“Well, if you look at the data, you’ll kind of notice that there’s a trend that sort of jumps out at you.” It’s sort of a way to soften, to be kind of… vague, imprecise and uncommitted. Kind of (or sort of) – This tidbit is used anywhere in the middle, as a way to not say what you really mean. “It wasn’t just that the election campaign this year was ugly, right…? It really became a battle of negative personalities in a race to the bottom of common decency.”ĥ. It reminds me of the French who often tack on a oui or non at the end of a sentence, non? It’s hit the English language strong in just the past year or so, right? … right? – This one comes at the end of sentences, apparently to encourage or sometimes subtly force agreement on the listener. “I mean, if it really was a problem that I say that phrase whenever I’m trying to make my point, what difference does it make?” Whatever!Ĥ.

I mean, where did this one come from anyway?

I mean – This completely unnecessary phrase seems to just be a habitual way to start sentences for many people. “So, what we’ve found in our research is that people tend to add this word as a way to sound informal yet still be an expert.”ģ. It’s become hugely common, even among expert speakers during formal interviews (just listen to NPR while various experts are interviewed). So – So, you’ll also find this one at the beginning of a sentence, namely as a way to “manage” the conversation and sound fairly authoritative (or condescending). “You know, the best way to find out the answers is to just Google it.”Ģ. This one has been around for ages but, you know, it’s been given new life with a new use you can’t help but constantly hear if you listen for it. You know – This phrase is increasingly being used at the beginning of the sentence as a lead-in. I’ve already used all five patterns in this post, did you catch them?ġ. Of course, once he shared them with me, I started hearing them, too.

He started tracking the pervasive use of these five patterns of speaking that are appearing in virtually every interview he listens to lately, including on cable news and business channels. My husband listens to a lot of podcasts, particularly enjoying them while out driving or working in the yard. These five speech patterns have become rampant in interviews. They are typically found in unscripted, more extemporaneous speech. None of these up-and-coming phrases ever appear in scripts that I read for actual voice-over jobs or auditions. The Up-and-Coming Most Annoying Speech Patternsīeing a voice-over talent makes me extremely sensitive to not only the sound of voices I hear on TV, radio and the internet, but also to the words that are chosen. Drop the phrases now and you can think of it as an easy, inexpensive way to outshine 85 percent of your competitors in that next job interview. If you ask me again, I’d also predict the tide will turn and people who drop these phrases will come out on top in the long run. A video on Today explains how it makes the women feel part of a “macroculture.” One of the reasons the patterns become so widespread, particularly with the current trend of vocal fry, is the feeling of belonging it gives young women. Unfit for any position that pays more than minimum wageĭespite all the detriments of allowing those patterns to unconsciously creep into your own conversational lexicon, people are falling prey at rapid rates.An embarrassment in front of mom, dad or the general public.Even if the people indulging in these patterns have an incredibly high IQ, the patterns work against them by making them: The use of such patterns do more than annoy the listener. To say that all these fad-driven speech patterns are kinda, sorta, well… I don’t know, annoying may seem a bit harsh. Here’s a new video we created to demonstrate some of the more common patterns you hear today… Uptalk, a subset of valspeak, is the habit of producing a rising inflection as if you’re asking a question – even when you’re not? Valspeak is, like, short for the way Valley Girls talk that was, like, you know, so big Frank Zappa sang about it in 1982. Vocal fry refers to a low, glottal, animal-like sound that speech pathologists consider a vocal disorder. So, you probably already know about vocal fry, valspeak and uptalk, right? I mean, everyone has heard plenty of examples of those speech patterns that have made perfectly well-educated college grads (mostly female) sound like Kardashian wannabes.

Like all the rest synonym