The first and perhaps most common category of abusage is redundancy. As Bergen Evans puts it in A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage (1957), the adjective “redundant means being in excess, exceeding what is usual or natural…[and] in grammar [the noun] redundancy means the use of too many words to express an idea, such as combine together, audible to the ear, or invisible to the eye.”

Redundancy is perhaps the most common error in educated usage; it is also the easiest to eschew. Sometimes the problem comes from not knowing the precise meanings of the words we use. For example, when you realize that shuttle means “to go back and forth,” you see immediately that the common phrase “to shuttle back and forth” is a ludicrous redundancy. In most cases, however, redundancy occurs because we are not listening carefully to what we are saying; it is the result of poor concentration. All most of us need to overcome redundancy is a little ear-training to help us hear the repetition of the verbal note in phrases such as “at this point in time” and “audible to the ear.” When you train your ear to listen for redundancies, it’s easy to correct or eradicate them. And once your ear is tuned in, you’ll marvel at how you ever could have been so hard of hearing before, and you’ll wonder why so many people can’t hear the redundant phrases phrases in their speech speech.

That repetition was obvious, but the verbiage of redundancy is more subtle because it repeats the same ideas but in different words. Remember, from Level 5, my discussion of the advertising cliché free gift? When you step back and consider that free means you don’t have to pay and a gift is something given away free, then the phrase free gift appears ridiculous. The ubiquitousness of this redundancy makes you wonder—and you should wonder every time you hear it—whether there’s a catch. If they’re promising now to give me something free, then what are they going to ask me to pay for later? In his entertaining book The Writer’s Art (1984), syndicated columnist James J. Kilpatrick has one word to say about free gift: “Aaargh!”

To get your ears warmed up to the pervasive problem of redundancy, allow me to present some choice examples. You will probably recognize many of these redundant expressions because they are so common in everyday discourse.

Repeat again: How many times in your life have you heard someone say, “Could you repeat that again?” How many times have you asked that repetitive question yourself? By the way, those were just rhetorical questions, so please don’t answer them; it would pain me too deeply to learn how many times you’ve profaned the English language by repeating the repeat again redundancy.

As any dictionary will tell you, repeat means “to say again.” There’s no need to say “Could you repeat that again?” unless the phrase “that again” is what you wish to hear repeated. To avoid this pernicious redundancy, simply drop the word again and say “Could you repeat that?” Adding please to your request wouldn’t hurt.

Have you ever listened to people interacting with each other? I hope not. Interact by itself means to act upon one another, affect each other. Are you interested in rapid weight loss? Well, you can instantly lose three-quarters of the four-word phrase “interact with each other” because the word interact alone says it all.

Has anyone ever told you to endorse a check on the back? The next time someone says that to you, tell the person to take it back because endorse already means to write on the back of. You sign a check payable to someone else, and you endorse a check payable to you.

Here’s another redundancy I hope will not stand the test of time: past history. Has there ever been a future history or a present history? Past is an uneventful addition to the word history because history already means the events of the past.

How about future plans or plans for the future? Whenever I hear those phrases I wonder if they’re the opposite of past plans or plans for the past. A plan is a scheme or method for accomplishing some objective in the future. The all-too-common redundancy advance planning is a victim of the same futuristic trap. All planning is done in advance of action, so, taken literally, advance planning sounds as if it means planning before you start planning, or planning when you will begin to plan.

Yet another old redundancy is the phrase new innovation. If the unoriginal people who say “new innovation” would just stop in their banal tracks for a second and consider that an innovation is a new idea, method, or device, they’d realize that when they say “new innovation” they are saying, literally, a “new new idea.” Do you see how a precise word like innovation can so easily lose its power when people use it thoughtlessly?

Two other redundancies I’m eager to put a stop to are continue on and its partner in crime, proceed on. Both continue and proceed mean “to go on, move ahead”; adding the word on is unnecessary because continue and proceed already imply onward motion. Whenever someone tacks on the word on after continue or proceed, to my ear it’s like an oral tic or redundant twitch of the tongue. Moreover, speakers who develop the continue on, proceed on habit run the risk of going on and on ad infinitum (AD in-fi-NY-tum, endlessly, to infinity). Even if you are now guilty of committing this redundancy, it’s easy to get rid of. Whenever you say “continue” or “proceed,” just stop right there and don’t go on.

