Terminalcoffee discussion

I overuse "really", as in "really interesting", and, uh, I overuse, "interesting", too.

You?

Also, I started a "language/grammar" category. I thought we already had one.

I overuse these "..."

I've told my students that if I ever use air quotes in class they should throw things at me.

However. I love the word 'however' as well as:

therefore, aforementioned, subsequently, and conversely. I like all those words and I use them frequently.

Gangrenous, dildo, bon vivant, n'er-do-well.

I like however too, Helena. I have a completely arbitrary rule about using it when I write--okay to use it in the middle of a sentence, but for some reason it doesn't work so well at the beginning, I find.

I use therefore, consequently, in consequence, as a result, and other synonyms. Those can be very handy words when you need to clarify a chain of events.

One word I used way too much at one time and now try to avoid completely is indeed. It can be very helpful when you need to give special emphasis to an idea or create a transition, but it usually ends up seeming stilted and too formal.

LG, I think all of the examples you cite could be combined in a very interesting sentence.

Indeed is one of those words that I suspect is almost completely unnecessary.

I had a college professor who told us to avoid words of Latin origin and use words of Anglo-Saxon origin whenever possible. It's very good advice, I think.

I like to say ‘indeed’ as opposed to writing it... with a cocked eyebrow for added effect.

I always say absolutely

i say dude and friggin too much. my wife says when i say interesting i mean something else. i LOVE to say retrospectively

"whatever" "ugh" and "ummm" are words I frequently use. Oh and "like" as in "like whatever" or "like you know?"

I can't think of any I overuse these days. I used to have a standing lunch date with a couple of friends, and we would talk a lot about how we talked. Each week we would pick a new word that we had been overusing, and try not to use it the following week. It was fun, and helped us focus on what was coming out of our mouths.

No more "um" for me, no more "actually" for Scott, and no more "like" for Jen.

"Indeed", Omar.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Indeed is one of those words that I suspect is almost completely unnecessary.

I had a college professor who told us to avoid words of Latin origin and use words of Anglo-Saxon origin whenever poss..."

I don't understand this.

I use the phrase "in turn" a lot when I write. Maybe I should just assume people can establish causality on their own.

'In turn' is another phrase I overuse.

My husband despises the word 'whatever'- I am forbidden from using it in his presence. Any other word is fine, but not whatever. I save 'whatever' for when I'm really truly angry.

Helena wrote: "My husband despises the word 'whatever'."

My dad uses this word so annoyingly, like when I'm insisting on something and he just doesn't want to hear me out.

I hate that I say 'um' a lot. Wish I was more of a thoughtful communicator.

Ko, oddly enough, Bob is in fact my uncle, and I rarely use that phrase because it seems as if I'm giving him away!

My mother informed me yesterday that there are NO circumstances under which a middle-aged woman should use the word 'awesome' and asked me to stop. :(

I say "awesome" all the time. And "totally".

I'm not going to stop, can't make me, so there!
:p

BunWat wrote: "Hahahaha but you didn't stop did you? You just used the word awesome just now in post 19, wait I sued it in post 20, wait your mother used it to ask you to stop using it!! Oh will the madness never..."

I heard it had an awesome legal team and filed a countersuit.

"Like." I really want to break the "like" habit. And "the." I use "the" probably thousands of times a day.

Phil wrote: "I heard it had an awesome legal team and filed a countersuit."

That would be Awesome & Jones, LLC?

I type the word "that" a lot. I say the word "like" far too often.

Whatever - at least its' Danish equivalent - drives my husband crazy too! "it's ok" also pushes his buttons. Example: He asks me - do you want more coffee? and I say "It's ok" meaning what I already have is fine.

my husband says i drive him crazy saying 'i don't care'. as in "where do you want to eat?" "i don't care". "what do you want to watch?" "i don't care". if he wasn't already bald, he'd be pulling his hair out.
i also say "no, no" far too often. that is one that you find yourself repeating when you run a daycare. :D

My fellow mother-in-law says, "... and stuff like that this here." Drives me wild. My tongue is chewed through from trying to keep from screaming.

One of my former bosses loved the word "certainly". During a speech, every sentence contained the word. "Certainly, she was innovative in her approach and we will certainly miss her."

I find myself using "sustainable" a lot lately. No diet is sustainable. I want to find a diet that is sustainable.

My husband says that I say two specific words to him a lot. He tends to exaggerate.

And certainly which specific words might they be?

Larry wrote: "And certainly which specific words might they be?"

Certainly, I would be shocking a few people with my crassness and stuff like this here if I was to tell you.

Oh certainly yes of course.

"ya know" is another phrase I tend to tack on the end of everything..ya know?

I was waiting by the gate for my flight Friday in the Phoenix airport. There was a young man talking on his phone next to me. After nearly every sentence he spoke, he would ask, "Ya know what I mean?" or "Ya know what I'm sayin'?"

I was going to say here that it drove me crazy -- but in reality it just annoyed me slightly.

"Go" and "fuck" and "yourself" all in the same sentence.

If i have a son i might name him Clark.

I don't know about specific words, but I swear too much.

Amber wrote: "I don't know about specific words, but I swear too much."

By whose measure is it too much?

I am totally, like, vindicated by Firefox 4 and the Awesome Bar.

The which?

Larry wrote: "Amber wrote: "I don't know about specific words, but I swear too much."

By whose measure is it too much?"

I know I'm doing it too much if I slip up and swear in front of my grandmother, which has happened occasionally, although I don't think she actually heard me.

Super overused (though not by me): "Where you at?" How hard is it to say "where are you?"? (and I have no idea what the rules are about the double question mark I just used).

The "where you at" thing bugs me, too.

And you really didn't need the second q mark there. That one there where it's at.

I don't get to write a lot ...at least not my own words, but it makes my jaw tighten when I hear so-called educated bums say "irregardless". WTF?
BTW, Helena, you must be a lawyer and hopefully not one of the aforementioned educated bums I spoke of.

RandomAnthony wrote: "Lobstergirl wrote: "I had a college professor who told us to avoid words of Latin origin and use words of Anglo-Saxon origin whenever poss..."

I don't understand this. "

Use words like badge, behead, and limb rather than capacious, putative, and moratorium.

That seems easy enough.

I believe that advice came from Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Use words like badge, behead, and limb rather than capacious, putative, and moratorium."

So next time I'm tempted to use the word moratorium, I should use limb instead? They hardly seem interchangeable.

To heck with worrying about word origin! I use the words that mean best what I'm trying to say.

At least, I do when I can think of them. I hate when I know there's a word I want, and I can't dredge it up from my brain.

One reason I don't use the f-word is that I don't think it's meaning literally fits what I want to say. To me, saying "go to hell" just makes more sense. Not that I say that all that often, either. Because I'm very polite. :)

You are wonderfully polite, Jackie.

Jonathan wrote: "Lobstergirl wrote: "Use words like badge, behead, and limb rather than capacious, putative, and moratorium."

So next time I'm tempted to use the word moratorium, I should use limb instead? They ha..."

Certainly you could try using limb, or you could use freeze.

Oh my god, that's awesome, Jonathan. It's all links! But it looks so old-timey!

Oh, you're fast, Jackie. I had edited post 54 just after I wrote it and put the link in the "news of the day" section, because I thought it was maybe too off topic. But I guess I'll put it back here.

I found this amusing--to celebrate its 190th anniversary as a continuously publishing newspaper, the Guardian has done over its homepage. They're calling it "today's news yesterday":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian-1821