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Don’t Sound Like a Dummy
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Five Words and Phrases Never to Use in Business Writing
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Shame on U, PS
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Subjective Modifiers
On NBC’s June 18 Nightly News, Lester Holt asked Kristen Bell about the number of current-events discussions she’s had with her two girls (5 and 7) recently. Kristen replied, “Quite a few.” And then it struck me: “Quite a few”? How weird is it that people use “quite a few” to connote “quite a lot”? It doesn’t make sense. (“Quite” doesn’t make much sense either, given that it has no meaning. How much more is “quite a lot” than just “a lot”? And, for that matter, how many are “a lot” or “a few”? But that’s an issue for a different column.) Suppose you asked the owner of a recently…