693 - What's Wrong with Saying Something Is 'Very Unique'?

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2019

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What's wrong with saying something is "very unique"? Plus, autological words like "longer." LINKS AND SPONSORS | Family Ghosts Podcast: https://familyghostspodcast.com/ | Audible: https://audible.com/GG or text GG to 500-500 | Aspiration App Grammar Girl Email Newsletter: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/newsletters | Graduation Sweepstakes: http://bit.ly/qdtlifeaftercollege | Grammar Girl's AP style webinar: http://bit.ly/GrammarWebinar2019 | GRAMMAR POP iOS GAME | Optimized for iPad: http://bit.ly/iPadGrammarPop | For iPad and iPhone: http://bit.ly/GrammarPopMobile | GRAMMAR GIRL BOOKS | http://bit.ly/GrammarPopBooks | GRAMMAR GIRL IS PART OF THE QUICK AND DIRTY TIPS PODCAST NETWORK | VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL

Transcript

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0:00.0	Grimmer Girl here, I'm Minyeon Fokkerty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to
0:09.0	the English language, writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.
0:13.3	Today, I have a segment about when wordiness is bad, but also when it's okay.
0:18.8	And a segment about autological words, words that are like the things they describe.
0:23.7	I've heard from a lot of you who have pet peeves about different wordy phrases, and it's
0:29.3	a lot of fun to hear what gets under people's skin and why.
0:32.1	Here's one example from Lara in New York.
0:36.0	One that has always bugged me is I'm writing to tell you that.
0:41.0	It drives me crazy when people begin letters this way.
0:44.0	As I'm writing to tell you that I am resigning from my job.
0:48.2	Just tell me.
0:49.2	Okay, so you're writing to tell me, so just tell me.
0:52.6	It was correct or is it just another redundancy?
0:57.1	I have to admit that I've been struggling with this one ever since I said not to start
1:01.3	emails with the phrase, I just wanted to let you know.
1:05.0	For example, I just wanted to let you know that nachos are half price until 6 o'clock.
1:10.5	Or I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to miss my deadline.
1:13.9	I couldn't figure out why starting sentences that way felt so right, but seemed so wrong
1:19.6	at the same time.
1:21.8	Then Jeff from Fountain Valley wrote in a comment that many of these seemingly empty phrases
1:26.4	act as buffers, carry certain emotional weight or demonstrate personality, and then it all
1:32.3	came together in my head.
	...

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