There are a few things that are like fingernails on a blackboard to me. One of them is when speakers or writers profess the truth in their statements.
Honestly, (pun intended) when someone prefaces a statement by saying, “I have to be honest here,” “To tell you the truth,” “Truthfully,” “In all honesty,” “To be completely honest,” and so forth, I have to wonder if everything they said before that was a lie.
Why do people point out that they’re being truthful only now and then during a talk or in their written work? What are they thinking? What message are they trying to leave with their audience? “Hey, I’m a blatant liar except that now I’m going to be honest.”
I guess people who do this are trying to make a point of honesty with regard to something that one could easily lie about. Maybe it is a sticky topic and they preface a comment about it by letting their audience know they are being painfully honest at some cost. But I would advise those folks to be careful with those “honesty,” prefaces because I’m sure there are others besides myself who hear those statements and wonder, “Okay, what has this guy/gal been lying about?”
Does this bug you? It probably will now that I have pointed it out.
I listen to radio when I run errands or make the drive to visit my mother, etc. And I’m sometimes surprised to hear a radio personality who continually intersperses such filler words as, “You know,” throughout their commentary and conversations with guests. Sometimes I lose track of what the discussion is about because I am so busy counting instances of “you know.”
What common phrases, speaking patterns/habits and innuendoes irritate you? What are you working to correct in your own speech? What about clichés? I happen to love using clichés. They are sort of like a comfort food to me. I can find them easily and, unlike a fresh phrase that I might have to think about for a while, they roll off my tongue. I use clichés in writing, too. Only, when the writing is done, I go back and remove or exchange most of them. And I always edit them out of my clients’ manuscripts, except those included for some real purpose or when it is the way one of the characters speaks.
Excellent post; I recently made someone give me a penny every time she responded to one of my comments with “You have to realize” … in my view, that phrase implies a negation of what was said before, and that the commenter is simply too stupid to see that they are wrong. The response often also has nothing to do with the original statement! For example, “I don’t like beans.” — “But you have to realize they’re good for you.” Perhaps not a grand example, but there you go.
Thanks for the post! I’m very glad I found this blog (courtesy of the Writing-World newsletter), and will be returning again.
Thank you for commenting Leona. And this is a good example. We (and our friends) can certainly develop some irritating habits in our speech.
Patricia