Linguistic tics

Sir, – My pet hate is the preface of “if I’m being honest” when answering a question or offering an opinion. Does this imply dishonesty when it is not used ? – Yours, etc,

MJ TOMLIN,

Raheny, Dublin 5.

Sir, – I share Raymond McGee's irritation (November 26th) at people who start every sentence with "so", and Louis Hogan's (November 27th) with "look", or worse, "lookit". If you replace any of these words with the once ubiquitous "well", you will realise that there's nothing particularly unusual about peppering our chat with meaningless words. Used as sentence starters, they give us a few seconds to muster our thoughts before launching into speech. Can anyone tell me why this shift has happened? I fear it may be coming in with the Atlantic storms. – Yours, etc,

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DOIREANN NÍ BHRIAIN,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – How annoying is the phrase “needless to say”? If something is needless to say, don’t say it. – Yours, etc,

LIAM BREEN,

Castleknock,

Dublin 15.