10 expressions that don't belong in your vocabulary

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Are you also afraid to suffer a "complete fiasco"?

You've probably heard expressions like "vacancy" or "work colleague" more than once. And most likely, they felt that something was wrong with them. You were absolutely right: these are pleonasms - speech excesses, phrases in which words are duplicated in meaning. They pollute the text, making it look watery and increasing the reading time. So pleonasms must be ruthlessly eliminated. Here is some of them.

1. Top priority

The word "priority" already implies headship. After all, the meaning of the lexeme is “primacy, preferential right to something”. Priority cannot be, for example, secondary - it will already be an oxymoron. This means that the lexeme "main" from this phrase should be thrown out.

2. Valuable treasures

Let's take a look at the dictionary and see the meaning of the word "treasure": "precious thing, precious thing, money." We do not say “valuable jewel” or “valuable money”. Therefore, it is not necessary to put this adjective next to the "treasure". But it is quite possible to say "priceless treasure" - that is, such that has no value.

3. Complete fiasco

"Fiasco" means complete failure. You cannot say "complete complete failure". This means that "complete fiasco" is the same nonsense. But the failure may well be complete, absolute, enchanting.

4. Unusual phenomenon

Here's a similar story. The phenomenon is already something unusual. Therefore, if you want to enhance the effect, say "rare occurrence", "amazing incident" or "outlandish event".

5. An unexpected surprise

The lexeme "surprise" is derived from the French surprendre - to surprise. Dictionary meaning is an unexpected gift. And there is clearly no need to duplicate the adjective "unexpected".

6. The most optimal

I just want to insert an extra word for balance and emphasize that the option or choice is really the best. Exactly, exactly. But this is not worth doing - "optimal" already means "the most acceptable, favorable". So decide: either the optimal or the most successful.

7. Government official

Perhaps we are using pleonasms because we want to give weight and significance to words. “State official” sounds much more important, but if you look into the dictionary, you can immediately see that this is absurd. An official, by definition, is a civil servant, and there is no need to point this out again.

8. Hospitalize in a hospital

This turnover is very fond of news journalists. "The actor was diagnosed with a heart attack, after which he was urgently admitted to the hospital." Sound familiar? But “to hospitalize” means “to be hospitalized” anyway. Therefore, you need to choose one thing - either "hospitalize" or "put in a hospital."

9. Temporary deferral

In saying this, we seem to want to reassure the interlocutor - for example, the boss or the teacher - that, although we did not complete the task on time, very soon we will fix it. Therefore, we make an additional emphasis to once again emphasize that the postponement is not for long. But "to postpone" already means "to do something after the appointed time." So avoid repetition and immediately set deadlines - "please give me a week's delay."

10. To incriminate guilt

Again a news stamp, and even with a lexical error. To incriminate - to bring an accusation. Therefore, instead of "he was charged with taking a bribe", you just need to say "he was charged with a bribe."