Well actually, easily a hundred words to eliminate from one’s usage of the English language can be listed! Words and phrases that have become either extremely clichéd and overused by now, or are too often wrongly used, or are really too basic and inexpressive to be used by even a moderately literate person. But here I will not list a hundred, but only my top 10 ones to be consciously given a wide berth verbally and in writing. You may not agree with all of them and are welcome to draw up (and put into practice!) your own Top 10 list of words and phrases to be shunned.

And hey, if you do have a separate list to recommend, do post as a comment to this post, for the larger benefit of all

My Top 10 Words and Phrases to AVOID, in alphabetical order:

1. AWESOME

Clearly, ‘awesome’ should be something that totally awes you. And unless you are awed quite easily, you really should not be describing something as awesome when it is clearly not really awesome! I am not impressed by people who frequently utter ‘awesome’ in their conversation. Without meaning to be facetious at all, I just conclude that these people are not readers. The last book they probably read was 10 years ago, and going further, was probably a self-help genre book – 7 or 9 or 11 rules / practices which promise the reader glory and success! Please note that in such ‘number’ books, so to speak, the number is mostly an odd number. I guess an odd number adds a subliminal perception of breaking free from the norms to the formula being peddled, and hence makes the book more appealing to the lost of the world seeking a quick fix solution to their woes.

2. BASICALLY

I am astonished at the number of people who will start every other sentence of theirs in a conversation or discussion with the word ‘basically.’ So far I have resisted the urge to shake any of them by the shoulders and yell out, ‘can you please get beyond the basics please?’

3. GUYS

Ugh! Now this is really a Plebian word, usage of which has very sadly gone global. Decades ago, ‘guys’ meant males and ‘gals’ meant female, in the U.S. of A of course. Back on this side of the Pond, men were colloquially referred to as lads and women were lasses or ladies. Now the word guys has become a unisex word all over the world. And of course in our native language a guy is a cow. What a trashy word this is; without any character. Consider the alternatives for ‘you guys’: folks, you people, you good people, you all, friends, colleagues, you gentlemen (if the ‘guys’ being addressed are all males), you ladies, ladies and gentlemen …. and more I am sure you yourself can think of with a little effort;  alternative words that can be used instead of guy or guys, each much more appropriate for a specific occasion or a specific communication.

4. NICE

A long, long time ago, when I was an ‘O’ Levels student at St. Patrick’s High School in Karachi (before moving on to Aitchison College Lahore for ‘A’ Levels), there was a practice in those times of young male and female teachers from the U.K. coming across to Pakistan to teach for several years. Cannot recall now if they came as volunteers or under some UK aid programme or for a personal sharing in the White Man’s Burden, or whatever.

One such British teacher, Mr. Flanders, taught us English for ‘O’ Levels in St. Pat’s. I can still recall he had long orange-blond hair, almost down to his shoulders (almost in the hippie style of the late 1960s and early 1970s); was about 30 years of age or under, friendly enough but with an unusual propensity to chuck the blackboard duster randomly at any student in the classroom who was caught talking or who couldn’t answer one of his questions. In spite of this, we all liked and even admired Mr. Flanders.

One pronouncement of Mr. Flanders, made one day in conversation with a few of us, got firmly etched into my brain and I remember this even 40 years later, as clearly as if he had said it yesterday.

“Nice is a lazy word,” Mr. Flanders had said sagely and with a tone of finality. Don’t know about the other students present then, but these 5 words sank into my brain forever.

So there is the first word to discard from your lexicon – NICE. Nice is indeed a ‘lazy’ word. We say ‘nice’ so often, almost as a default response to anything or anyone which pleases us. Nice person, nice food, nice place, nice clothes, nice car, et al. Isn’t it so very boring, when each experience can be described by some other single word that conveys meaningfully what we have actually felt?

5. ON THE SAME PAGE

Oh God! I have sworn that the next time someone uses this phrase in a meeting, I will walk out.

6. YOU KNOW

You know that people, perhaps even you, tend to say ‘you know’ sometimes much too often. . Someone asks you something. You are not sure what you should reply. And you end up replying something totally banal like, ‘It was nice, you know.’ Double blasphemy!  It’s a convenient thing to say when you are unable to elaborate for instance. It’s an escape phrase when you are at a loss for words. Question is: should you ever be at a loss for words?

7. NO PROBLEM

This phrase is invariably used in our speech quite inappropriately. You say ‘thank you’ to a person for a task or favour done, and the person replies ‘no problem.’ And do you feel happy or at ease hearing this? Doesn’t it sound insincere and a mere formality? Wouldn’t you rather hear the person say ‘you are welcome’, or ‘my pleasure’ or even ‘it’s nothing really’?

8. SYNERGY

Unlike nice, Synergy is an expressive word. Sadly it has been used and abused to death, in corporate communications especially but also otherwise. So much so that the promise inherent in the word, of great things happening through cooperation or teamwork or blending expertise and talent for a common goal, has almost completely lost its …. promise!

9. TRUST ME

Don’t know about you, but every time someone tells me ‘trust me’, an alarm goes off in my mind and the first thought that comes is that I cannot really trust this person! Do you feel like this too, at least sometimes?

10. TO DIE FOR

This phrase is even more lethal than ‘awesome’! If mediocre or just above average things are described as ‘awesome’, it is painful alright. Because, as said earlier, these do not really create awe as such. But if these same things or others are described as ‘to die for’ by someone at the drop of a hat, then you really have to question the speaker’s acumen, judgment, intelligence, possible biases, emotional stability, et cetera, et cetera.

I grant this is a fashionable and clever sounding phrase. But seriously, how many things will you really be ready to die for? Will you die to have a particular chocolate soufflé for instance?

So there you go – my list of 10 words and phrases you can really do without. The alarming trait of these, to add to the misery of hearing or reading these is that these words are also highly addictive! Use these even a little often and they develop deep roots at the tip of your tongue, ready to spew out almost on their own even before you have decided what you want to say.

There are about 171,000 words in the English language. Surely these 10 can be dropped from usage and plentiful other alternatives can be used instead.