right?

[thehungerartist]

Is it just me or are more and more folk employing this linguistic filler, right? Can't get through a conversation without ending it in this manner, right? Even the most simple declarative statement, right? Yeah, I get it: spontaneous speech is characterised by hesitations, repetitions and other such disfluencies, right? But we rarely notice them, right?

Aside from its ubiquity, my beef with "right?" is that it makes an utterance sound simultaneously insecure and patronising, right?

[bakabaka]

Aside from its ubiquity, my beef with "right?" is that it makes an utterance sound simultaneously insecure and patronising, right?

And demands your agreement even if they're talking shite.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Yeah, no... look....it is what it is.

[popcorn]

I do this but I think I ought to stop.

it isn't as bad as beginning every possible sentence with "I mean".

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I noticed someone frequently starting off an opinion with "I feel like" which, although they did it far too often, seemed to me actually a decent way of softening any potentially contentious statement.

Unfortunately it was insufficient to stop a reaction to my statement 'I feel like all paedophiles should be freed globally today'.

[SpiderChrist]

Starting a sentence with "So" or "listen". Drives me up the wall, across the ceiling and back down the other side again.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

[rectorofstiffkey]

I noticed someone frequently starting off an opinion with "I feel like" which, although they did it far too often, seemed to me actually a decent way of softening any potentially contentious statement.

Unfortunately it was insufficient to stop a reaction to my statement 'I feel like all paedophiles should be freed globally today'.

The inverse of this is someone starting a completely inoffensive statement with 'I'm sorry, but', in an attempt to make their perfectly normal view sound edgy and interesting.  my former SIL did once, as part of a turgid conversation, utter the sentence "I'm sorry, but I think that child molestors should be prosecuted".  Because the rest of us just love them, obviously.

[pigamus]

I hear what you're saying

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

I hear what you're saying

know what i'm sayin?

[rectorofstiffkey]

oh and here's another one, when recounting a heated exchange of views.

So I turned round to her, and I say...

...and then she turns round to me, and says...

..so I turn round to her....

Normally accompanied by flamboyant gestures, showing the hand to which the co-argumenter was invited to talk.

[JesusAndYourBush]

If someone says 'right' a lot, you could try repeating it whenever they say it, as if you're in agreement.  After a few times accompany your repeating of 'right' with a nod of the head.  Nod more enthusiastically each time.  Keep doing it until they realise you're taking the piss.

[frajer]

If someone says 'right' a lot, you could try repeating it whenever they say it, as if you're in agreement.  After a few times accompany your repeating of 'right' with a nod of the head.  Nod more enthusiastically each time.  Keep doing it until they realise you're taking the piss.

Or take a more severe approach.



RIGHT.

[ImmaculateClump]

RIGHT? Oh, no, that's ridiculous ... right.

[wrec]

"Right" seems natural enough to me but "yeah?" makes me cringe and I think I only noticed it not long before the emergence of Jonatton Yeah?.

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

But at the end of the day...

[flotemysost]

I've developed a habit of saying "sure" as a response/filler in work meetings. On paper that sounds very passive aggressive and sarcastic and annoying, but when used sparingly, calmly and sympathetically it can be quite useful for defusing situations where someone's stressed and on the verge of venting their tension on you, I've found.

I reckon "right" could similarly be employed either way - impatient and dismissive, or affirmative without being intrusive.

[thehungerartist]

The Novara Media lot are particularly bad for this.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Starting a sentence with "So" or "listen". Drives me up the wall, across the ceiling and back down the other side again.

Well you are a spider, not to mention the christ powers held

[Sebastian Cobb]

The Novara Media lot are particularly bad for this.

Haven't noticed that but have noticed a bit of overuse of 'you know' as a filler. One of those things you notice then can't help but noticing and it winds you up a bit.

[SpiderChrist]

Well you are a spider, not to mention the christ powers held

True. On the downside, I'm terrified of slippers and nails.

[idunnosomename]

it was c.2012 when the Cameron-crew had the monopoly on "you knoo", you knoo? that really drove me crackers you knoo