Clichés in English…

1. To be perfectly honest – This one really annoys me. Why, are you dishonest at other times?
2. The fact of the matter is – Pay close attention to this and you’ll discover that it’s never a fact, but usually a very biased opinion of the speaker.
3. Amazing – Used to boredom by late night TV advertisements promising results you’ll never see in real life.
4. Thinking outside the box – What’s the opposite? Do we otherwise think inside the box, what box?
5. Customer-centric – Every single time someone uses this phrase, the final emphasis is to eventually maximize the seller’s profits. Usually it’s not the system that cares, but an individual serving an individual customer.
6. At this point in time – Time never stands still, except for politicians blaming previous opposition governments for their own mistakes. So how can we be in a point in time? If time is moving, it can’t be a point anymore. It’s a line then.
7. Having said that – If you’ve said something earlier, does it become a fact or an unforgettable expression or does it compel everyone to follow in a certain direction?
8. To be fair (frank) – Does this mean that you are making an exception and you are not fair (frank) at other times?
9. You know – Many people begin their sentences with “You know,…”. What is there to know about when someone is telling you his/her opinion?
10. You should give it 110% – Usually it’s other things, which weaken ends results, and not whether someone has given 99% or 98%.
11. Keep in touch – Hah! As if the person saying that really means it.
12. Actually – Many people start sentences with “Actually”. Does it mean that if they hadn’t used the word “actually,” the meaning would’ve been the opposite or somewhat different?
13. Paradigm shift – Company directors and consultants love using this phrase to mean that everyone else should start thinking like them.
14. Have a good one – Have a good one of what? The rest of the day or a laugh?
15. At the end of the day – What does this mean really? Did the speaker have a different opinion in the evening, in the afternoon, or at noon?
16. With all due respect – People use this often. Then they follow it with some form of disrespect or even insult.
17. I’d be more than happy to – What is more than happy? Does the speaker really mean that she will be ecstatic, delirious, or blissful?
18. For the record – Who is keeping the record, what kind of record?
19. He can talk the talk, but can he walk the talk? – Serious writers all over the world are using this phrase to assess the enormity of president elect Obama’s task ahead. Does this mean that until now he has been standing still while talking?
20. Lessons will be learned – Politicians and company directors use this when they can’t find any other explanation for some really tragic event. How can anyone predict that everyone will learn identical lessons from the same incident or whether it will even affect someone?