Adding to the discussion of superfluous words (Letters, 19 June), readers might like to know that my MA thesis many years ago had a section on the use of the word “so” in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in which it is used 52 times, about five times less frequently than in his other plays. This is because it was being used as a speech act, or a word that does rather than says something. I thought that it was deployed mostly when Prospero was doing something magic.
Teresa Rodrigues
Crediton, Devon
“Stunning” has been appropriated almost exclusively by estate agents to misdescribe anything from a bog-standard semi to a view over a car park. Possessed by groupthink, the media and businesses no longer contact anyone – they “reach out”. And don’t get me started on “going forward” replacing “in future”.
Dave Young
St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex
Much as I agree with most of what Tony Hill says about pointless words, I take issue with him over his objection to “I was sat”. As well as being normal parlance in parts of northern England, its equivalent is standard in languages such as French and Spanish (j’étais assis and estaba sentado).
Steve Bamford
Littlehampton, West Sussex
I had a good friend in Nottingham who used to say “I was stood standing” and “I was sat sitting”. It made perfect sense.
Marion Doyen
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
A recent crop of new colleagues use a term that drives me nuts. Instead of saying something has arrived, they say it has “landed”.
James Cassidy
Norwich
Additions to the list of pointless words: “Look” – a preface beloved by Antipodeans and enthusiastically adopted by England’s cricketers. “Amazing” – a barista’s reaction to my ordering a coffee. “Journey” – applicable to everything except its intended meaning. “We” – as in the greeting “How are we today?” when it is obvious there is only me present.
Pete Urwin
Stockport, Greater Manchester
I literally think that the most unnecessarily used word is “literally”. In most sentences with the word “literally”, the inclusion of “literally” literally makes no difference to the meaning or sense of the sentence.
Bashyr Aziz
Walsall, West Midlands
So far, no one has mentioned “my bad”, used as a euphemism for “I’m sorry, I made a mistake”, or similar. Am I the only one that detests this bastardisation of our beautiful English language?
Pete Lavender
Nottingham