Let the Word Do the Work
When language-mutilator Yogi Berra said that something was “like ‘deja vu’ all over again,” everybody laughed. Lately I get the feeling that some people who say it don’t know it’s a joke.
Yogi’s “belts and suspenders” approach to words seems to be on the increase. We’ve all seen ads that offer “a free gift.” Sometimes it’s “an absolutely free gift.” It’s as if people don’t trust a word to mean what it means.
Some recent examples from the media include: “adequate enough,” “a navy sailor,” “an army soldier,” “coupled together with,” and “the maroon-colored Jaguar.”
Sometimes explanatory constructions are necessary in certain contexts. One can refer to a Mafia “soldier,” for example, but if the context is the evening news about the Iraq war, a listener can be trusted to understand the word without tacking on “army.”
Besides sounding foolish, the practice of bolstering a word with a a word that replicates its meaning weakens the expressiveness of the language.
Here are some redundant combinations I’ve heard or read lately in the media. The careful writer will avoid such nonsense.
- return back
- progress forward
- forests of trees
- other alternatives
- continue on
- evacuated out
- regress back
- penetrate through
- speeding too fast
- refinanced again
- a human person
- charred black
- a baby nursery
- reiterate again
- fast forward ahead
- socialize together
- two twin towers
Don't want to miss a single tip? 
Subscribe to our RSS Feed!
Related Articles
Bookmark
32 Responses to “Let the Word Do the Work”
- Punctuation Errors: Multiple Punctuation Marks
- Complex and Complicated
- c010depunkk’s bl0g » Blog Archive » Redundant Redundancies
Got something to say?
Sponsors
Popular Articles
- 6 Foreign Expressions You Should Know
- The Impotence of Proofreading
- Let the Word Do the Work
- 10 Rules for Writing Numbers and Numerals
- 8 Proofreading Tips and Techniques
- 40 Yiddish Words You Should Know
- TV's War on "Me" and "I"
- 34 Writing Tips That Will Make You a Better Writer
- Gross Writing Errors on the Web
- Creative Writing 101
- Latin Words and Expressions
- Usage That Provokes “Blackboard Moments”
Recent Articles
- English Grammar 101: Adjectives
- The Vicissitudes of the Latin Plural in English
- Few vs. Several
- What’s a Male Mistress?
- Hot Topics on the Daily Writing Tips Forum
- Reduplicatives And Their Meanings
- Creative Writing 101
- Should You Use Footnotes or Endnotes?
- Womanly Words - Gyn
- A While vs Awhile
Subscribe via E-Mail
Nicely put. This type of thing happens so often that I think we’ve become almost completely desensitized. It’s something that writers at all levels need to hear reiterated on occasion.
And now I’m going to be constantly checking and double-checking myself.
This one made me crack up laughing.
I heard some of those as well (hopefully I have not said them, can’t remember…).
Keeping the words or “small combination of words” accurate is very important. English can be very tricky language if not properly used. Some of the novels I read, had kind of words which were just not fit but then I guess the write was out of his vocab!!!
Another thing writers can be careful about is not to use “running language” in the novels unless it fit to the scenario. There are lot of places we even use them while blogging. Bad Practice!!
I agree with all the redundant combinations but ‘other alternatives’. Although I can see your point, I believe it’s not a so redundant combination like the others alternatives, hehehe.
Close proximity…
Haha, I love getting free gifts!
I recently learned that there’s a term for these redundant expressions: pleonasm. Wikipedia has a whole page on it with some fascinating examples.
Perhaps ‘refinanced again’ could be correct, if the person had refinanced once before, and the aim of the sentence is to make the point that he/she is refinancing yet again, having already done that before.
So if the point that one is stressing is that the person is yet again refinancing, then I can see how that would work.
I agree with you on most of these, but there are plant nurseries, as well.
Great post, Maeve. I needed a laugh.
Actually, “army solider” is a phrase that is needed when talking about the war in Iraq, since there are also contract soliders and mercenary soliders there in large numbers.
Hear Hear!
Whilst I applaud the concept, some of the phrases you list aren’t actually redundant.
“Here is an alternative, and here are some more alternatives”
“Last year it was necessary to refinance my loans, this year I had to refinance again.”
“I have spelled it out for you twice now, let me reiterate again.”
“Some evenings my wife and I socialise together, other evenings we head our separate ways and socialise apart.”
Sorry, that first one should have been “Here is an alternative, and here are some other alternatives.”
What about “exactly equal.”
As not-English-spoken, your blog does great help to my writing.Already added to my fav.
Two twin towers are 4 towers maybe?
I’m not english, but “human person” ,”penetrate through” and “continue on” sound ok to me. Sometimes you need to stress things.
Penetrate through sounds less pornographic than simply “penetrate”. But maybe that’s me.
There has been a very interesting discussion of “repetitive redundancies” started at Freakonomics (at http://www.freakonomics.com/bl.....-web-ever/) on the use of “pilotless drone” by the SF Chronicle.
Sandy june 22 2007 9.05 pm,
I agree with you mostly with all of them, but there is one that called my attention:
Human person
Human is: JUST BORN
Person is: when humans whith all their experiences in life involving their own temperament, turn all this into maturity.
In other words; it’s a process in life.
I live and learn, I live and get mature, I live and grow.
This is a fair comment that you are making here. However I have to wonder if ‘other alternatives’ is not as appropriate as the others. It may in fact refer to the third, fourth (etc.) alternatives making the adjective ‘other’ necessary and not extraneous as you have suggested above.
Yet, it is good to see social watchdogs on our language, which we tend to ‘basturdise’ with impunity. An interesting site. Cheers
“This one made me crack up laughing.”
I’m not english so I rely on Google for grammar and spelling tips. Does crack up on its own not imply you are laughing?
Joy-Mari,
Your observation is correct.
“That cracked me up” has the sense of “That made me laugh uproariously.”
i like this redundancies section want to know more like the things by using or avoiding we can speak much better english and enrish vocabulary
Master every word is one of the best thing that I can imagine. But it’s very hard for. I don’t understand one thing, i can read english articles without difficulty, but i can’t write them perfectly. I don’t know why.
Can you give me some advice, sir?
Thank you very much
i want to know more about his website
Yeah I agree with you on most accounts!!!
But we also use a term “concrete forest” or “forest of buildings”!!!
How to improve my knowledge with fluency of English. What I do for first step.
I know little more to speak, write and read with english. But I hesitate to speak fluency that is why my problem.
Pl resolve this issue.
Nowadays I am working in private organisation and I want to carry myself with bright future. But this only must to every body and I studied with tamil medium for my studies so that this problem. But English very important to my carrier, daily I am reading half on hour reading with Hindu but I don’t have understand the full message.
What is the real problem let me know pl.
Most of the words I don’t understand and I am not in a position to recall every day, because of my work pressure is tied, daily I have to report to my office 9.30 am and closing time around 9.00 p.m.
I do not consider this follow up proceedures, In the mean time I think this is very important but I can not follow up to improve in english.
Pl guide me daily what I do for this course to improve?