Basically. I hate that word: basically. What I mean is I hate hearing people overuse the word “basically”.
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Basically, it’s not only lazy speech. Essentially, you reveal yourself as unprepared or ignorant. Actually, it may also insult your audience.
"Basically", "essentially", and "actually" signal to your audience one of two things. Either you lack the ability to communicate your ideas or, as is more often the case, you lack total understanding of what you are discussing.
Here's an example: "What we do is basically help large institutions make complex decisions. Essentially it's a platform that helps people look through options."
We have all heard summaries and pitches told in this manner. In the example above, I'm left with more questions than I had when I asked what your company does!
Furthermore, using these words may incorrectly signal to your audience that you do not believe they are smart enough to understand what you are talking about. (Whether that is true or not is another discussion altogether.)
— Frank E Pobutkiewicz. Innovator, Educator, and Ecosystem Curator
I’m as guilty as anyone of overusing certain words in my everyday speech. But it just irritates me no end when I hear professionals, or even amateurs on their professional-topic videos, do it. There is even a term for these overused words: crutch words. As Professor Higgins pleadingly queried, “Oh why can’t the English learn to… set a good example?”
Claire Fallon at Huffpost.com:
Writers often beseech us to stop employing overused duds like actually and awesome. Ragan.com even includes a list of alternatives in their anti-awesome screed. Conversation would be more lively if people started throwing out groovy, magnificent, and shazam in place of the omnipresent options like awesome and amazing, but the reality is that language doesn’t tend to work that way. If a movement was made to abandon awesome, most of us would simply gravitate to another easy, catch-all option. Maybe someday we’ll all be saying everything from a delicious cookie to a heart-wrenching documentary is stupendous. And soon, that word will be just as annoying as awesome ever was.
So let’s not go overboard and start banning words. Instead, take our list of overused words as a reminder that sometimes, the words we say don’t mean much. A cookie, to you, may just be awesome, but don’t some occasions deserve more than that? If you really want to express a heartfelt enthusiasm for your best friend’s dream job offer, don’t mindlessly say that it’s awesome, or even add on some cheap emphasis by saying totally awesome (totally technically means “completely, in every part,” but here it would just be a vague note of emphasis). Maybe your friend’s accomplishment is awe-inspiring, or thrilling, or well-deserved, or warms the cockles of your heart. Some thoughts are worth expressing as meaningfully as possible.
Quite possibly. <~~ There’s another one that is fingernails-on-chalkboard to my ears.
Folks, there are no degrees of possible. Something either is, or isn’t, possible. You can’t get a little pregnant. The word possible is absolute. What one means to say when using “quite possible” is “highly probable” and there’s a universe of difference between the two. It is always possible that I may go sky diving some day, but it is never quite possible that I probably won’t.
What’s on your mind today? Are there any crutch words you find particularly irritating? Here’s some music while you think.