Transcripts

Paul Yeager:
"It goes without saying" is invariably followed by saying whatever it is they say that they didn't want to say. It's the same with "I'm not one to complain, but..."

Paul Yeager, author of the book Literally the Best Language Book Ever, says we often use phrases that don't really convey what we're trying to say.

The purpose of the book is not so much to literally rid the language of these annoying words, phrases, and expressions. But to get us all to think about what we're saying, how we're saying it and why we're saying it.

Another phrase people often use is "I could care less." Paul says that is saying exactly the opposite of what you're probably trying to say.

Because what you're trying to say is that I could not possibly care less than I do - and when you say " I could care less" you're actually saying, "Well, I must care, some".

And think about the word irregardless…

Irregardless is a classic redundancy because regardless is the word that's been used for generations and generations and it means without regard. The prefix "ir" means not, so it's naturally redundant to have a word "irregardless" which means without regard and word "regardless" which means without regard.

And another phrase Paul isn't too wild about is…

"I have a lot on my plate," because it doesn't give any particulars about what you're doing or how busy you are, it just generically says, "I'm busy." And I think there are probably better ways to deal with that.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.