WHY agree by saying ‘yes’ when you could annoy the crap out of someone by saying ‘100 per cent’? Try these irritating affirmatives:
100 per cent
The word ‘yes’ is elegant, precise and performs its job perfectly. Why, then, do so many people feel the need to mumble out this five-syllabled monstrosity in its place? It is not more positively affirming than saying yes; it just makes you sound like a prick.
Okey dokey
‘Okey dokey’ is a phrase so twee that the only people who can get away with saying it are children’s TV presenters and characters in Wes Anderson films. If you get into the habit of using it regularly it’s important to be aware that your family, friends and lovers all want to punch you every single time.
Yasss queen
Sounds great coming out of the mouth of a drag queen at a New York ball in the 1980s. However, when your line manager shrieks it at you in an office in Nuneaton because you’ve managed to fix the jam in the photocopier, it’s nails down a blackboard.
Totes
Accompanied by the incitement-to-violence ‘amazeballs, this actually makes you even more of a twat if you say it ironically. It may save you the 0.07 seconds of your life it would have taken to say ‘totally’, but you can say ‘yes’ even quicker without shaming yourself, your family and your culture.
Fo’ shizzle
Are you Snoop Dogg rolling a blunt in the early aughts? Or is it a misguided attempt to steal his Just Eat cool? If it’s the latter, you must never, ever let this escape your lips again. Just nod from now on. Language is off-limits to you.