Once you become aware of redundancies, it seems as if they’re everywhere. In fact, to use one of our keywords from Level 6, you could say that redundancies are ubiquitous. Here are some more redundant samples you can put in a mental file marked “Say It Again, Sam.” I haved culled every one of them from “educated speech and writing.” Read carefully now, because I won’t repeat these again (just kidding!):

Fellow colleague: Your colleague is your fellow worker.
Cooperate together and collaborate together: Cooperate and collaborate both mean to work together.
Confer together: To confer means to get together to exchange views.
Combine together: Combine means to mix together.
Recur again: Recur means to happen again.
Completely unanimous: Unanimous means to be in complete harmony or agreement.
Vacillate back and forth (on an issue, matter, etc.): To vacillate means to waver, go from one side to the other or back and forth.
Report back: Eliminate back. To report means to carry back information and repeat it to someone else.
Return it back (to the store, etc.): To return means to give back. Eliminate back again.
Ascend upward: Ascend means to go upward.
Descend down: Descend means to go down.
Dwindle down: To dwindle means to decrease or go down gradually.
Passing fad: A fad is a brief or passing fashion.
Hoist up and raise up: Hoist and raise mean to lift up.
Real fact or actual fact: A fact is something real or actual, something demonstrable.
Erupt violently or explode violently: Erupt and explode mean to emerge or burst forth in a violent manner.
Mutual respect for each other: Mutual respect says it all because mutual means “for each other, given and received by each one.”
Compete with each other: Compete means to vie with another or others.
Final ultimatum: An ultimatum is a final demand.
Visible to the eye and invisible to the eye: What else but the eye can something be visible or invisible to—the nose?
Universal panacea or a panacea for all ills: If you remember our discussion of panacea from Level 4, you’ll remember that a panacea is a universal remedy, a cure for all ills.
New recruit: A recruit is a newly enlisted person.
Temporary reprieve: Reprieve means temporary relief.
Necessary requirement: A requirement is something necessary.
Final completion and final conclusion: Completion and conclusion both imply finality, so the word final is superfluous.
Opening gambit: A gambit is an opening move or a remark intended to open a conversation.
Each and every day: Say “each day” or “every day,” not both.
From whence: If the folks who say “from whence” looked up the word whence in a dictionary, they would see that it means “from where” or “from what place.” This redundancy should not go back from whence it came. It should go back whence it came.

But don’t you go away, because here are some more common redundant phrases in which one word already says all that is meant: large in size means large; small in size means small; few in number means few; extend out means extend; expand out means expand; radiate out means radiate; cancel out means cancel; reduce down means reduce; a consensus of opinion means a consensus; a variety of different choices means a variety of choices; and finally, in the phrases link together, merge together, and blend together, the word together adds nothing but baggage: Say link, merge, or blend, and throw together in the trash.

Some redundancies are so outrageous that it’s hard to believe the writer or speaker cannot hear the repetition of meaning. Get a load of these, every one of which I assure you I have either heard on radio or TV or seen in print:

Artificial prosthesis: A prosthesis is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, such as a leg.
Stonecut lithographs: A lithograph is an engraving made in stone.
An old antique: An antique is something old or old-fashioned.
Prerecorded earlier: Something prerecorded has been recorded earlier. Say “prerecorded” or “recorded earlier.”
Previous preconceptions: A preconception is a conception or opinion formed in advance, an opinion formed previously.
He was not physically present: Was he spiritually present? Did he have an outof-body experience? Drop physically and say you were not present.
Omniscient knowledge of all things: Omniscient (ahm-NISH-int) means allknowing, having knowledge of all things.
Completely annihilate: Annihilate means to destroy completely.
Current incumbent: An incumbent is a person currently holding an office. Don’t say “present incumbent” either.
Individual person: If a person is an individual and an individual is a person, then “an individual person” must be a person who is a person. Usage expert Theodore M. Bernstein advises that it’s best to use individual as a noun only when you mean to distinguish a person or persons from a class or category, as the individual and society, or benefits for corporations and individuals. In all other contexts, use person or people.
He wrote an autobiography of his own life: What other life could an autobiography be about but his own? The same goes for “She wrote a biography of his life.” A biography is the story of another person’s life. Make it “She wrote his biography.”
They were dressed identically alike: People are either dressed identically or dressed alike, but if they are “dressed identically alike” then they are dressed the same same, if you know know what I mean mean.

In conclusion, let me share with you just a few more ridiculous redundancies that I don’t think require any comment. Your laughter and scorn will suffice.

He has an appetite to eat.
She is one of two twins.
We have a population of people to feed.
She is quite popular with the people.
Given the current problems right now…
It happened unexpectedly without warning.

Are those redundancies “incredible to believe,” or are they simply incredible?

As I said before—and at the risk of “repeating myself again” and making it difficult for us to “interact with each other”—once you become aware of redundancy it’s easy to correct because the cure is simple: deletion.