Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions

Posted on November 14, 2008

Researchers at the University of Oxford compiled a list of the Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English language.

Here are the ten awful phrases:

1. - At the end of the day
2. - Fairly unique
3. - I personally
4. - At this moment in time
5. - With all due respect
6. - Absolutely
7. - It's a nightmare
8. - Shouldn't of
9. - 24/7
10. - It's not rocket science

Wired says that Oxford scholars maintain a big database of overused words and phrases called the Oxford University Corpus. The list of irritating expressions is from Jeremy Butterfield's book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare

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