You Know, Some Words Are Just Annoying

Nearly half of Americans surveyed said they find "whatever" to be the most annoying word or phrase, according to a poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.

The research center at Marist College did a telephone survey of 938 people that was prompted by a casual conversation with employees of the institute.

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"What we chose were words that were used as 'dismissive,' " said Mary Azzoli, the institute's media director. "We chose words that we felt were overused."

"The list was so long so we said 'why not do a poll,' " Azzoli said.

"You know" was the second most annoying phrase.

That phrase was spotlighted last winter, when Caroline Kennedy was being considered for the U.S. Senate seat from New York, vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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In a televised interview and in an interview with The New York Times, Kennedy used the words so much she was ridiculed by the New York media.

At one point, Kennedy said "you know" four times in one sentence.

"You know, I can tell you, you know, in my family, you know, there was a sense, you know, we have to work twice as hard," she said.

Politico.com said Kennedy used the phrase 142 times in the Times interview.

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Respondents also said they were annoyed by the overuse of "anyway," "it is what it is" and "at the end of the day."

The words "whatever" and "anyway" re-entered the American pop lexicon following the release of popular films like "Clueless" (1995) and "Valley Girl" (1983). Both are about the shallow lives of teenagers in suburban California.

The Marist Institute and college are in Poughkeepsie, New York.

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ИСТОЧНИК: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/10/08/most.annoying.words/index.html

ЛЕКСИКА

Запомните следующие слова:

• annoying
• overused
• survey
• poll
• conversation
• to prompt
• to consider
• to ridicule

(Дважды кликнув на любое слово, вы увидите все его значения.)

Постарайтесь избегать чрезмерного употребления следующих слов и фраз: whatever,  you know,  anyway,  it is what it is,  at the end of the day.

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ГРАММАТИКА

In a televised interview and in an interview with The New York Times, Kennedy used the words so much she was ridiculed by the New York media.

Неопределенный артикль a (an) произошел от слова one и значит “один”, “какой-то”, “один из множества ему подобных”. Определенный артикль the произошел от указательного местоимения that и значит “этот”, “тот”, “эти” и т.д. В данном предложении идет речь об “одном” телеинтервью, о “каком-то” интервью газете The New York Times и о словах, которые уже упоминались в этой статье, т.е. о “тех” словах, о которых читателям уже должно быть известно.