Hmm… How to reduce redundancy in English? Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time,
there was a king. He used to be very harsh on his subjects. People could no longer stand
his suppressive attitude. And there then came a wise man, who through the knowledge of his
previous experience overcame the king in three year’s time. Nice story, but did you notice
something that a lot of words in this story are not really necessary? As they don’t
really add any meaning to the story. For example, once upon a time there was a king. Well what’s
the harm in saying “once there was a king”? Practically, that what you mean so ‘upon
a time’ became redundant.
Hi my name is Emmelda and I will be sharing
few tips to avoid redundancy in English. Let’s first discuss what redundancy or redundant
phrase mean. Redundant phrase are those set of words which do not serve actual purpose
in the sentence apart from making a sentence lengthy. Practically you will have few words
that will tell you what the sentence actually means just make the sentence lengthy and create,
probably, make the sentence sound a little better, which is quiet ok. However, redundancy
in English actually results, sometimes, grammatical errors and that’s why we need to be quiet
watchful of what we are saying. Let’s take few examples. The first is “point in time”.
A lot of people use this term point in time when they are discussing something that has
actually happened or is about to happen. For example, at that point in time people could
not take his suppressive attitude. You don’t need the point in time, you can either say
at that moment or that time. This is good enough. At that time or at this time. At that
moment or at this moment. So when you say at that moment people could not take his suppressive
attitude any longer you mean at so called point in time people could not take hi suppressive
attitude. The second is “basically”. If you have noticed a salesman comes to you and
sells his product and he starts like this basically this item will help you in this
way. What is basically, basic mean something underlined. True, but do you really need that
phrase here or that word here. If you say this item will help you in this way. It means
the same. Basically has no value to that sentence. SO if you are speaking in English and when
you are explaining something avoid the term basically or the word basically as it does
not add any value to the sentence so we do away with this. The third one is a year’s
time. This is grammatically incorrect because a year is already a period of time. It consists
of 365 days. SO when you say in ten years time the city developed, its actually wrong.
You can actually say in ten years you can see the city developed in this particular
fashion. You don’t really need time because you are talking about time twice. So please
do not use time when you are saying in three years time or I will be a doctor in five years
time. No, I will be a doctor in five years from now so years is good enough. The fourth
is previous experience. Tell me what is wrong in this? Guesses? No? ok! Experience is always
gained from past knowledge. That means something has already happened and you’ve learnt from
it. SO why do you need previous because experience always come from fact that happened in the
past. You don’t need past experience. My past experience I did this or this happened
to me. No! That’s wrong again you don’t need past- you don’t need previous experience.
When you say I’ve got or in my experience I have done something like this or something
occurred to me like this. So you use the word experience, you never say in my previous experience
I have seen people talking in certain fashion. So, bottom line is, please do not use terms
such as past or previous when you are talking about experience. The second or the next one
is “whether or not”…so big whether or not! Why do you need to use your vocal chords
so much. Just say the word, “if”. Its incorrect…I will not say its incorrect but
wordy and lengthy to say “ I don’t know whether or not you are going to come to my
party. I don’t know whether or not the British government is going to do something favourable
for us or unfavourable for us. You rather say I don’t know if you are going to come
my party… so much simple, so many less words. You don’t really need whether or not, unless
you are trying to be very narrative and you are trying to buy time you use certain phrases,
such as whether or not. Otherwise please keep it simple. Just say if. I don’t know If
I would like that particular shirt. I don’t know if he likes that shirt and not I don’t
know if whether or not he would like the shirt. SO forget about whether or not. Just say if.
Then we have my favourite ‘the reason why’. Why is already a question and answer to why
is ‘the reason’ so why do you have to say reason and why together. Just say the
reason is. Let me give you an example, if you have salesperson. This is …these phrases
are good for sales people. If you have a good sales person and you are trying to ask a question.
You know, why would I need this? The reason why you need a laptop is because you want
to take it wherever you want. The reason why you need a laptop is because. You see, just
say, very simple, you say either because or the reason is. So either you say you need
a laptop because you can take this wherever you go or you say the reason is that you can
take this laptop. So either you say you need laptop wherever you go or you say the reason
is that you can take this laptop where ever you go. You don’t have to use the reason
why you need the laptop is because you want to take the laptop wherever you go. See the
difference, it’s so wordy and is so lengthy. And the more and more you speak when you are
trying to do a sales or trying to do a presentation lengthy words or redundant words either result
in grammatical errors or you will lose the attention of your audience. Just remove those
words. The next word, which again is grammatically wrong is Very unique. Unique is already something
which is one of a kind or very rare. You don’t need very unique. If you say rare, its still
acceptable. Very unique is wrong. You say this particular gemstone is very unique because
it is very rare…oh I am sorry, my bad. This particular gemstone is unique or very rare.
You either say unique or very rare, you do not use very unique together because this
is grammatical error. Next we have the length and breadth of the period. Why do you wanna
do that? I understand you love mathematics but please avoid that term. You can say during
a period or through-out a period. Either of these means the same, that through-out the
year something happened. For example, throughout the year, the business grew very well or during
this year the business did remarkably well. You don’t have to say through the length
and breadth of the year the business grew very well. Don’t have to, keep it short.
Keep it simple. You will be able to improve your language style and speaking skills. So
it’s during a periodor through-out a period. Don’t! rather avoid length and breadth of
period. It is very wordy. The last is “the very moment”. Tell me what is wrong here.
Moment actually means a fraction of time. Probably, this is the time, this is the fraction
of time. This particular phase of time, if you shift it here, this and this are not the
same. So you don’t need the very moment, you say at that moment or this moment. The
very moment is wrong. It’s that moment or this moment. I hope you really enjoyed this
lesson or understood this lesson. I am sure when you read books or watch something, you
will be able to figure out certain phrases, which you think or you might think are actually
redundant. So this brings us to the end of this lesson. Hope you enjoyed it. I hope you
learnt something new. Next time when you speak to someone be careful of these phrases and
if you want to share some more tips about how to reduce such phrases do let me know.
Until I come back with a new lesson, have fun, stay healthy and have fun learning English.
See ya!