# Verbal filler that are just the worst. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 30, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121 "2017-08-30T18:53:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/21 "2017-08-30T22:10:58Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Am I the only one who isn’t bothered by verbal filler in general? I’m close, minus the one very occasional peeve above. And the thing about “fuckin’” without the “g,” I’m completely opposite on that. To me, it sounds downright weird (or extra hateful) if I hear the “g” at the end of “fucking.” As filler, it should always be “fuckin’” no “g.” Adding the “g” means you’re _really_ fucking pissed. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/22 "2017-08-30T22:23:18Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I used to game with a guy who started every sentence with “Basically, …” > > He was the GM, so I couldn’t throw dice at him. To be fair, GMing requires a lot of thinking and talking at the same time. My GM friend has some verbal fillers that show up mostly when he is GMing and aren’t that common when he isn’t. My dad who used to be a high-level manager doesn’t use verbal filler at all. That can be more annoying than it sounds, because he just … slows … down … and at some point you can’t be sure if he is going to finish that sentence or not. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/23 "2017-08-30T22:39:13Z")
You know. I understand what you mean, you know? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/24 "2017-08-30T22:39:45Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > My dad who used to be a high-level manager doesn’t use verbal filler at all. That can be more annoying than it sounds, because he just … slows … down … and at some point you can’t be sure if he is going to finish that sentence or not. Come to think of it, I had a friend like that in college and it was really disconcerting to me to hear him speak and he would talk just like the way you describe your father talking. Verbal filler is a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/25 "2017-08-30T23:01:35Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I was in a training class some years back and the instructor was excessively fond of \*basically \*and _essentially_. In a world where I went around giving training classes that could have been me! 😃 I’ve tried to wean myself of the habit. It occurs because basically the speaker… whoops!! Let’s try that again! It often occurs legitimately because the speaker is about to make a simplified statement about a matter that is not possible to sum up simply with complete accuracy, so it expresses an acknowledgement that it’s a simplification that is subject to some caveats. Of course, it’s possible for it to just develop into a meaningless verbal tic, but I can appreciate where it comes from. There are certainly far more annoying verbal tics, knowwhatimean? (I wonder if anyone has ever replied to " knowwhatimean?" with “No, and I don’t give a shit.”?) ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/26 "2017-08-30T23:55:40Z")
“That being said, …” seems to be growing in popularity. I think I may soon find it annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/27 "2017-08-30T23:59:47Z")
So basically, a lot of Dopers are like, you know, in favor of straightforward communication, you know what I mean? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/28 "2017-08-31T00:55:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The only one that sometimes slightly gets to me is “ya know.” A couple here and there are fine, but continual use of it irks me a little. They all get to me. I picked this one because it is the first mention of “ya know/you know” and that phrase had me yelling at the TV this morning. The NY1 traffic reporter used it several times in her short interchange with the anchor and I couldn’t help yelling “You’re a (expletive) professional, speak like one!” I actually notice when I use them, and I try not to, especially after the first. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/29 "2017-08-31T01:28:12Z")
I usually ignore them, but way back in high school I had a Spanish teacher whose tic was unusual enough that I couldn’t help noticing it. Again. “So again,” she’d say, “If you’re conjugating a verb in the subjunctive, then again you’ll want to use these endings. Again there are a lot more times you use the subjunctive than in English.” I once counted over 60 filler agains in a 50-minute lesson. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/30 "2017-08-31T01:37:29Z")
i used to say “right?” after every second sentence because i had speech problems as a kid and it was a way to make sure they understood … until my smart ass granddad started saying “wrong!” every time he heard me do it … i stil ldo it when I’m talking really fast tho ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/31 "2017-08-31T01:43:24Z")
Sort of off-topic, but how about “at the same token” instead of “by the same token?” And… “I’m thinkin’, in my head…” Like, where else? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/32 "2017-08-31T01:59:40Z")
I recall in '08, when Obama spoke off-the-cuff, he would use “um” and “uh” like commas and semi-colons. It was annoying as hell, but someone had trained him out of the habit by mid '09. “Like” as an alternate for “to say” (“_We were like, 'What are you doing???_’”) is not filler, but it is certainly hard to accept. But the one that puts me off is in a debate, when someone starts a response with “_The fact of the matter is_ …”. Utter verbal garbage. “_In point of fact_, …” is just as bad. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/33 "2017-08-31T02:03:22Z")
“To be honest…” (wait, you weren’t being honest before?) ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/34 "2017-08-31T02:52:00Z")
At the end of the day. I knew a guy who would use this every other sentence and ya know, like, so, at the end of the day I just couldn’t stand it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/35 "2017-08-31T03:25:45Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > “Like” as an alternate for “to say” (“_We were like, 'What are you doing???_'”) is not filler, but it is certainly hard to accept. As noted [over here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20449708&postcount=17), it’s been argued that “like” has evolved in contemporary colloquial usage to function as any of three different types of modal marker. IMHO some of this rationalization of faddish groupspeak is bullshit, but there’s no question that there’s an intrinsic linguistic sense to at least some of it, particularly the quotative usage “they were all like, let’s get out of here”. You sound like an Old Testament version of the prescriptivist that I’ve sometimes been accused of being! 😃 If you feel this usage is “hard to accept”, I have to ask: hard to accept by whom, why, and in what context? If my kid talked to me that way all the time I’d probably want to make sure that he didn’t go into an important job interview going “this is, like, the best job ever!” – but that’s a different conversation! My objection to a lot of language abuses is that they arise from plain ignorance and not from a natural evolution of language style, and so are often directly counterproductive. This doesn’t appear to be a clear example of that. > [@eschereal](#): > > But the one that puts me off is in a debate, when someone starts a response with “_The fact of the matter is_ …”. Utter verbal garbage. “_In point of fact_, …” is just as bad. How is this “verbal garbage”? The expression is clearly meant to convey the idea that “while some of the issues here may be contentious, the following must surely be acknowledged as factual …”. The expression may well be misused by some, but it does have a useful meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/36 "2017-08-31T03:26:14Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > At the end of the day. I knew a guy who would use this every other sentence and ya know, like, so, at the end of the day I just couldn’t stand it. Yes. This and “in terms of.” I know we’re drifting from fillers, but when every third or fourth sentence contains “in terms of” then there’s an issue. Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/37 "2017-08-31T03:40:33Z")
Variations of “_ay, pero calla_” said by someone who has been talking nonstop and not letting anybody else get so much as “hi, how are you” worked in. Best translation I can come up with is “oh do shut up”. It tends to signal a change in subject or tack, but not always; often answered by “I wasn’t talking!” ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/38 "2017-08-31T03:59:25Z")
I’m trying to do better, but apparently I use “apparently” way too often. Apparently, that’s not a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/39 "2017-08-31T11:10:20Z")
Some time ago I hung out with a ‘fuckin’’ guy. I once heard him say, "fuck the fuckin’ motherfucker’. I informed him that 75% of the words in his sentence are a variation of ‘fuck’. I also cannot abide “So…” at the beginning of a sentence. It seems that everyone in my world does it. My last contribution (for now) is “I’m not gonna lie…” I respond, “thank you for letting me know when you are being truthful”. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Santelia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Santelia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santelia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121/40 "2017-08-31T11:17:57Z")
Beginning a response with “No” or “Nah”: “You coming to the pub later?” “No, yeah, absolutetly, I’ll see you there” Seems to be most prevalent in Estuary English [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/verbal-filler-that-are-just-the-worst/795121.md?page=3)