Sunday 13 September, 2009

Do away with redundancy

Do away with redundancy

The dictionary defines redundancy as “Needlessly wordy or repetitive in expression”. Take a look at some words and phrases that are redundant in nature.
  • Free gifts     
Supermarkets offer free gifts.
In the sentence above free is redundant because a gift has to be free.
  • Pair of twins
They were blessed with a pair of twins   
Here a pair of is redundant because twins can only be a pair.
  • A variety of different vegetables
The shop dispalyed a variety of different vegetables.
Variety already denotes they are different, so different is redundant.
  • Past history    
The doctor looked at the past history of the patient’s illness.
Here, past is redundant because history can be only of the past.
  • Tuna fish     
Your  tuna fish cutlets are awesome.
Tuna is a species of fish, so the compliment can be rephrased as ‘ your tuna cutlets are awesome.’
  • Red color     
The walls are painted red in color.
Since red is a color, the correct usage would be- ‘the walls are painted red.’
  • Unexpected surprise  
He planned an unexpected surprise over the weekend.
Unexpected is the redundant word in the sentence above since a surprise is unexpected.
  • Revert back    
Do revert back on the project proposal.
A very common mistake that most of us make is to ask someone to revert back. Back is the redundant word here since revert means ‘to go back to’.
  • Round in shape  
My dining table is round in shape.
Since round is a shape, it would be better to say- My dining table is round.’
  • Discuss about
Who were they discussing about?
In the sentence above, about becomes a redundant word since discuss means ‘to talk about’.
  • Armed gunmen 
Armed gunmen were seen prowling around the city’s outskirts.
Gunmen are armed with guns, so armed becomes a redundant word. 
  •  Big giant  
A big gigantic spider was seen in the corner.
In the above sentence, big is redundant since giant means big.
  • Foreign imports 
Heavy duties were levied on the foreign imported car.
Foreign becomes the redundant word since anything imported from another country is foreign.
These abbreviations become redundant once expanded:
ATM machine 
Automated Teller Machine machine
PIN number
Personal Identification Number number
HIV virus 
Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus
GRE exam  
Graduate Record Examination examination
VAT tax  
 Value Added Tax tax

3 comments:

ಜಲನಯನ said...

Veena
what all can be redundant...? a MD question gets a reasonable answer thro your blog-post, the question is when humans become..redu....??? sorry..
Good article...
nanna blog goo banni allaa omme....

Prabhuraj Moogi said...

There are many abundant redundancies.... :) see again I used one like that... abundant has same meaning as many! when we try to give stress on something, it becomes repetitive...

Veena A said...

ಜಲಾನಯನ,
ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು..
ನಿಮ್ಮ blogಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಸಲ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೀನಿ ಆದರೆ ರಿಪ್ಲೈ ಮಾಡಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ ...

ಪ್ರಭು,
ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು ..
ಹೀಗೆ ಬರ್ತಾ ಇರಿ ...


ನೀವೆಲ್ಲ ಹೀಗ ಬಂದು ಹೋಗಿ...ನಾನು ಬರೆಯೋ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ ....