Irritating phrases

[Hallandporridgeoats]

I can be reading a great book, and then the author will introduce one of these phrases that I find so irritating...and so many seem to use them.

"She was fiercely independent" or "he was so very tired" or "she loved him so very much". Aargh.

Do you have phrases that you feel this way about?

This one isnt a phrase really but i have just read several Lisa Jewell books sequentially and noticed that she often mentions the smell of a character's scalp. Quite peculiar.

I'd love to learn how to 'pad around' mainly so I know what it actually is, but also so that I can come onto threads like this and say that I 'pad' 😆
I always imagine padding to be akin to the walk baddies do in Scooby Doo etc. weird.

A variation of 'his mouth was an 'o' of surprise'. I swear every child uses this in GCSE English and now when I see the phrase in a real book I want to throw it across the room.

I think the use of "padding" that's stuck with me most (and is the only one that made me feel slightly queasy) was in a column written by AA Gill. He'd just left his wife and started living with his girlfriend and celebrated by writing about how gorgeous his girlfriend was. The phrase "Beauty padding around the flat in a towel" wasn't one of his best moments.

@TheAverageJoanne Weirdly, I can. But it takes practice. Maybe our hero had a monobrow.

DH pads round the house. It is not his most endearing characteristic. Just go where you are going quickly.

I can raise one eyebrow but only the left one. I can only raise the right if I simultaneously frown with the left.
Which looks very odd.

Another irritation (to me, at least) is specific to Jilly Cooper in her later novels.
Despite putting a dramatis personae at the beginning, she still doesn't trust her readers to remember things about her characters.
For example, in "Wicked" (admittedly not one of her finest moments anyway) a pupil called Pearl has a father who - we are soon informed - is a boxer.
Every time he comes up, this is mentioned. Even Pearl talks about "my boxer dad".

There is a respectable theory in phonetics that in English stressed syllables come at about equal intervals: these are the beats. But when there is a pause the beat is silent. See David Abercrombie's essay 'Some functions of silent stress' (in his Fifty years in phonetics) and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen's English speech rhythm: form and function in everyday verbal interaction.

I've just read It Ends With Us to see what all the hype was about - big mistake. Awful. If I read the phrase 'naked truth' ever again then I won't be responsible for my actions......

I came on here to say exactly this.

Either an 'o' of surprise or an 'o' of wonder or something.

It irrationally irritates me! 😂

That's so specific (and quite crap) it's making me laugh imagining it cropping up everywhere

It really is crap 😂 I have seen it many times unfortunately and it makes my teeth itch every time 😂

"A muscle flickered in his cheek"
It's always a man (maybe only they have muscles) and I don't see how they do it.
Continually clenching one's teeth would make the masseter muscles bulge slightly, but then it would be "cheeks".
And, while you might clench your teeth once in moments of emotion, you wouldn't keep making chomping movements.

Ha ha - I came here to add this!

"Padding": Just say "walking"
"So as to...": Just say "to"
"Gazing": Just say "looking"

Novels written in the present tense, unless for very specific scene setting or narrative effect.

Actually this happened to me the other day. Started to get this weird ticking by my jaw. I did think of it in literary terms as it's never happened before, yet I am familiar with it through books. Thought you'd like to know that.
Off to expunge my novel of various phrases....Not saying which.

It’s the Flicker of Frustration!

Bideshi

Gosh! How weird.
The "Flicker of Frustration" (thanks,
Grimgrump) indeed.
I've only ever had something similar just under my eye. It feels like I'm winking but, thankfully, doesn't look like it.

I can't remember the book, but every other page went like this
He looked at her. 'What do you mean?'
She looked at him. 'Isn't it obvious?'
He looked at her thoughtfully. 'Well,' he said...

He/she "ground out" (ie spoke, while annoyed)

LJ Ross has this every other page, and it was in evidence in the Bridgerton books too!

It creates a really unpleasant mental image of crumbled teeth, though that might be just me!!

Oh yes, grinding out is extremely annoying.

"She squeezed his hand"

I've never seen anyone do this ever. An arm around the shoulder or a handhold maybe. But squeezing hands seems to be something done only in books.

I will admit to the occasional hand-squeeze.

Edited - duplicate post

I thought it was only women who padded in books, but the other day I came across a man padding. In a William Boyd, of all things. I thought he was better than that.