Greg wrote:You know what literally drives me up the wall? When you are in the middle of a conversation with somebody and they start a sentence or statement with "I'll be honest with you......" Wait a minute, have you been lying for all the rest of the time I've known you? Cause, I'll be honest with you, that's a silly thing to say, to be honest!
Indeed. As if they weren't being honest before!
God bless her, I have an aunt who starts conversations with, "I was going to say..." which also irritates me to no end. But being family, I have to tolerate it.
Truly, "really" is really just a version of "truly". I have nothing against the use of "truly". But some people would think using "truly" to be really arcane.
SplatterTone wrote:Truly, "really" is really just a version of "truly". I have nothing against the use of "truly". But some people would think using "truly" to be really arcane.
I find such thinking to be truly antediluvian
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
Any intensive is just that, an intensive. It's just a word to put in front of an exclamation point. It has no real meaning outside the context, even if the intensive word does have its own meaning in a non-intensive context. Next time you are tempted to use an intensive, ask yourself if one of the classic 4-letter words would be appropriate, or at least not discounted with disfavor, at being said in its place. If the use of the 4-letter word would be deprecated, the intensive you were about to use probably would be also, or at the very least add nothing to the conversation, and most likely would be a distraction rather than an addition to the meaning of the conversation.
Bob and David of Mr. Show wrote:"I literally sh*t my pants!"
"What did you do with your sh*tty pants?"
"No, dude. I didn't actually sh*t my pants, I literally sh*t them".
bloke wrote:When (very recently categorized as) slang, such as "bust" and "chops", has so quickly wormed its way into proper English, what's a sloppy adverb here and there?