The Phrases That Say the Same Thing Twice
A free gift. If it were not free it would not be a gift.
Redundancy of this kind is invisible because the phrases are idiomatic — we hear them as single units rather than as words. Once you notice one, you start finding them everywhere.
The common ones
- free gift → gift
- advance planning → planning
- past history → history
- future plans → plans
- end result → result
- final outcome → outcome
- added bonus → bonus
- close proximity → near
- completely finished → finished
- absolutely essential → essential
- each and every → every
- first and foremost → first
- basic fundamentals → fundamentals
- unexpected surprise → surprise
- revert back → revert
- collaborate together → collaborate
- merge together → merge
- brief summary → summary
- personal opinion → opinion
- true fact → fact
Notice how many involve a non-gradable word being modified: completely finished, absolutely essential. If a word already means totality, the intensifier has nothing to add.
The phrases that inflate
A related family — not repeating a meaning, just taking several words to carry one:
- at this point in time → now
- due to the fact that → because
- in the event that → if
- for the purpose of → to
- in order to → to
- a large number of → many
- at the present time → now
- in spite of the fact that → although
- with regard to → about
- it is important to note that → delete entirely
That last one is worth its own note. Phrases like it should be noted that, it is worth mentioning that and needless to say can almost always be deleted whole. If it were needless to say, you would not be saying it.
When redundancy is doing something
Not every repetition is waste.
Legal doublets — null and void, cease and desist, terms and conditions — are historical, dating to a period when English legal language paired an English word with its French or Latin equivalent so both audiences understood. They survive as fixed phrases and changing them in a contract is unwise.
Rhetorical repetition is deliberate emphasis. Each and every one of you is redundant and it is also more emphatic than every one of you. In a speech that is the point.
Clarity in speech — spoken language tolerates more redundancy than written, because listeners cannot re-read. Padding that reads as bloated on the page can help an audience keep up.
The edit
Search your draft for very, really, actually, basically, in order to, the fact that and at this time. Delete each and reread the sentence.
Most survive unchanged and read better. The few that do not have earned their place.
Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.
