Maybe it’s just me, but some extraneous words and phrases bother me like fingernails on chalkboards.

I can’t think of all of them now, but I wanted to start since if I wait until I think of them all, I might never start. I’ll add more as they come to me.

“Go ahead and…”: These words add no value. I think the person using them thinks they make them sound special, but they’re just an affectation. They add no meaning and distract. To say “I’m going to go ahead and start making dinner” means nothing different than “I’m going to start making dinner” except to make the speaker sound wordy and indirect.

“Thank you for that”: It’s rare that it’s not obvious what someone is thanking someone else for. Even if it isn’t obvious “… for that” doesn’t explain or reduce vagueness. If I pass you the salt, it’s obvious if you thank me why you did. If you want to remove ambiguity, you could say, “Thank you for passing the salt.”

“Honestly…”: Once when I started a sentence with “honestly,” someone pointed out that it only implies that I speak dishonestly otherwise. I don’t think I used it again. Sometimes I say, “candidly,” which implies I’m saying something more than I normally would have, but candor differs from honesty and to speak with less candor isn’t as much a problem as speaking dishonestly.

“Utilize” instead of “use”: One of many examples of complex words where simple ones work. This example is a different category than extraneous words, but it came to mind when writing the ones before.

One I’m trying to understand

“… or something”: This one bothers me less because I think it might serve a purpose and I’m trying to figure it out. Some cases seem normal and the phrase means something, like “Would you like a dessert or something?”. Other times it just seems extra words. I can’t think of an example, but if you listen for it, you’ll hear people just add the words after finishing the sentence.

• ← Started a new razor today, my first in almost a year