Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[cloughie]

Muscadet sur lie - oui!

Avec cassis?

[ardcarp]

Oui, mais pour un bon kir, pas trop.

I re-kindled this thread, not to talk about that, but to moan about my recent pet hate. It's the word 'there', as thrown in constantly (e.g. by Sarah Walker, but others also). It occurs at the end of a piece..."with Muriel Bloggs on the flute there ", or "lovely harmonies there". Where? Under the table? Behind the curtains? Somewhere unmentionable? The trouble is, once you've noticed a 'tick', it really gets on your nerves.

[french frank]

Oui, mais pour un bon kir, pas trop.

I re-kindled this thread, not to talk about that, but to moan about my recent pet hate. It's the word 'there', as thrown in constantly (e.g. by Sarah Walker, but others also). It occurs at the end of a piece..."with Muriel Bloggs on the flute there ", or "lovely harmonies there". Where? Under the table? Behind the curtains? Somewhere unmentionable? The trouble is, once you've noticed a 'tick', it really gets on your nerves.

I know someone who says that, whenever he's holding forth about something. I find myself frowning and just waiting for him to say it again. I don't like to say, "Why do you keep putting 'there' into what you're saying?" because once it becomes a habit people can't seem to stop. Like I used to keeping saying "Um" when I was younger.

[kernelbogey]

A certain Breakfast presenter, on a day of the week I shall not name, begins many a sentence 'Now..' - completely redundantly.

[alycidon]

Not so much on R3 but generally - the word ‘so’ prefacing every clause or phrase. It’s only a little word but it drives me mad.

[LMcD]

Not so much on R3 but generally - the word ‘so’ prefacing every clause or phrase. It’s only a little word but it drives me mad.

It's a fairly blatant device used by those answer isn't quite ready.

[french frank]

It's a fairly blatant device used by those answer isn't quite ready.

I've been wondering about this. Has it replaced the word 'Well …' used in a similar way?

[LMcD]

I've been wondering about this. Has it replaced the word 'Well …' used in a similar way?

Not to mention that old favourite that goes something like: 'Well, I'm particularly glad you asked that question, David. It's certainly a very important question, and I'm grateful - as I'm sure the listeners are - to have been given the chance to answer it'.

[cloughie]

Not so much on R3 but generally - the word ‘so’ prefacing every clause or phrase. It’s only a little word but it drives me mad.

Now is preferable to ‘so’.

[kernelbogey]

Now is preferable to ‘so’.

I sense that 'so' is in decline.

[Serial_Apologist]

Now is preferable to ‘so’.

"So" equals "therefore"; but one hears people using it to introduce something that has no logical connection to what preceded. The world is going crazy.

[Bryn]

"So" equals "therefore"; but one hears people using it to introduce something that has no logical connection to what preceded. The world is going crazy.

Well, so-so, anyway.

[vinteuil]

"So" equals "therefore"; but one hears people using it to introduce something that has no logical connection to what preceded. The world is going crazy.

No. In this context it is a semantically null (place holder) expletive. It serves the same purpose as "Ummm", "Errr", "Well... "


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[gurnemanz]

I remember someone on the radio reporting an overheard conversation near an Oxford College. One speaker was starting his sentence with: "Ninthly, ...."

[french frank]

No. In this context it is a semantically null (place holder) expletive. It serves the same purpose as "Ummm", "Errr", "Well... "

I remember Gillian Reynolds writing that one of her 'good resolutions' was to stop introducing sentences with 'So'. This is very much a 'younger generation' neologism, but where/why did it start?