Readers have responded to a recent discussion on superfluous words (Letters, 19 June) by highlighting their own pet linguistic peeves. Teresa Rodrigues from Crediton, Devon, noted that her MA thesis examined the use of the word “so” in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, where it appears 52 times—about five times less frequently than in his other plays. She explained that “so” functioned as a speech act, a word that does rather than says something, and was often used when the character Prospero performed magic.
Estate agents and corporate jargon
Dave Young from St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, criticized the word “stunning,” which he says has been appropriated almost exclusively by estate agents to misdescribe anything from a bog-standard semi-detached house to a view over a car park. He also objected to the media and businesses “reaching out” instead of contacting people, and the phrase “going forward” replacing “in future.”
Regional and grammatical quirks
Steve Bamford from Littlehampton, West Sussex, defended the phrase “I was sat,” which Tony Hill had criticized. Bamford noted that this construction is normal in parts of northern England and has equivalents in French (j’étais assis) and Spanish (estaba sentado). Marion Doyen from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, recalled a friend in Nottingham who used both “I was stood standing” and “I was sat sitting,” which she found perfectly sensible.
New arrivals and cricketing prefaces
James Cassidy from Norwich expressed annoyance at the term “landed,” used by new colleagues to mean something has arrived. Pete Urwin from Stockport, Greater Manchester, added “look” (a preface popular with Australians and adopted by England’s cricketers), “amazing” (a barista’s reaction to ordering coffee), “journey” (overused for everything except its intended meaning), and “we” (as in “How are we today?” when addressing a single person).
The literal truth
Bashyr Aziz from Walsall, West Midlands, stated that the most unnecessarily used word is “literally,” as in most sentences its inclusion makes no difference to the meaning. Pete Lavender from Nottingham detests “my bad,” used as a euphemism for “I’m sorry, I made a mistake,” calling it a bastardisation of the English language.
