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Sunday 20 April 2014

Do You Employ Redundancy? #2

Another foray into the fascinating world of unnecessary words, repetitions and other heinous crimes of grammar. If guilty, kindly write out the following a hundred times each!

Absolutely certain: You’re certain, are you? Well, if you are, you’re unlikely to be partially so. Certainty is absolute, so the adjective is superfluous: Cut it out.

Basic fundamentals: If it’s basic, it’s fundamental. Tautology is bad for you; don’t do it.

Close proximity: Now, you know better than this. If something is in the proximity of something else, it’s close to it; that’s what proximity means. Chose you word; one or the other, not both.

Definite decision: Not all decisions are final, but all decisions are definite, otherwise no decision has been made. Cut away the inessential.

Estimated at about: Estimation is approximation, so is ‘about’ in this context. You don’t need the extra word.

Invited guests: We call uninvited people ‘gate-crashers’. By their nature, guests have been invited.

Past history: History is a record of past occurrences. If you’re recording the present or a predicted future, it isn’t history. ‘Past’ isn’t needed.

Revert back: If something reverts, it goes back to an earlier state. Leave the back against the chair and lean on it.

Still remains: When something remains it is still there. Let’s keep the still in the shed, making the illegal hooch, eh?

Usual custom: Custom is routinely observed, that’s what makes it a custom. Unusually, however, here it is possible to have an unusual custom, which is a custom practised in one place but not common in another.


Another rant done with. But, beware; there will be more!
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