Comments on: Clichés Don’t Belong in Professional Writing

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:23:05 +0000

With regard to idioms and cliches: My undersanding is that an idiom is simply a dead metaphor. Am I correct in this, or is ther more to it than that?

By: Mariana

Mariana — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:58:13 +0000

I remember having to learn around hundred idioms in ESL classes (private tutoring for 16 years – British English; in school I’ve been taught American English and not so many idioms), and some of them I use quite often. I admit I sometimes have trouble distinguishing between idioms and cliches, and as idioms are a normal part of my English vocabulary, it’s not easy to restrict their use, especially when I write fiction.
And, yes, this article is about idioms, not cliches.

By: Christine Still

Christine Still — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:39:51 +0000

I have always loved English idiom, slang, and love making notes when I hear truly outrageous mistakes on TV or radio. One of my favorites is ‘Put your John Hancock right here’ for ‘sign this’. WHY, tell me, do so many people say ‘put your John Henry….’? John Wayne, in one of his ‘cavalry’ movies says just that. I couldn’t believe it! And for that matter, can anyone pronounce ‘cavalry’ instead of ‘calvary’? I have a large collection of mistakes and malaprops along with notes about who said what, day, date, time and channel. My all time favorite is a quote by author Michael Crichton which I cut out from a magazine. Crichton: “Keeping fears in perspective leads me to ignore most of the frightening things I read and hear-or at least to take them with a PILLAR of salt.” I am not an expert but doesn’t he mean ‘grain of salt’? I have many pages which amuse me if no one else.

By: Mr. Gupta

Mr. Gupta — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:56:24 +0000

I came a bit late to this article but here is my contribution anyhow. Indian English is full of cliches. My boss keeps throwing us cliches of perverse order at regular intervals. Sample these -

1. Keep the momentum going.
2. At the top of my head.
3. Let us prepone the meeting. (The word prepone is oft used in India despite the fact that it has no reference in dictionary. “prepone” is just the opposite of postpone i.e. to reschedule a meeting at an earlier time.
4. Please do the needful (Another common error in Indian english. Much used in professional contexts)
5. Things have fallen between the cracks (One of my boss’ favourite. He uses it when he is at loss of words especially in impromptu meetings and calls)
6. I will leave it upto the gurus to solve (a washing-my-hands-off sentence. Much used by my boss where the discussion becomes too technical).

By: Carolyn Wilker

Carolyn Wilker — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:06:57 +0000

Clichés or idioms have no place in writing for a general audience, as Meg says. I was recently attending a training seminar in which the chairperson shared a fictional and humorous story about the Pillsbury Doughboy.

I understood the story, having grown up in Canada and hearing those ads and terms on television, but the fellow trainee next to me was from Hong Kong and had only been in Canada for a few years. I speculated that he would not be familiar with the character since he wore a puzzled look on his face. When we talked afterwards, I asked him if he was familiar with the character names. He said, “No.” The value of the story was completely lost for him.