Comments on: Overused Words: What’s Yours?

By: Brooklyn Frank

Brooklyn Frank — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:51:14 +0000

just, so, and well.

By: Erricka

Erricka — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:50:46 +0000

“HIGH DEF.”

I’ve complained about this over-abbreviating phenomenon before. Are people too simple minded to speak out the entire word? Is “high definition” too taxing for their brain cells?

I refuse to abbreviate just to jump on the bandwagon.

By: Rebecca Laffar-Smith

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:43:22 +0000

I’m a monster when it comes to words that I know are grammatically incorrect. Starting sentences with, “Anyway,”, “Of course,”, “However,”, “After all,”, “And” etc. I try to eradicate these in my professional works but they still are prolific in my emails. If I get casual I can slip.

By: Nevada

Nevada — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:44:58 +0000

I hate to admit it, but “like”. It grates on my nerves every time I hear it slip through my lips, but it happens anyway.

There are a few words that I used to say a lot, but I can’t remember what they were, as my beau started pointing them out every time I uttered them.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:30:57 +0000

Mine isn’t a word so much as the lack of one. It’s the ellipsis … I talk with a lot of pauses, what can I say?

By: jasmine

jasmine — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:44:25 +0000

I find myself using the word ‘besides’ all too often.

By: Irma

Irma — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:30:48 +0000

Sometime I receive a call selling me services I don´t remember for what. But I do the “do you understand”´s saleswoman. It was really annoying

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:06:48 +0000

Nothing notable in writing but in speaking I totally overuse:

‘ya know?’

‘man’ (as in “man what a hard day I had today!”)

By: Linette

Linette — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:05:59 +0000

great, festive, wonderful, beautiful
I guess you could say everything is “great” in my world:)

By: Mariella

Mariella — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:45:41 +0000

Ooh, I’m guilty of using “anyway” too much too.

By: Amy Derby

Amy Derby — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:53:40 +0000

Sirena, I say “anyway” too much in emails, and probably also in my personal blog posts. I use “so” too much in the same places.

I’m sure there are about 50 other over-used words on my guilty list, but “however” is a big one for me.

By: Star

Star — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:25:52 +0000

Maggot and awesome. I have my reasons.

By: Mariella

Mariella — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:16:48 +0000

Just
So
However
Nevertheless

By: Katie

Katie — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:31:28 +0000

I write marketing materials for several companies and, over the course of several years, have penned no less than 100 employee bios for one company in particular. I think 90% of them have the phrase, “joined the dynamic staff of [insert company name].” Even the thesaurus hasn’t helped. It drives me crazy. But, really, in my defense, how many ways can one find to say the same thing???

By: Susan J.

Susan J. — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:23:14 +0000

I too abuse the word “great.” I tend to overuse a lot of adverbs like “really,” “so,” and “very,” because I think it makes writing sound more conversational, but sometimes it can weaken the impact, too.

I also manage an writing intern who used to use exclamation points in nearly every sentence because she wanted to convey her enthusiasm. Come to think of it… she’s broken that habit and I’m really proud of her for it!!! (Just kidding about the triple punctuation.)

By: Sirena

Sirena — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:19:08 +0000

Lance Luther – I’m glad to join the club.

I find the “uhhhs” annoying but I usually use “um”. I have friends in Texas who always bugged me about the Canadian accent, and would harp about the fact that I don’t say “eh”. That and “oot and aboot” are absent from my vocabulary, which pissed them off because they couldn’t laugh at me about it. I find I say “eh” only when I’m asking specific questions like “You know, eh?” I can’t think of the other times I use it but if I am around anyone that I know from the states, their ears prick up and they start laughing, “eh…eh!” They laugh even if I haven’t said it once in weeks.

By: holli ronquillo

holli ronquillo — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:47:39 +0000

I know I overuse the word ‘however.’ But there’s a whole list of words I overuse that I don’t even realize I’m using. I have to go over my work and usually find one or two words that need to be taken out.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:10:14 +0000

I also overuse ‘so’ and find myself editing it out.

Sally — I used to write marketing materials and web content for a marketing data company so I know what you mean about folks using the singular for data!

By: Mary Witzl

Mary Witzl — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:41:26 +0000

My overused words are ‘honestly,’ ‘a bit,’ ‘suddenly,’ and ‘rather.’ I overuse these so excessively that just typing them here makes me nervous. ‘Rather’ is a particularly bad one; I once rewrote a manuscript and was horrified to find no fewer than eight superfluous uses of ‘rather’ on one page.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:13:01 +0000

I say the word ” like ” ALL OF THE TIME in every day conversation…I suppose that it would substitute for other people’s “uhhhhh’s” when they are trying to think of something! Don’t worry, it drives me nuts, too, and I usually do not catch it until after the fact! LOL

Happy weekend, everyone!

By: Herbie J Pilato

Herbie J Pilato — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:11:12 +0000

“liaison”

“exasburbate”

“pristine”

“more times than not”

“in fact”

“overall”

“in general”

By: Allison

Allison — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:57:53 +0000

When blogging, my overused phrase is “I mean”. When doing other kinds of writing, I have many, but my worst is probably “In addition”.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:59:34 +0000

I am another “So” blogger. What is with that word? So…how do you propose we change that? teehee. I think I use “I think” more than I should.

I know that there are probably more, but I would need someone to read over my blog to let me know where I could make changes.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:08:29 +0000

I tend to overuse the word awesome … Could it be from my Southern California upbringing – in the 80′s? Hee hee … Suzanne

By: lornadoone

lornadoone — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:21:02 +0000

I use “just” and “a little” way too much. I’m not sure if there are others that come up a lot over the course of many pieces of my writing, but I do often discover that I’ll get a certain word or phrase in mind and use it repeatedly in the same document. I just have to be sure and edit a little more carefully.