..." is one that I think people should do away with.

That, and "to be honest..." and "in fact...."

I see this everywhere in the writing I edit, too, so I spend a lot of time crossing them out.

Always assume people already believe you're telling the truth or that something you're saying is a fact, especially if you are indeed being truthful and it is a fact; otherwise, they might call it into question since you had pointed it out.

Seriously.

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Sion

The only thing worse than the way most people speak is the way most people write.

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Baraka_Guru

Pfft. Trust me. I know.

It's mainly because most people try to write they way they speak but in a "writerly" fashion. The result is always clunky, to say the least.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Bear Cub

ROFLCOPTER w/e bff umm like i dunno wut yer talkin bout

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Baraka_Guru

Internet "publishing" notwithstanding.

OMFG....

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Borgs

A co-worker of mine frequently says "can't have nothin'". I think that it started as a "power to the black man" sort of a thing, but everyone I work with now uses the phrase - first to poke fun of him, but then it caught on. Good times.

JumpinJesus

It isn't so much a phrase as it is people who abbreviate words in conversation because they think it makes them sound "with it" or something like that. I'm talking about people who say things like, "vaycay" instead of vacation, "bro" instead of brother, "info" instead of information.

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Sugar&Spice

Not a phrase, but a word. I have friends that use "super" at least twice in every sentence. Example: "I was super tired today because I stayed out late last night, but it was super fun." I can't stand it!

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SecretMethod70

I fucking hate that.

People who say "vaycay" should die a slow and painful death.

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Le temps détruit tout

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Punk.of.Ages

Love the Bobby's World reference!

.....................................

I HATE when people say, "No offense, but...."

Telling me that does not give you the ability to say something offensive to me, and not offend me. Sorry.

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Redlemon

My mother in law often starts sentences with "You know what?", and I cringe when she does this, because it seems to be her way of saying "You don't know this. You should. I will tell you what you need to know".

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dlish

i use the phrase..'thats alright' a lot in agreeance with someone at the end of a sentance.

it annoys the crap out of me and im trying to stop

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Halx

Mine are: "So, let's see, look, anyways."

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girldetective

It has been brought to my attention that I often begin a question with, Can I ask you a question?

It now not only annoys others, but annoys me too. I am now on double duty, looking for it before it leaves me mouth.

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mixedmedia

I find myself saying 'very well' and 'very good' a lot when people ask me to do things.

And I say 'right' when agreeing with things. Particularly when I'm in a conversation that I find dull.

What I dislike more than anything else in other people's conversations, and it's already been mentioned before, is the use of the word 'like' interjected every other word in a sentence. I see this almost invariably every time I happen to catch a few minutes of one of those MTV reality shows. It makes my skin crawl.

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snowy

I never realized how much I said "I understand" to people until I saw an episode of Two and a Half Men wherein Charlie explains to Jake that if you want to sound sympathetic to a woman, all you need to say is "I understand." Now every time I say it I do it with a tiny inner giggle.

I've always worked on trying to avoid certain repetitive phrases as my major in university required a lot of public speaking--plus, I'm just the kind of person that can't be quiet in class. The one that drives me crazy is "like." If I ever taught a class that required kids to speak on a subject, and one of them got up there and started saying "like" every other sentence, I would stop the speech. Of course, I would warn them of this beforehand. It was the policy of a couple of my high school teachers--"like" and too many "um"s were not to be tolerated.

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PonyPotato

Using "good" as an adverb grates me at times.

"Vacay," "preggers," etc. absolutely drive me NUTS. Is it really that hard to pronounce vacation and pregnant?

I know I use the phrase "yeah" a lot in email/IM. I need to stop. I also start sentences with "Oh," quite a bit in emails. Need to quit that, too.

Crompsin, when writing essays, tends to use the phrase "in that" more times than necessary. I find myself crossing it out every single time so that it won't appear in his papers at all. He also uses the phrase "hooda buddha" as a general noun. "I've got to go get the hooda buddha ready.." and it drives me crazy because I can't always figure out what noun he is actually referring to.

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Jinn

So I was walkin down the street, you know what I'm sayin'.... and I saw this lady down the block you know what I'm sayin'.. and she's like heyyyy honey.. and I'm like .. fuck no, lady.. you know what I'm sayin'?

I hate "you know what I'm sayin' or more commonly "yunowhaimsayin"

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Poppinjay

Adding to NGDAWG's Food Network annoyance, there's another host who when she finishes the meal and serves it to her friends, always says, "ok guys..." when she tells them what she's serving them. Despite the fact that they are more often than not, all women.

I think the reason why this bugs me so much is that she uses overly arched Italian pronounciations for her items. "OK guys, first we have (guttural) r-r-r-r COTE-ah on proe SHUTE oh, with a sauce of buy yan AIZ".

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Redlemon

Last night, I was going down to the basement to get the swimsuits and towels out of the wash, hang up the swimsuits, and put the towels in the dryer. I start to tell this to my wife, and my verbal skills flee.

"I'm going to the basement to... um... to... ... ... verb the nouns."

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mixedmedia

I do this, too. ....well, yeah, oh....

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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

shesus

Listening to this annoying woman almost gives me seizure like Kramer had when he heard Mary Hart. I HATE her voice.

It's glad to know that I'm not the only person who gets annoyed by certain words and phrases that are uttered.

merleniau, I used to begin my journals, e-mails, and posts with the word 'so'. I had to make an effort not to do it, but sometimes it still happens.

I'm not sure if it's annoying, but I'll say 'oh, yea, yea, yea' quickly. I think that it may come across rude as if I'm rushing the person.

I know that I used to say 'Good lands' and 'I'm just saying' a lot and it would drive JJ crazy. I'm happy to say that 'Good lands' is gone because I hate that phrase.

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Whatever did happen to your soul?
I heard you sold it

Choose Heaven for the weather and Hell for the company

Glory's Sun

well .. as a person with a bunch of brits in the family.. "right" seems to follow everything

"So I'm walking in the yard right? Then I saw this car drive by.. right?"

Poppinjay

That reminds of the Harry Potter books. I love them, but some of the slang just bugs the hell out of me. I'm sure 20 years after Potter kills Voldemort, kids won't still refer to making out as "snogging". And for some reason, Rowling added the phrase, "oi!" in the last book.

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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

mrklixx

Actually , I do know what you are saying. Check post #14

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mixedmedia

the one that gets to me from Brits very often is the 'cheers'
always with the 'cheers'

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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce