Superfluous Expressions

You may have gone to a market to buy some stuff with your mother. Has it ever happened to you that you had asked your mother to buy an additional item and she had replied with “What is the need for this? You already have one at home; don’t buy unnecessary items”?

The same rule applies to one of the most burning topics of “Superfluous Expressions” in English.

“SUPERFLUOUS” means ‘more than what is needed’. In our daily life, we may be habitual of translating some expressions from our native language to English. For example we say ‘Please reply back.’ We know that ‘reply’ means ‘getting back to someone’. There is no need to use ‘back’ here, as it is redundant.

Let us take a look at these sentences.

Ram paid a toll tax at Dwarka expressway.

⇒ Here, ‘toll’ itself means a tax. Hence, the use of ‘tax’ is redundant here.

Ram paid a toll at Dwarka expressway.

The student asked the teacher to repeat the answer again.

⇒ ‘Re-’ itself means again. Hence, the use of ‘again’ is redundant here. The word ‘again’ is not required after the following words: Rebuilt, recall, recheck and reborn, and so on.

The student asked the teacher to repeat the answer.

Neha, my cousin sister , will perform on stage the next day.

⇒ ‘Cousin’ itself means ‘sister/brother’. The use of the word ‘sister’ makes the sentence superfluous.

Neha, my cousin, will perform on stage the next day.

There are many words that become superfluous when we add a subsequent word of more or less the same meaning.

Now, we will look at the sentences that people often use incorrectly.

Mr Kapoor will reimburse back all your expenditure.

⇒ ‘Re’ itself means ‘again’. ‘Back’ will be omitted.

Mr Kapoor will reimburse all your expenditure.

Shivani entered into the room with her brother.

⇒ ‘Enter’ itself means ‘to come into’. ‘Into’ should be omitted.

Shivani entered the room with her brother.

The thief fled away as the night was dark and the roads were deserted.

⇒ ‘Fled’ itself means ‘to run away’. ‘Away’ will be omitted.

The thief fled as the night was dark and the roads were deserted.

It rained like cats and dogs yesterday.

⇒ ‘Like’ should be removed. “Rained cats and dogs” itself means that it rained very heavily.

It rained cats and dogs yesterday.

In Mumbai, he came across suddenly many of his friends.

⇒ ‘Suddenly’ should be omitted.

In Mumbai, he came across many of his friends.

They will organise a quiz competition at 10:00 AM tomorrow morning.

⇒ ‘AM’ itself refers to ‘morning’. ‘Morning’ should not be used here.

They will organise a quiz competition at 10:00 AM tomorrow.

Rita made a big blunder by getting his name wrong.

⇒ ‘Blunder’ itself means ‘a big mistake’. ‘Big’ must be omitted.

Rita made a blunder by getting his name wrong.

Ram had sufficient enough money to pay the fees.

⇒ ‘Sufficient’ itself means ‘enough’. ‘Enough’ should be omitted.

Ram had sufficient money to pay the fees.

Her speech was vaguely ambiguous as we could not understand what the exact topic of her speech was.

⇒ ‘Ambiguous’ itself refers to ‘unclear or vague’. ‘Vaguely’ should be omitted.

Her speech was ambiguous as we could not understand what was the exact topic of her speech.

You are requested to kindly submit your practical files.

⇒ ‘Kindly’ and ‘request’ mean the same. ‘Kindly’ will be omitted.

You are requested to submit your practical files.

The teacher forbade the students not to make a noise.

⇒ ‘Not’ makes the sentence superfluous. ‘Not’ should be omitted. “Forbade” and “not” are two negatives, which changes the meaning of the sentence.

The teacher forbade the students to make a noise.

This is a more unique feature of this painting.

⇒ The meaning of ‘Unique’ is complete in its real sense and hence cannot be used in comparative and superlative degrees. Therefore, ‘more’ should be omitted.

This is a unique feature of this painting.

I didn’t mean to insult you but on the contrary I had come here to congratulate you.

⇒ ‘On the contrary’ and ‘but’ mean the same. ‘But’ should be omitted.

I didn’t mean to insult you, on the contrary, I had come here to congratulate you.

We should avoid these common errors in English speaking and writing. These concepts are very much essential in gaining confidence to avoid any grammatical mistakes. This will help you to become a confident speaker and write with a firm grasp. In other words, why use more words to say the same thing?