Counted 13 "for sures" in Spain GP press conf., three just in FAlonso's above quote...
Can anyone best 13?

Also, 'honestly' or 'to be honest', gets to me (Schmicky is king of the latter).
Wut other annoying lingo is out there?

DC: "This year is my year"

McLaren drivers are pretty good at this.

"eee...it was pretty good, actually" - JPM
"..." - Kimi

"I was blocked during my hot-lap"

(need Flash Player)

Yeah. I've noticed that too.

I think that comes down to speaking a foreign language (Does Button, DC or any other native english-speaking driver use these phrases too?)

You easily adapt to using some phrases just to "fill up" space. I think it's like harking and using "ahh, ehh, huh" - that sort of things when you need a little break to think about what to say next because it doesn't come natural.

And I agree it can be a bit annoying, but also sort of charming - depending on how it's being used.

Spunout:

bwahahaha!

alonso also has "maximum" and "perfect".

Yeah Fir sure is an easy one. "Honestly" is another too. Most obvious ones anyway.

Martin Brundle using the word "MEGA" can stop any time soon.

From my experience, such mannerisms are very common when english is learnt (especially in adulthood) as a second language.

Shaun

Super-Fast, Super-Challenging, Super-Technical, Super-Fantastic...

Mostly from Brundle

If we're including annoucers, then I could live without Derek Daly's "Brutal".

"For sure" is amazingly common with non-native speakers.

What's most surprising about this particular turn of phrase is that it exists in the vocabulary of so many different nationals. MS uses it (though I've not heard it from him in the last few years, I think), FA uses it and even my dad (Russian) uses it.

JPM used 'you know' quite a bit. He certainly did in the past - not sure if he does any more.

Alonso also started to use "you know". I doubt he talks with Montoya in English so I'm confused. Kimi also uses "to think so" as "to think", in every case. There is something Alonso says related to "we" but I cannot remember it atm. Michael's "obviously" and "yeap" are also classics

MS:

honestly
those guys
did mistakes
for sure


If you look very carefully, you can make out a sentece of those, so maybe it's a secret message or smth

I don't know if he still does it, but Fisichella used to say pretty often "I'm very sorry" when he meant to say "I'm very sad".. For instance in the Brazil press conference (03) it went like ".....so I'm very sorry, but also very appy"

No.1 for M.Schumacher:

"The team..." followed in quick succesion by "amazing" or "I don't know what to say..." or ".. the way we/they work together..." or "these guys" followed by "really special" ..... AD NAUSEUM.

I think he means the team is good.

Barrichello:

"really"



Cooper

Schumie also says "honestly" alot.

"Are you disappointed?" When they obviously are.

"Rock and roll!" A James Allen special.

Not sure whether they're annoying to anyone, but for sure Martin Brundle has a few signature phrases and words, notably:

"box full of neutrals" (whenever a driver suffers gearbox failure)

"nerfed" as in "Sato's just nerfed Albers on the way into turn 3...". Not sure whether it should be "nerf" or "nurf", or what the etymology is, but it means a nudge rather than full-on smash.

For me Brundle is the best thing about ITV1's coverage of the sport, bringing together real knowledge and experience with a great ability to communicate - the familiar phrases are, to me, part of a successful presenting personality, so I'm offering these up for comment rather than criticism.

ps. Jensen Button definitely says definitely quite a lot.

Honestly


It is repeated over, and over, and over. It is fine every now and then, however it is said so much that it makes it seem everything else said is dishonest or implies that that person normally is not honest when speaking.

Thank you BuonoBruttoCattivo; I've been trying to get this one of my chest for a while


Zooropa21

It's 'nerf', and the derivation is early NASCAR from the southern states of the US. This will only mean much to the more elderly poster here, but it came up on TV programme 'Call my Bluff' many years ago. I think that Frank Muir had the correct definition. For sure.

A couple of Schumi-isms.

"Presents" (gifts/errors etc)
*Pucker up lips* while listening to next question
"If these things"
"On the other side"
"In this moment"

Kimi

"I think so" in the begginning of the race we had a good start and there was already a gap "I think so" that we should be "strong" in the future races, we had a big lead in the race so there "was no point really" in "pushing" hard and to make the car finish and in the future races "hopefully" Jaun Pablo won't have those problems again so "I think so" we should be "strong" in those future races "hopefully" but all we can do is turn up to the race weekends and "give our best" so "I think so" we should be "very strong", for the.. for the .. championship against Fernando.<---- FULLSTOP!

Well done!


Cooper

"I mean..." at the beggining of every sentence, when answering a question.

cj

I was going to say something about Kimi's "I think so" But I really like it.

It is a pleasure to listen to none native English people speaking English because they sometimes shy away from the standard clichés and construct English in new and interesting and often more accurate way, yes I think so!

Thanks HoldenRT funny stuff

"Quantum" + "leap"/"step" by Mr. Dennis and his employees. Its appearance usually means they're in deeeep trouble.

This, like nerf, is a long-used racing expression - the sport is (or at least, was) full of them. One of my all-time favourites is the use of 'Soapy' by mechanics as a nick for their under-achieving driver. It's short for 'couldn't drive a soapy stick up a dog's arse'...

