‘It Is What It Is’: More Annoying Phrases to Avoid

123 responses to “‘It Is What It Is’: More Annoying Phrases to Avoid”

1. “To make a long story short,” You just made the long story longer.

2. My Fav is irregardless. The correct word is regardless

3. “All that to say”, “organic”

4. “To be honest with you” implies everything else you’ve said is a lie

5. …ellipses… …are… …over…used… …universally………

   “Boil the ocean” – as in, “Hey – we need a short term fix here. We’re not trying to boil the ocean…”

   “Circle the wagons” – “Great idea! Pull in your players and we can circle the wagons on that one on Monday”

   And the most over-used of them all: “LEVERAGE” – i.e., “If we get the brightest lights aligned on this, I’m sure we can leverage our combined synergies to deliver an impactful message.”

6. “spot on”. Why is it that business-jargon is never really their own…like “bandwidth” , “deep-dive”, dashboard – stolen from physics, scuba and the auto industry, respectively.

7. 1. I don’t know what I don’t know.
   2. “Buttoned up” or “nailed down”; i.e., “We need to have everything buttoned up/nailed down by …”
   3. Let’s noodle on this.

8. Iam amazed that “the new normal” and “It’s all good,” haven’t been mentioned.

9. How did “No worries” and/or “Throw him/her under the bus” not make it on this list!! Worst sayings ever!

10. haha I think the biggest saying I hear all the time is “whatever”

11. “yet today”

12. “The view from 50,000 feet” has always made me wonder where the speaker really is.

13. “Having said that.” Yea, I heard you the first time.

14. “c’est la vie…”

15. How about “the reason is because,” “the reason why,” and “the reason why is because?” Reason, because and why all have the same definition, making such sentences redundancies. Sadly a majority of the population uses this!

16. So true, actually! Same goes for “You know what I mean!” I thought I was the only one who thought that way!

17. “Really?” “Seriously?” “Don’t go there” “Been there, done that” “In the zone” “Man up” “Step up””At the end of the day” “Just sayin” “Throw under the bus” “Game on” “Go big or go home” All these phrases should be punishable by castration

18. “It is what it is”. If ever there were a reason for justifiable homicide.

19. Moving forward at the end of the day, I dislike how politicians use catchphrases to avoid answering even the most simple questions.

20. Other ignorant phrases and misuses: “going forward,” “lay” instead of “lie” to indicate reclining, “the both of us” instead of the correct either “both of us” or “the two of us,” and “snuck” instead of “sneaked.”

21. Hah! Yes, that phrase is really irritating!

22. “This, that and the other/the 3rd.” [I’m surprised no-one has said this.]
    “It is what it is.”
    “So to speak.”
    “Believe you me.”
    “I won’t be a minute”, “Give me a second/two seconds.”
    “What-have-you.”
    “Brouhaha.”
    “Quote-unquote.”
    “Neither here nor there.”
    “For the life of me.” [“I can’t remember that song for the life of me.” Sounds really dramatic.]
    “More fool me/you.”

23. Along with phrases, I’m going to include a few horrid singular words in here too:

    “Begs the question”
    “Let’s touch base”
    “Be proactive”
    “Fake News”
    “Strong, independent woman” (a good thing, but a horribly dated and robotic phrase that was overused to death by 1994)
    “Just sayin'”
    “My bad”
    “Irregardless”
    “I, personally”
    ____ has “dropped” a new recording
    “Disrupting the market”, “market disruptor”
    “Woke”
    “Buthurt”
    “Libtard”