Image from Grammar.net found at: http://www.grammar.net/annoyingwords
The last thing you want to do is offend someone you haven’t even met by being annoying. Unfortunately, this can happen pretty easily in today’s electronic-based world. We often “meet” people online long before we meet them in person and sometimes we never meet them in person!
I found this interesting list (by Grammar.net) of “annoying” words that English speakers use online and I thought it would be a good list to go over so you understand them and avoid using them when possible. Not all of these words are “off limits” of course, but it is a good idea to know that some English speakers will find them annoying or irritating, which can lead to a bad first impression.
The overwhelming theme for why these words are so annoying is that they are overused. When people use a word too often it often becomes cliché or annoying. Your best bet is to try to avoid using these words too much.
Let’s take a look at each of them:
selfie – A selfie is a picture you take of yourself. People take a lot of selfies these days and post them online, especially on social media. This word is less annoying than the act it describes, which can be very annoying. I guess a good question to ask yourself before posting a selfie is: “How much do other people really want to see a picture of me? The answer is probably: less than I think.
literally – This word comes from the root word ‘literal’. It means ‘exactly’, ‘precisely’, or ‘in truth’. Unfortunately, English speakers misuse this word a lot. People use the word ‘literally’ to emphasize something or to show strong emotion. For example “I literally died the smell was so bad.” This obviously isn’t true, because if a person literally died they would be dead and couldn’t tell us about the bad smell they experienced. Try to use this word sparingly.
awesome sauce – This expression means the same thing as ‘excellent’ or ‘great’. So, why not use one of those words instead? This expression is very informal and should only be used with friends, and since some people find it irritating it might be best to use it very little.
lol, rofl, lolol – These are abbreviations that mean: lol=laugh out loud, rofl = rolling on floor laughing, and lolol is just an exaggerated form of lol. All of these abbreviations are used to indicate that you find something (usually something you see online or on social media) funny.
amazing – This word is used to express great surprise or wonder. It tends to be overused and therefore its meaning has lost some of its strength. Try to only use this word when describing something that truly cause you to be surprised or in awe.
-ageddon or -pocalypse: These are suffixes that come from the words ‘Armageddon’ and ‘apocalypse’, which both refer to the complete and final destruction of the world. That is a pretty big deal – the end of the earth is no small thing! But the media has recently started to add these suffixes to words that describe natural disasters or storms to make storms sound bigger and scarier. For example some storms have recently been called ‘snowpocalypse’ and ‘snowmageddon’. Using these suffixes is a way of sensationalizing a storm.
yolo – This acronym stand for: you only live once. It implies that you should enjoy life, even if that means taking risks. This is a great sentiment, as it encourages people to live life to the fullest. The problem is some people use ‘yolo’ to describe very mundane daily activities, for example “Yolo so I’ll have an extra piece of chocolate.”
#hashtag – I explain what a hashtag is in this previous post. Hashtags are used A LOT in social media and now people are using the word ‘hashtag’ in their speech as well. This is the reason some people find this word so annoying. Here is an example of how it might be used in speech (remember you don’t want to do this!), “I love getting dinner out with you, hashtag date nights are the best.”
no offense – This phrase is intended to mean ‘please don’t take offense for what I say.’ The only problem is people only use this phrase when they are saying something offensive. It is better to say nothing at all rather than to say something offensive with ‘no offense’ tagged on before or after your remark.
using CAP LOCKS – Using cap locks (or all upper case letters) is the equivalent to shouting when you write. People often use cap locks when they want to emphasize something. Using cap locks is fine now and then, I’ve done it once in this post in fact. Be sure not to write too much with the cap locks on your keyboard though because the person reading what you write will feeling like they are getting yelled at.
