Thursday, July 27, 2017

Blah, blah - 2

I am not the only person to note the growth of blah, blah in modern English. The Guardian and Daily Telegraph now have lists of such rubbish on their on-line papers. I also noted that a number of  dictionaries collect and publish such rubbish online.

I know I have more non-native speakers of English who read this blog so please do NOT think you have to learn such rubbish. Be aware that it exists, but please do not add to your active vocabulary. The source of this list is BBC Radio 4: Politicians and business people being interviewed on news programmes.

The first one is my favourite and earns the speaker an operation to find his brain. Yes, it was a man who said it. Actually most of them were said by men! Off we go:-

an uptick/ hugely costly/ magic up/ collecting inputs/ may be minded to/ sth. is being taken forward/ a genuine reservoir/ some upsetment/ engage with concerns/ to ramp up/ to weaponise a voice/ shrinkflation/ to better manage/ benchmarking/ a built in opportunity/ evolve your targets/ a raft of legislation. 

I think I shall take these books (from Aldi) with me to teach the English how to speak English on my forthcoming visit. Perhaps I shall then earn an uptick from the Ministry of Education in Brexitland :-))

Latest weather report: It rained all day yesterday then what a surprise - the sun shone this morning. Not for long for it is now gray, overcast and threatening more rain. Some weather pundits said summer will arrive here from mid-August! I jest not!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Shrinkflation" is quite useful: it describes the situation where producers put up prices but disguise it by reducing the size or amount. Thus you get 650ml of Rotkaeppchen instead of 750ml or 15 choco Leibniz biscuits instead of 20, but for the same price.

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for this very informative comment.