Redundancies

Almost every day I hear random redundancies come out of people’s mouths. I’m quite sure I use them too, so I’m not totally criticizing here. But they catch my ear.

One of them is the ubiquitous “3 a.m. in the morning.” (This one I do not use.) When I hear it, I always mutter, “What, as opposed to 3 a.m. in the evening?” A.M. indicates morning, so there is no need to add further description of the time of day. Either 3 a.m. or 3 in the morning will suffice.

I’ve been hearing a lot of “small little” lately. I keep hearing a local lawyer commercial that mentions the “small little check” you’ll get from the insurance company if you don’t use the lawyer’s services. I believe the intent here is emphasis: The check is smaller than small. But, really, small and little mean the same thing, don’t they? Why not emphasize with a word like tiny or a phrase like awfully small”? You could even use the oxymoronic enormously small.

One phrase I’ve railed against for a long time is “and also.” Technically, these words are two different parts of speech and there is no redundancy here. And is a conjunction and also is an adverb. And indicates a connection or addition. Also means besides or likewise. If you look up also on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the first example of the use of also includes and: “She’s a talented singer and also a fine actress.” Again, emphasis.

But why use both? Why not: “She’s a talented singer and a fine actress.” Also just seems like an unnecessary addition.

Do these phrases sound as odd and wrong to you as they do to me? What phrases make you cringe?