PEEVE ››

Noticing that you repeatedly use certain phrases, but being unable to stop yourself from doing it.

I teach at a local college and realize that before each example problem I do on the board I say, "Let's say that..." I notice it every time I say it, and I'm sure my students do as well. However, somehow I can't stop doing it! (The sad thing is that this is only one such phrase.)

— Brooke from Florida | Self | 11.20.2008 | Comments (6)

COMMENTS ››

I say "oops!" when something innocuous happens between me and a stranger. I hate it, but cannot prevent myself from squirting out this little bit of social lubricant which squarely lays the blame on me.

— Biffy posted 11/20/2008

I do this, too, but for some reason only when I'm teaching. I have noticed that I always address my students as "folks," as in "hi, folks" or "do you have your papers, folks?" I never use this word in my regular life.

— Layla posted 12/17/2009

When I teach I keep saying things are "really interesting" like I'm trying to convince them that they are. I'm trying to stop and it drives me nuts when I notice myself doing it.

— Acacia posted 12/17/2009

One teacher used to reply, "Alright, exactly," to almost every correct answer, to the point that we started to count how many times he said it per class period. Other teachers had similar verbal ticks, and I always found them amusing...until I spent some time teaching, and did the exact same thing. And once I noticed I had a few really worn-out phrases, it took forever to break the habit of using them.

— BettyCrockerPunkRocker posted 9/13/2010

I've got a bad one. No matter how hard I try, I cannot stop saying "dude" all the time. Its like a verbal tic, and since it fell out of fashion like 6 years ago, its getting embarrassing.

— x posted 12/29/2011

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