About people who talk in cliches?

[Ritascornershop]

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!).

Why would you assume that a dislike of something automatically means that the disliker feels superior?

Because of the OP:

Is it lack of original thought, habit, class, intelligence?

You dislike people using just the basic words in conversation

Interesting that you make that assumption, having commented on what you assume I am assuming.

We I find it really irritating when posters write something about themselves but then don't what to share the details so they write "think.... blah blah blah" as an example 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I think you have to take the rough with the smooth.

This is not a new thing. I can remember my mother, many years ago, getting riled up about the expression 'by and large' and how completely meaningless it was: 'by what and how large' was her question.

She'd also get quite cross when the radio announcer - Radio 4 - announced 'it's almost exactly' (5o'clock): 'it's either almost or exactly, it can't be both' was her observation on that one.

God knows how she'd have coped with today's speech with its glaringly poor grammar such as 'should of, could of'. I suspect the poor woman's head would have exploded.

Touched out is one that I hate. It doesn't even make sense!

I don't think most people would judge somebody or look down on them if they have learning difficulties, struggle academically in general or just casually use cliches as part of their unremarkable everyday speaking. Also, if English is not their first language, people well understand that (except for the idiots who go on holiday to Spain and complain that everybody keeps speaking Spanish).

As PPs have said (including me), worst of all are the people who use tired old cliches so smugly and clearly believe that they're being jaunty or showing their own cleverness - maybe even trying to suggest that their use of hackneyed old phrases is actually what marks them out as better than others who don't.

By far the worst offenders are those at very highly-paid management levels - roles which you'd assume should require a high level of intelligence and, more importantly, an ability to think originally and independently to make bold business decisions. Instead, though, most up them demonstrate the exact opposite and push the envelope, park the macro, run things up the flagpole, sing from the same hymnsheet and, ironically, don't see the irony in practising the exact same 'blue-sky thinking' as almost every other CEO/senior manager in almost every other company.

most up them

most of them

I was going to say that I hate it when posters say "think Australia and Scotland" because we are all too thick to know what different English speaking countries are but someone got there before me.

I do hate "put my big girl pants on" though.

@BillywilliamV
run this up my flagpole and see who salutes - never heard this one before!!! Love it!!

It is what it is.

I tend to fall back on clichés when I have to take my turn in the conversation but everything I am thinking is socially unacceptable to say out loud, such as "I find you boring" or "Your views are repellent" or "how is this my problem?"

The grass may be greener, but it still needs mowing.

Most of you may have understood straightaway what I meant by “English-speaking countries” but I know that most of the people I’ve worked with would struggle to grasp what that meant. So I thought it wouldn’t hurt to give examples.