And by expletives, I don’t mean swear words. Expletives are words and phrases that contribute nothing meaningful to a sentence.
As you know, I’ve talked at length about cutting down on wordiness. Expletives are one way—possibly the most prolific way—that we’re wordy in our writing. For example, I’ve talked about this in the past with words like really and very, but there are plenty of other examples.
Expletives fall into 3 general categories: empty words, meaningless phrases, and redundant pairs.
Empty words
Empty words contribute to a sentence in no significant way. They’re the soft drinks of the grammar world, empty of any value.
Here are a few examples:
- Actually
- Basically
- Clearly
- Obviously
- Various
And here are these examples used in a sentence:
- “At any one time, 10 to 15 percent of us have a coworker, or actually usually a boss, that’s bullying us.” (CNBC)
- “Singapore Airlines’ new cabins are basically a hotel room in the sky.” (Mashable)
- ”Canadian and American companies clearly want to do more business together.” (Export Development Canada)
- “Volume, how many can be given vaccine per unit of time, is obviously a function of how easy it is for the person giving the shot.” (Forbes)
- “Various packaged vegetable products recalled over listeria concern.” (CTV)
Now, here are those sentences without the empty words:
- “At any one time, 10 to 15 percent of us have a coworker, or usually a boss, that’s bullying us.”
“Singapore Airlines’ new cabins are a hotel room in the sky.”
”Canadian and American companies want to do more business together.”
“Volume, how many can be given vaccine per unit of time, is a function of how easy it is for the person giving the shot.”
“Packaged vegetable products recalled over listeria concern.”
Removing the empty words doesn’t significantly alter the sentences’ meaning. If anything, it makes the author’s intent clearer.
Keep in mind, that the 5 words above are only 5 examples of a much larger list. Just make sure the words you write offer value to your readers.
Meaningless phrases
Meaningless phrases are, well, phrases devoid of meaning. Their meaning should be obvious from the rest of the sentence. Here are some examples:
- A lot of
- In my opinion
- It is important that
- Kind of
Here they are in some sentences:
- “Snapchat isn’t working for a lot of people” (Tech Insider)
- “It is quite easy to project China’s future role in APEC, which in my opinion, would be mostly about trade and economic matters.” (CGTN)
- “According to the NHS it is important that our bodies have the right balance of exposure to good and bad germs in our everyday environment . . .” (The Sun)
- “Google’s Files Go app is kind of like AirDrop for Android” (The Verge)
And the edited sentences:
- “Snapchat isn’t working for people” or “Snapchat isn’t working”
- “It is quite easy to project China’s future role in APEC, which would be mostly about trade and economic matters.”
- “According to the NHS, our bodies need the right balance of exposure to good and bad germs in our everyday environment . . .”
- “Google’s Files Go app is like AirDrop for Android”
Redundant pairs
These are pairs of words where each word means the same thing. Here are some examples:
- Completely overhaul
- Each individual
- End result
- Final outcome
- First and foremost
- Free gift
- Period of time
Here are a few examples:
- “It takes about one month to overhaul a locomotive completely.” (The New Indian Express)
- “For starters, you can limit each individual app on your phone to tracking your location either all the time . . .” (Wired)
- “If that’s not terrorism, it’s certainly is the closest you’ll see to it this side of the Middle East and the end result is the same.” (Global)
- “. . . only a harassment procedure in which MPs control the final outcome is acceptable.” (The Guardian)
- “The case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is first and foremost a story of terrible personal suffering for a young woman, her husband and their baby girl.” (BBC)
- “Fallen leaves can be a free gift in the garden” (Kelowna Capital News)
- “The body is believed to have been in the location for an extended period of time before being discovered.” (FOX 15)
And here they are edited:
Here are a few examples:
- “It takes about one month to overhaul a locomotive.”
- “For starters, you can limit each app on your phone to tracking your location either all the time . . .”
- “If that’s not terrorism, it’s certainly is the closest you’ll see to it this side of the Middle East and the result is the same.”
- “. . . only a harassment procedure in which MPs control the outcome is acceptable.”
- “The case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is foremost a story of terrible personal suffering for a young woman, her husband and their baby girl.”
- “Fallen leaves can be a gift in the garden”
- “The body is believed to have been in the location for an extended period before being discovered.”
Bonus category
There is one more group of expletives; although they don’t have as simple a name as the others. They include phrases that begin with here, there, and it. Here are some examples:
- “Germany still has no government — here are the key reasons why” (CNBC)
- “There are support systems for victims of family violence” (Lethbridge Herald)
- “A chilling tale of how easy it is for banks to lose your money” (New York Post)
And again, here they are edited:
- “The key reasons why Germany still has no government”
- “Support systems exist for victims of family violence”
- “A chilling tale of how easily banks can lose your money”
Wordiness is one of the writing problems I see most often. I even see it in some of my old blog posts. There are many ways to edit our writing, but eliminating expletives is a good place to start.