Being repetitious. We are all guilty of it. You know how someone might tell the same joke or the same story over and over again — and we listen without saying 
anything? Or someone keeps repeating the same idea, and we just want him or her to get on with it?
Yup. We lose patience with redundancy. And most of us are also guilty of it in our writing — and speaking — but not so blatantly. We aren’t talking about repeating jokes or stories or ideas, but just saying a word or phrase that isn’t necessary because the word next to it means the same thing.
Unless we are getting extra credit for having more words, we really should try to avoid these redundancies. Here are some sentences with common redundancy issues:
- The meeting is at 8 a.m. in the morning. Use a.m. OR morning. You don’t need both.
- This dress I found on sale is completely unique. I guess it’s like being completely pregnant.
- This car is particularly small in size. As opposed to small in color? weight?
- I haven’t finished the first draft of my book as yet. Drop the as.
- I live in close proximity to where I work. As opposed to far proximity? I live close to where I work.
- In my personal opinion, this idea will never work. If it’s yours, it is probably personal.
- Each and every person in this room needs to fill out the forms. Pick one.
- This past year we cut our costs by 25 percent less. You don’t need less. We know.
- The smell of your perfume permeates through the room. Per- means through. Permeates the room.
- It is an actual fact that many fruits are good for dogs. Well, this used to be a redundancy before we had alternative facts. Never mind.
- I looked into her past history, and now I understand her behavior. Pick one.
- I will love you forever and ever. Romantic, but . . .
- We have been doing it this way forever. There. That’s better. You don’t need the and ever.
- We are going to postpone this meeting until later. Unless you add some details, you don’t need the later. But you could say We are going to postpone the meeting until later today or later this week.
- Well, isn’t this an unexpected surprise? Surprises are rarely expected. That is why they are called surprises.
- She made a few unintentional mistakes on her final exam. I don’t think she would be making intentional mistakes on her exam . . .would she?
- If you buy one bottle of these vitamins, you will get a free gift. I don’t like gifts I have to pay for. Do you?
- The end result of her cheating was that she was expelled from college. Just result will do.
- The company is known for the number of new innovations it has come up with just this year. Are there old innovations?
- He has reverted back to his old ways of coming in late and leaving early. Reverting is always back. Reverted to is enough.
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Iagree with you up to a point. Sometimes they can act as emphasizers, thus justified.
Great reading in your blog. keep it up!
All good things,
Don Savage.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, sometimes, if used correctly, repetition can indicate emphasis. I agree.
Another one you missed is: ‘The troops advanced to the front’ – show me an instance where ‘The troops advanced to the rear’ can be used.
There are so many of them. I just gave some of the obvious examples. Thanks for the addition!
I guess 12 and 13 were put in to see if we were paying attention
Nope. Just a mistake on 13 that is now fixed. And either no one was paying attention, or everyone was too polite to bring it up.
“Each and every one” seems pervasive in the sports world. When I go to professional training and a speaker uses that, I always imagine he (it’s usually a man) is a weekend soccer coach.
My pet peeve is speakers who state a fact, ask, “Right?” and then emphatically restate the fact.
It is so annoying. Right? It is SO ANNOYING.
SO annoying! Right? So annoying. I am with you there. Condescending too.
Great blog!
I love number 10; you knew I would.
Thanks! I thought it was oh-so-clever!
Good article! I could reread it over and over again!
Good one!!!!!
Brilliant column! You nailed some of my biggest pet peeves. The one that rankles most when I hear it is “very unique.” Um, wouldn’t that make it nonexistent?
Good point! Thanks for the comment!
Great ones, Arlene! I hear many of these every day–even on news casts.
Thanks, Thonie. Yes, I hear them too….and others!
Ahhhh! My Pet Peeve! 😕 I’m trying to let go of caring about redundancy! Number Nine — I don’t understand! Number Ten — hilarious in a tragic kinda way! There seem to be NO TV Talking heads aware of the redundancy of “The Reason is Because,” or “The Reason Why is,” or even worse: “The Reason Why is Because!” I wonder whether some of them are operating out of social/peer pressure to ‘go along’ or conform to what’s popular and common, despite the redundancy! And another common redundancy: “At this Point in Time.” Even Doctoral holding Rachel Maddow is guilty! I must submit to this ‘evolution’ of the language! 😕 Apologies for any spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors!
That is because there was a big fat typo in number nine, but I fixed it (thank you Shawne). I didn’t include the reason is because ones in this post….those are more “wasted words” than redundancies, but they drive me nuts — and they are all over TV news!