Saturday, April 25, 2009

#5. Rhetorical Questions (Odd Phrases Part:2)

Don't get me wrong, I feel a lot of rhetorical questions are pretty great and useful devices, it's just one kind in particular that I hate. Like with the last post, I'll use the phrase in an everyday conversation so that you'll understand which kind of rhetorical question I'm talking about.

Me-"Hey John, how are you today?"

John-"Oh I'm doing well. So you know what I did yesterday?"

Although I think we all use this phrase (Yes, even I use it, I know, I'm a hypocrite) it's by far the most annoying one for me. I have no idea what you did yesterday, and I really don't care to hear about it. Unless I somehow managed to stalk you and watch what you did, I really doubt that I'm going to know. I think my favorite one though, is when someone said "You know what I dreamed about last night?". I have no idea what you dreamed of last night. How in the world would i possibly know that? Another close cousin to this phrase is the "question and answer in the same sentence phrase", let me use and example.

John-"Hey Mike, so you know what I did yesterday? I took a shower!"

Although this one doesn't annoy me as much, since I don't have to say "What?" as a creepy smile creeps across their face, but this one brings up a whole new matter, why did you even ask the question if you're planning on answering it before I can say anything?

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