Every few months well-studied (and somewhat grumpy) grammarians publish a list of overused quotes, lazy language and/or misused phrases. These clichés don’t often appear in written form, but roll off the tongues of the masses countless times every day.

Besides the obvious overuse of the words “like” and “ya know,” I have my own list of currently overused and meaningless phrases that make me cringe. Making my list:

  • “I’m just saying…” An old friend pointed this one out; it’s utterly pointless. Even worse, I’ve found myself using it. It adds nothing to a conversation.
  • “It is what it is.” What is the meaning of this phrase? It always makes me feel like I’ve been duped, or worse, a situation is totally hopeless and beyond change.
  • “Whatever.” Rumor has it that this word, when uttered by a pre-teen, really means something else entirely that can’t be printed. Whenever someone utters “whatever” with no other words, it’s never a good thing.
  • “At the end of the day…” I can’t say that I hate this phrase, because someone very near and dear to me uses it – a lot – during business calls. I often count how many times I hear it during a single discussion.
  • “For all intents and purposes…” Good thing we’ve included ALL intents and purposes.  There could be a few we forgot!

listen up: ears really are strange looking if you think about it

These phrases begin to

[sorry] “fall on deaf ears”. We use them so often we don’t even truly hear or assimilate them anymore. It makes me feel like our communications and expressions have all become the same – we’ve lost our originality and communications creativity. We are describing life in a series of franchise phrases – turning our observations into mass retail outlets and rows of “Golden Arches.”

I confess that I am entertained and a bit envious when I first hear a great movie line or pop culture phrase used accurately or sarcastically to describe some mundane aspect of “real life.” For example, my husband used to tell me before I’d leave for a weekend getaway that I couldn’t leave or “all the plants will die.” Well, my amusement evaporated quickly when I realized this phrase was uttered by Bill Murray’s slacker character from the movie “Stripes” (not to mention the fact that my husband prefers the plants dead anyway). However, I admit that choosing that quip when I was walking out the door for a few days was clever and original (the first time).

So perhaps it shouldn’t bother me that I find myself using these tired, meaningless phrases on occasion – after all, history has shown they will come and go. Which leaves me uttering a particular current favorite of mine – which I haven’t yet tired of hearing: “No worries.”