Not annoying, more like quirky, but Ayrton Senna had a habit of dropping the end 'y' from certain words; for example, he'd say "if I have the opportunit", "there is the possibilit" and "Irvine is a twat".

......''brilliant''....... from any British driver,and any driver that has spent time in Britain[Montoya and Sato [etc]

"Hopefully" we will...whatever.

The "for sure" thing has driven me nuts for months now. I've noticed it's mostly any European I see on TV anymore. "for sure" "cheers" "no worries" , pick one, they all annoy the hell out of me.

"And I was, like,....", "awesome", "oh my God". All from the 'land of the free'.

Ah yes, let's get into a bit of national stereotyping!

(oh, but for US F1 drivers, I rather enjoyed "Fuck off" from Speed to Coulthard!)

I agree But I think it interesting to note that, in the case of Schumacher, he very often tends to standard German clichés and structure in his English.

If you, almost literally, translated many of his expressions into German (particularly HolderRT's examples) - they would sound normal and make (German) sense.

However 'honestly' is a bit overused - buying thinking time maybe?

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the word "obviously"

schumacher uses it all the time!

"Iz possibol..." oh wait that's MotoGP...

I turn this into a game whenever a certain driver is interviewed, counting how many times they repeat a certain word or phrase.

For Montoya it's "Ya know" (Mika Hakkinen also used to use this one)

Schuey is "to be honest"

Fisi "For sure" (very popular with Alesi and french and italian drivers in general)

Webber "Phenomenal"

With Kimi it's more like count the number of incomprehensible words. That being said, i can't speak Finnish so i shouldn't really criticise.

To be honest, ya know, for sure it's phenomenal when a bloke comes along that doesn't use these 'thinking' words. If only every driver was schooled in the Colin Edwards vocabulary it would be a far more interesting sport.

Haha

The one that always annoys me is the use of "we" as in "we had a bad lap" or "we spun off".

Mind you I've given up watching F1 press conferences as they speak in cliches, no new information is imparted, and you know exactly what they're going to say!

I'm probably maligning the man, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time I've done that, but the first driver I can recall using the 'royal we' in this context was Nigel Mansell. It hasn't become any less irritating with the passage of time and countless imitators.

It is clear to me that a proper grasp of the correct usage of the Queen's English should be a prerequisite of the granting of a Superlicence by the International Automobile Federation. These appalling abuses of the language by colonials, and even worse, by absolute foreigners, must be stamped out as a matter or urgency. For sure, to be honest, you know?.

Agreed, Mansell for sure (sic!) was the king of the "we". Another classic from him is "speaking with my police cap on", referring to some official function he used to have on the Isle of man.

The thing is, as already said, if english is not your first language your vocabulary is always somewhat limited. I know what I'm speaking of!

In an article I read somewhere it was mentionned that most of these mannerisms act as punctuation in the verbal language. Added to the fact that often, it's not their native language and if they had had the chance to attend 7 years of university they would be professors, speak easily, and have the chance to earn 2000€ per month, it's normal I guess that we are surprised, ammused and sometime upset by these annoying stuff...

Another remarks, I find their answers and mannerims a lot less irritating than the dull questions asked , for instance :
- " are you happy to have win this race ?"
- " after pole and best laps, you were easily first and on course for your first win this season, were you disapointed when your engine exploded"

And last : try to compare to the soccer interviews ....

That's not half as annoying as the misuse of 'we' by football (i.e. soccer) fans when referring to their side. Just because you watch every game and sulk when they lose does not make you part of the team!

It's logical, in that the supporters will stick with the team longer than the players, the board, the sponsors &c.

Most of the complained about language is merely verbal punctuation to avoid silences. The interesting thing linguistically is the use of things like "for sure", which are not idiomatically English, but may be a translation from something in the speaker's native language?

I'm sure that's right, my second language is German and I've noticed Michael Schumacher doing this a lot, even though his English is very good. I have a couple of friends, both high level English teachers in their home countries of Austria and Denmark, and though both speak virtually faultless accent-free English, both sometimes come out with slightly quaint expressions that aren't idiomatically correct, one that comes to mind from both is 'very estimated'. This wouldn't apply to anyone in F1, but not speaking regularly to native speakers means that unfamiliar expressions can be misunderstood. A German neighbour told me recently that her husband was turning into 'a potato couch'.

I'd like to add that none of what I've posted in this thread is intended a criticism of non-UK posters on this BB, most of whom cope admirably with an unfamiliar language. For sure.

I like Brundles "straight to the scene of the accident" when someone goes off - though I'm sure this must be a standard racing phrase.

The expressions which WOULD be idiomatically English never get taught, because they are not "grammatical" and do not get written in books. Things like "y'know". Or they are just overlooked - thinks like "actually", "to be honest", or are words that are not used in their correct sense, like "obviously" or "literally" and act more or less as intensifiers. Not the sort of thing that can be learnt by rote.

I was 100% sure somebody was going to post that. Well, it is already a classic...