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AIBU?

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Original poster

About people who talk in cliches?

89 replies

Ritascornershop · 22/09/2019 16:50

My exhusband and I are from different English-speaking countries (think Australia and Scotland or England and America etc). So when I met him (& was quite young) I don’t think I noticed that he talks in cliches as I likely put it down to him being fascinatingly foreign.

It’s difficult to explain, but it’s like he can’t speak more than a couple of sentences without falling back on cliches/idioms/figures of speech. It’s almost like he is from another planet and trying to copy human speech but “over-shooting the mark” as he’d put it.

Fortunately I don’t have to interact with him anymore, but I’m curious about this way of using speech. Is it lack of original thought, habit, class, intelligence? I don’t notice it with anyone else (outside his family!).

OP posts:
WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 25/09/2019 06:48

I start to feel uncharacteristically violent every time somebody says "So no pressure, then!"

Unless they are diagnosing a completely flat tyre or a boiler/water system requiring attention, in which case it's a perfectly acceptable thing to declare, it's always trotted out as if it's such a witty and original thing to say - "It's REALLY, REALLY amusing, though, because.... IN FACT, you actually WILL be feeling quite a lot of pressure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

CalishataFolkart · 23/09/2019 17:09

“The situation we have is that yet again J has not done their job properly but will not be pulled up on this and will continue to be employed. D has employed unsuitable people (again) and P will manipulate everything to get stuff done the way he wants. We will all have to cover this, the job will get done and nothing will change.”

Or, to put it another way - “It is what it is.”

dexterslockedintheshedagain · 23/09/2019 17:03

Good to see we're all on the same page 🤣🤣🤣

species5618 · 23/09/2019 16:56

And the current trend of starting every sentence with so

FartnissEverbeans · 23/09/2019 16:42

@SerenDippitty Ugh ‘going forward’! I fucking hate that phrase! Going forward as opposed to what? Bending time and space and actually moving backwards??

‘Over the moon’ too, that’s a classic

Ohyesiam · 23/09/2019 16:40

Do you remember when people used to constantly say that things had “gone a bit pear shaped “,and they either found it really cute or funny or something because they looked like they’d said something clever.

Man, I used to HATE that

edsheeranpaidmoretaxthanccola · 23/09/2019 16:33

I am terrible for 'actually' and 'apparently' but I'm trying to use them lessWink

SerenDippitty · 23/09/2019 16:15

“Going forward” - what’s wrong with in future or from now on? And “ahead of” - what’s wrong with before?

Lagatha · 23/09/2019 15:54

*puppet instead of poppet

Lagatha · 23/09/2019 15:54

My husband is not a native English speaker and sometimes when he uses idioms he gets it slightly wrong so he says "whatever have you " instead of what have you. I don't have the heart to tell him. He also says puppet instead of puppet. Which really amuses me.

LaLoba · 23/09/2019 15:39

Um, “think” whatever is one of the more irritating cliched forms of expression on MN. Like people need help imagining two different English speaking countries?
I can see the irritant factor (especially in an ex husband!), but I think we all have idiosyncrasies of speech which someone could be annoyed by.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 23/09/2019 15:37

I often wonder at what point in their lives people start to speak like this, as you don't hear children doing it. And do they continue to do it with their friends/partner/children? (Probably.)

Original poster
Ritascornershop · 23/09/2019 15:29

Vulpine, no, that would not be my preferred alternative. I’d prefer people put sentences together mostly using original phrasing with the occasional idiom etc thrown in.

OP posts:
Vulpine · 23/09/2019 14:35

Op - Would you prefer it if we all spoke in newspeak, the language of the totalitarian state of oceania?

Original poster
Ritascornershop · 23/09/2019 14:05

Yes! Mrs T and Norma with the car share, this was him. Somehow he often also managed to be verbally abusive while talking like this.

OP posts:
thecatsthecats · 23/09/2019 12:12

I say 'it is as it is' in Spanish. But only because I learned that apparently if you spell SOCKS out loud it sounds almost perfect, and it amuses me to do so.

GBroGal · 23/09/2019 11:53

That's the way the cookie crumbles
Anyone remember the Jack Lemmon film - think it was The Apartment - where he says "that's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise"? I've always preferred his version of that cliche.

AlexaAmbidextra · 23/09/2019 09:31

YABU on so many levels. 😂

DarkMutterings · 23/09/2019 09:23

A couple of weeks ago someone told me I always say 'to be fair' - I had no idea I said it so often Blush
Now I'm so bloody conscious of it, I keep stumbling halfway through sentences.
(I like to be fair, I like to give both sides of argument... bah Grin)

familycourtq · 23/09/2019 09:15

Chilling. Everything on here lately is chilling.

NormaLouiseBates · 23/09/2019 09:13

Anyone watch Car Share when it was on? Grin

Hello, Dave.
'John, it's Dave.
Listen, FYI, 'I've just had Colin on from CJK 'and he's thrown us a bit of a curveball at the 11th hour.
'He said that the earliest he can get it to us will be close of play.
'Wednesday.
Now, do you think you can run with that?' Wednesday? Oh, it's going to be tight.
It's going to be touch and go.
I don't think we'll have enough boots on the ground to wrap our heads around it.
We don't want to paint ourselves into a corner, Dave.
'I hear you loud and clear, John, 'but we need to close the loop on this.
If we hit the ground running 'on Wednesday, I think it'll be win-win.
'But we need to keep our powder dry.
We can't afford to drop 'the ball at this late stage of the game.
' Yeah, agreed.
We're going to have to go belt and braces on this.
I'll speak to the rest of the team, A-SAP.
I'm sure they'll go that extra mile.
'We need 110%, John, nothing less.
' You'll get it, Dave.

BillywilliamV · 23/09/2019 09:12

My DD has s french oral exam today, I was checking she could say “literally” in French, otherwise she will be struck dumb...literally!

Fookinwot · 23/09/2019 09:04

Here -

Grin
Fookinwot · 23/09/2019 09:03

Reminds me of that Star Trek episode where Picard has to decipher an alien language where they use only metaphors 😂 “Damok and Jalad at Tanegra!”

FloatingObject · 23/09/2019 09:00

The one I hate is "you don't get to...." in a debate. Sounds like an entitled American child