"George Orwell's advice from 1946 is still worth following: 'Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.'"
The most irritating cliches in English:
1.
At the end of the day
2.
Second place in the vote was shared by "At this moment in time" and the constant use of "like" as if it were a form of punctuation.
3.
With all due respect
The following terms also received multiple nominations:
24/7
absolutely
address the issue
around (in place of "about")
awesome
ballpark figure
basically
basis ("on a weekly basis" in place of "weekly" and so on)
bear with me
between a rock and a hard place
blue sky (thinking)
boggles the mind
bottom line
crack troops
diamond geezer
epicentre (used incorrectly)
glass half full (or half empty)
going forward
I hear what you're saying..
in terms of...
it's not rocket science
literally
move the goal-posts
ongoing
prioritise
pushing the envelope
singing from the same hymn sheet
the fact of the matter is
thinking outside the box
to be honest/to be honest with you/to be perfectly honest
touch base
up to (in place of "about")
value-added (in general use)
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/pressrelease.html
The most irritating cliches in English:
1.
At the end of the day
2.
Second place in the vote was shared by "At this moment in time" and the constant use of "like" as if it were a form of punctuation.
3.
With all due respect
The following terms also received multiple nominations:
24/7
absolutely
address the issue
around (in place of "about")
awesome
ballpark figure
basically
basis ("on a weekly basis" in place of "weekly" and so on)
bear with me
between a rock and a hard place
blue sky (thinking)
boggles the mind
bottom line
crack troops
diamond geezer
epicentre (used incorrectly)
glass half full (or half empty)
going forward
I hear what you're saying..
in terms of...
it's not rocket science
literally
move the goal-posts
ongoing
prioritise
pushing the envelope
singing from the same hymn sheet
the fact of the matter is
thinking outside the box
to be honest/to be honest with you/to be perfectly honest
touch base
up to (in place of "about")
value-added (in general use)
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/pressrelease.html
I'm the son of rage and love.
Maybу one should try to use them as rarely as possible replacing such cliches with synonymic equivalents.