Culture

Top 10 Most Hated Cliché Phrases

by Jarrett Martineau | November 17, 2008 at 11:15 am

670 views | 2 Recommendations | 9 comments

BBC's Magazine has posted a funny list of its readers' most hated cliché phrases.

To be honest and fair, going forward, this is basically something that, at the end of the day, we're likely to touch base about again.

Let's face it, the fact of the matter is that literally all of us succumb to the use of these stock phrases — even when bringing our A game and giving 110%.

What are your most hated clichés — and how do you avoid them?

According to an online survey, cliches like "at the end of the day", "24/7" and "literally" are among the most reviled. Here are 20 more that particularly irk Magazine readers.

1. My vote for most irritating cliche has to be "basically". I even manage to irritate myself by using it, although I do try not to.
AS, Salford, England

2. A few minutes ago I said "basically" was the most irritating cliche. I've changed my mind: "To be fair" is the most awful thing anybody can ever say, particularly since it is invariably followed by a biased and utterly unfair comment.
Ian, Sheffield

3. My most hated expression has to be "to be honest". What does it mean? Are you normally dishonest then? To my shame you might even catch me saying it.
John Airey, Peterborough

4. It has to be "going forward", used by business people/politicians, as in: "Going forward, we need to do...X." Since time is irreversible, it's totally unnecessary. No one experiences life "going backward".
Alex Brodie, London

5. As far as irritating cliches go, the phrase "the fact of the matter is" must top the list. The fact of the matter is, that it rarely is the actual fact of the matter. It is usually just the speaker's own opinion.
C Starkey, London

6. Overused cliches I dislike are "let's face it" and "let's be honest".
Clive, Nottingham

7. The worse cliche I hear is "touch base". If anyone knows where that came from please let me know so I can go back in a time machine and stop it from ever being said. I have a feeling it was a 1980s invention.
Hazel, Notts

8. I was looking at your well-worn phrases and although "at the end of the day" is a bad one, I absolutely detest anyone saying "110%" or "150%" or any other variant. It is 100% and nothing more. You can't get more than a whole. I'm glad I got that off my chest...
Par, Dundee

9. My old boss used to tell us that everything was "in the pipeline". One disgruntled staff member commented that this pipeline seemed to be a very long and very clogged-up sewer.
Al, Wellington NZ

10. The phrase I hate is "the reason being". Particularly when used by people who are trying to sound educated. They invariably show off their lack of education with the next phrase.
Alex Knob, UK

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Rachel Nixon

at 11:21 on November 17th, 2008

*Cringes*. I am guilty of using cliches 1, 4 and 7, at the very least. However, to be honest, I've only started using 4 and 7 since relocating to North America. Going forward I will do 110% to limit my use of such abominations.

yuls.source

at 11:31 on November 17th, 2008

"fundamentally" get used a lot in university classes

Jason Sanders

at 11:44 on November 17th, 2008

To be fair, at the end of the day fundamentally and basically are basically the same word. Unfortunately, people use them 110% of the time, because, to be honest, they think that it's helping identify their point while going forward with the conversation.

JeffHuang

at 11:50 on November 17th, 2008

Yeah, a lot of them seems to mean the same thing

The fact of the matter is that everyone uses them.

Johnny Summerton

at 12:11 on November 17th, 2008

Far worse than any of those though (well "'at the end of the day" is pretty appalling I'll admit, and when anyone uses it I continue with the line from The Glums - the musical, not Victor Hugo's masterpiece - "There's another day dawning) are the grammar made by native English speakers (especially British ones) whose English has been dumbed down (a snobby but unrepentant remark) by phrases such as "meet with" and "to impact" or "centre around"

Worse still is the all too frequent use of "amount" when people really mean "number" - as in the "amount of times" or Aaaaaaargh "the reason why is because."

And don't even get me started on the (written) split infinitive or dangling modifiers (all right, I'm not entirely guiltless of the latter).

Rachel Nixon

at 12:32 on November 17th, 2008

Johnny, you're such a stickler ;-) How about less instead of fewer?

frankieteardrop

at 16:09 on November 17th, 2008

Saying "times it by 5" instead of "multiply it by 5". Makes me want to rip my eyes out of their sockets.

And what about the dreaded "LIKE". So I was, like, talking to Bob and he was really, like, drunk you know? And so he goes, 'hey, like, wanna get another beer...?'

Elane (not verified)

at 11:07 on November 24th, 2008

Can we please retire "last but not least" and "don't work too hard" please? please? oh, and if you don't want the Maraschino cherry in your drink and offer it to someone else, would everyone please refrain from hilarious comments about giving away your cherry? Thank you!

roy thompson (not verified)

at 04:28 on November 28th, 2008

I do agree with all your comments on the message board and if I may I would like to add my most hateful sounding cliche "in actual fact". What is fact if it isn't actual?

Also has anyone noticed the latest error in grammar? The practice of saying "your" instead of "you're"