I got to thinking , after the 15th "Basically..." in a conversation I was eavesdropping on in the bus... what phrases would you like banned?
Mine number many, but :
"New and improved" - a product is one or the other, it cannot be both

"forward planning" - any other kind is pointless

"at this moment in time" - "now" is a pretty good substitute
"very unique",
and the aforesaid "Basically" drive me mad. What are yours?
edited to add:
'At this moment in time'
'At the end of the day..'

"think outside the box" arghhhhh!!!

How about "here and there" since you can't be in both places at exactly the same time!

"You know what I mean". or just simply "You know"

No I don't more than half the time!

"The fact of the matter is". I can't stand this phrase and I know of one fellow that uses it constantly!

I have absolutely heard a good friend of mine use absolutely four times in one absolutely long, incredibly bad and absolutely long sentence. Absolutely drives me absolutely around the twist though I have been guilty of using it.

I'll be a happy woman when someone bans the word "awesome". Nothing wrong "awesome" in itself but it's used everywhere including in advertising. I would have thought advertising executives would have a larger vocabulary but even advertisements now pronounce something as "Awesome!"

'Moving forward'- I am not sure which other direction things could go!

'Clash' for a sporting fixture- the word is 'game'.

And does anyone actually know what a 'paradigm' is? If you can enlighten me that would be absolutely awesome!

When politicians say, (every time they mess up), "There are lessons to be learned here" Arghh!

"Breaking News"

It used to be the phrase meant something important had just happened. Now, it's often a repeat of a story I saw 3 hours ago. All the 24 hour networks are guilty of this.

I don't know about "banned" but I have a friend who could stand to drop the word "actually" from his vocabulary.

"I actually have a friend who had a similar experience..."
"That actually happened to me once..."

There are more. But what's wrong with "I have a friend who had a similar experience," or "That happened to me once." Is "actually" necessary? Are you going to regale us with anecdotes that didn't "actually" happen?

How about when people say, "To be honest..." Surely, that implies that everything they've said before that phrase was a lie?

"I know where you're coming from."and
"I feel your pain."

Whatever

"With all due respect..." generally means with no respect at all.
"We/I are/am sorry for your loss." sounds trite and merely a platitude.
"I'm over it." At first I thought this was something to do with hurdling and high jump.

Yes and Passed and Passed away.... why can't they just have died?

"You know what I mean ..." - How do they KNOW?

"Like" as in peppering sentences.

Breaking News! You know, basically what you're all saying here and there is that the fact of the matter is actually moving forward to a clash, To be honest, I know where you're coming from but there are lessons to be learned here; like you know what I mean but whatever, I'm over it, it's absolutely awesome!

Thankyou and goodnight Flopsy. ( I once said I liked rabbits..)

Felt a distinct paradigm shift there when reading Flopsy's words of wisdom! I did once learn all about paradigms and their shifts in a scientific method class, but since I didn't understand a word of it, I just quoted Axl Rose and Funkadelic lyrics in the exam, and even wrote a story about "Ug the Caveman". Nobody was more surprised than me when I actually passed! I guess a paradigm is whatever you want it to be Ozzz Rabbit pie anyone? with gravy and fresh seasonal vegetables...

Flopsy, that's a hoot! (and well done)

This was so 1980's...and it was as bad then as it is now. I can make a sentence without overusing that particular word. Although...without it, it's somewhat hard to come up with a simile...!

Breaking News, please be banned.

In the Toronto area, we have not one, not two, not three, but four 24 hour news radio stations. Plus one 24-hour news TV station, and another set to launch in the fall. Then there are the four newspapers and all the networks with their own 6 o'clock news shows, and the two nationwide news stations.


The fact of the matter is, to be honest, I like totally though that Flopsy's thing was awesome. It was like, well you know what I mean.

I pitched it from the left field right out of the ballpark - which for an Englishwoman who gave up playing rounders when she was nine was no mean feat!

You really mean...

Breaking News! You know like, basically like what you're all saying here like and like there is that the fact of the matter like is actually like moving forward to a clash, To be honest like, I know where you're coming from like but there are lessons like to be learned here; like you know what I mean but whatever, I'm over it, like it's absolutely awesome!

You just didn't have enough likes!

I like it like!

If all those words were banned, how would we play Buzzword Bingo at a manager's presentation?

Yeah, no, but like, fine words butter no paradigms!

There's an Aussie habit I dislike but find myself saying. We Aussies feel the need to confuse everyone by answering a question with "Yeah, no." Then we add an explanation so the questioner has an idea of what the answer might be. "Are you going to the party?" "Yeah, no. I think I'll go but I might be late." I think athletes being interviewed started the trend to give themselves more thinking time.

My friend says she heard a gentleman with an american accent (how subtle I am) asking in a supermarket:
"Do you have, like, ice cream?"

"Do you have, like, ice cream?"


Makes you want to answer "Sorry, sir, we only have dislike icecream".

" "Yeah, no. I think I'll go but I might be late." I think athletes being interviewed started the trend to give themselves more thinking time."


I think it may have come from a British comedy, the name of which escapes me at the moment (Little Britain ?). One of the regular characters used the expression "yeah, no" a lot and it caught on.