4 ms·

A few other similarly annoying phrases: - "In light of recent events" - "Due to unforeseen circumstances" - "It has become necessary" Am I missing any?

duxup 7y ago
I always thought those were phrases for. "Look we don't want to go into the specifics of what did or didn't happen and hell we might not even know .... but here's the bad news...".
jbay808 7y ago
"In these difficult economic times"
jrockway 7y ago
"Thanks in advance." Why not thank me now?
- philwelch 7y ago
  "Thanks in advance" is kind of like the no-smoking signs that they changed to say "thank you for not smoking". Normally you thank someone after they do something, but by thanking them "in advance", you're passive-aggressively pressuring them to do the thing. After all, you've already thanked them, so they owe it to you.
- rglullis 7y ago
  Isn't "Thanks in advance" precisely a way of saying "I am thanking you now for something I am expecting will be done only in the (near) future"?
- draw_down 7y ago
  That’s what it is. Thank you now for the thing you will do later. Come on. Basic stuff here
pet-peeve 7y ago
Not related in spirit to the post, but I really dislike reading the phrase "That being said" and "Having said that" I see it more and more as time passes; news articles, blogs, reddit posts, hacker news replies.
swixmix 7y ago
These sound more like passive voice problems. It might seem silly, but the military has many good resources for writers. A silly one, for example: https://www.armywriter.com/NCOER/bmw.pdf https://www.armywriter.com/NCOER/bmw.pdf It also touches on when not to use passive voice. :)
- Sniffnoy 7y ago
  None of these examples are passive constructions! (The first two don't even involve verbs.) Apologies for possibly being pedantic, but I do think this is necessary to point out. A lot of people seem to think that "passive" refers to statements that are vague about agency, or often something else vaguely along those lines. But active-vs-passive has nothing to do with that! Now one could say, well, that's just not how people are using the word "passive" these days; but the thing is, I don't think whatever notion people are trying to express via "passive" is a useful one. Sometimes it means "vague about who's responsible", but often it doesn't; I don't think there's a useful notion worth salvaging in there. Anyway for way more on this you can see Geoff Pullum's article on it[1], or the whole "passives" category[2] on Language Log... [1]http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf [2]https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=54 https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=54
  - swixmix 7y ago
    Thank you.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
throwaway3neu94 7y ago
"Thoughts and prayers"

duxup 7y ago

I always thought those were phrases for. "Look we don't want to go into the specifics of what did or didn't happen and hell we might not even know .... but here's the bad news...".

jbay808 7y ago

"In these difficult economic times"

jrockway 7y ago

"Thanks in advance." Why not thank me now?

philwelch 7y ago
"Thanks in advance" is kind of like the no-smoking signs that they changed to say "thank you for not smoking". Normally you thank someone after they do something, but by thanking them "in advance", you're passive-aggressively pressuring them to do the thing. After all, you've already thanked them, so they owe it to you.
rglullis 7y ago
Isn't "Thanks in advance" precisely a way of saying "I am thanking you now for something I am expecting will be done only in the (near) future"?
draw_down 7y ago
That’s what it is. Thank you now for the thing you will do later. Come on. Basic stuff here

pet-peeve 7y ago

Not related in spirit to the post, but I really dislike reading the phrase "That being said" and "Having said that" I see it more and more as time passes; news articles, blogs, reddit posts, hacker news replies.

swixmix 7y ago

These sound more like passive voice problems. It might seem silly, but the military has many good resources for writers. A silly one, for example: https://www.armywriter.com/NCOER/bmw.pdf https://www.armywriter.com/NCOER/bmw.pdf It also touches on when not to use passive voice. :)

Sniffnoy 7y ago
None of these examples are passive constructions! (The first two don't even involve verbs.) Apologies for possibly being pedantic, but I do think this is necessary to point out. A lot of people seem to think that "passive" refers to statements that are vague about agency, or often something else vaguely along those lines. But active-vs-passive has nothing to do with that! Now one could say, well, that's just not how people are using the word "passive" these days; but the thing is, I don't think whatever notion people are trying to express via "passive" is a useful one. Sometimes it means "vague about who's responsible", but often it doesn't; I don't think there's a useful notion worth salvaging in there. Anyway for way more on this you can see Geoff Pullum's article on it[1], or the whole "passives" category[2] on Language Log... [1]http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf [2]https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=54 https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=54
- swixmix 7y ago
  Thank you.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

throwaway3neu94 7y ago

"Thoughts and prayers"