Have you ever noticed.....

[trt]

the past few years that people being interviewed on TV, whether they are Politicians, especially Footballers and Celebs, always keep saying when asked a Q '' Well I Mean ''.

It really annoys me because if they didn't mean it, they wouldn't be saying it!!!!

[mike11111]

Well, you know like, what I mean is, what I am actually saying, when the chips are down, at the end of the day, not to put too fine a point on it, and no beating about the bush is that it's a load of botox, ain't it, so there you are!

Such meaningless expressions are common to all languages. I remember as a student of Russian in the Soviet Union during the 70s being rebuked by my Russian tutor for using what she termed 'parasitic' words. I think it is a mechanism to allow the speaker to gather his thoughts before he says what he wants to say.

[ELVIS68]

Or Adrian Chiles doing match of the day and saying " Well Fabregas got the ball and err passed it to err Walcott and err he err passed it err to Bentner who err scored"

[trt]

Thats another one that annoys me Elvis, err, Wenger is worst for that.

[mike11111]

Whilst I agree in principle, can anyone honestly say that they never use 'err' or 'um' in conversation whilst trying to gather their thoughts? I know I do, even though I wish I didn't.

[Jan1957]

No, I'm absolutely err..... perfick.

[starone]

There are bound to be things that annoy. If I see or hear "methinks" (written or said) instead of I think I turn right away and don't engage in conversation. However, I know I annoy with certain speech patterns which I find it difficult to get rid of. "Oh my god" is one of them. You know said at intervals can be quite annoying too. I'm sure there are many more.

[Bbbananas]

Oh dear - I am guilty of (on here, not in real life) writing 'methinks' !!

[starone]

Didn't notice that with you Salla and it doesn't make you any less nice, especially since you got rid of that awful avatar. Everyone has speech habits that are difficult to get rid of and if I don't like methinks, that's my problem. If you like it you must take no notice of me and go on using it. I'm only a silly old biddy anyway.

[Bbbananas]

It's not that I particularly like it - I never use it in 'real life' speech - it's just that sometimes on here I get all flowery and Shakespearian !

I hate the word 'something' said as 'summat'.

[oscarina]

Also noticed Newsreaders when interviewing they'll end with thank you very much indeed and linger on the much indeed, just say Thank You for the interview or Thank You for talking to us.

[starone]

Definitely, yes Salla. Summat is a particularly annoying thing with me too. I looked in the dictionary to see if it was actually a word (some of them are). It is not in mine (Collins) although there may be larger dictionaries which contain it. In writing I use brackets rather a lot, that may annoy some people, but I don't think I can stop it even though I know I do it.

[boxtops]

Yep, it's a thought thing, trying to fill the empty space. People who stop to marshal their thoughts before they speak often feel they sound a bit slow - so they fill in.