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Words Dumb People Use To Sound More Intelligent

by Tanya April 27, 2014

I’m noticing that some people use “smart” words without realising how stupid they sound.

Some of these everyday phrases make the speaker sound unintelligent because they lack originality, or just show mental laziness.

These pseudo-intellectuals are everywhere, but it’s the office meetings where they all come together.

According to new research, using unnecessarily big words, make people think you’re even dumber.

So, what are the phrases and words dumb people use to sound more intelligent:

Think outside the box

Which box? Who invented this box? Truly creative people work outside the assumptions (boxes). There is no box, there never was a box and the people who ‘think outside the box’ are the ones who constructed it.

We need to monetise/strategise/analyse/incentivise

When in doubt, stick “-ise” at the end of a word and say we’ve got to do this and 9 out of 10 times, it will sound action-oriented.

At the end of the day…

Is it literally at the end of the day? Or is it at the end of the project? A year? Show that you think while you speak and use the right word.

Talking about “Literally” …

Unless you are the most sarcastic person in the world, all your conversations should be taken literally, so no need to stick it everywhere, or you will come across as illiterate.

We’re customer-focused/proactive/results-oriented/value-add

No shit Sherlock! You are unlike any other company I know.

Language is ideological and words are bigger than their meaning (I did critical discourse analysis, btw).

We are all against inequality yet keep using words, that are inherently unequal.

English grammar dictates that when a group of people have at least one guy in it, they are called “guys”, not “girls”. In reality, even if the group is full of girls, they are still called “guys”.

Language is also submissive.

People say: “I work for X company.” For or at? If you work for something, you are a slave.

My ex-manager used to say:” She works for me.” or “They work under me.” It’s WITH, I eventually corrected him.

Albert Einstein put it just perfectly: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Using simple, clear language is usually more impactful and tends to sound more intelligent than dropping in fancy words unnecessarily.

What meaningless nonsense do you dislike?

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Tanya

The first Millennial blogger in the UK. Twitter @_luckyattitude

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