The end

At the end of the day, you're another day older...
At the end of the day, you're another day colder...
At the end of the day, there's another day dawning...

At the end of the day, you get nothing for nothing
Sitting flat on your butt doesn't buy any bread

These lines from the musical Les Miserables contain one of the most irritating phrases in the English language. I found Victor Hugo’s work a masterpiece, but Les Miserables was a most irritating musical. However, I don’t think any particular phrase was the reason for the misery I felt watching it.

If you hadn’t already guessed it, the phrase in question is “at the end of the day”. Ask any group of English native speakers what phrase they find irritating, and at least one will nominate this phrase. Most likely, two people will.

Researchers at Oxford University say it belongs at the top of their recently compiled list of irritating phrases. Why is it so annoying? Take a look at these examples.

• "At the end of the day, it's about increasing sales."
• "I could talk to John, but, at the end of the day, I'm the one who has to deal with the problem."
• "It's up to the players at the end of the day. We can put them in position, but they have to score the goals.”

Now, read them through once more, only this time, ignore “at the end of the day”. You could take out the phrase and the sentences wouldn’t lose any meaning, which is why some people hate it. It adds nothing. So why use it?

While the researchers at Oxford University find “at the end of the day” irritating, Mike McCarthy looks at the phrase in a more neutral way. McCarthy is co-director of the Cambridge and Nottingham Business English Corpus (CANBEC), which is a large collection of recordings of spoken interactions in business settings. The corpus is used by linguists to learn how native speakers use English in business situations. If you’re trying to learn business English — or are teaching business English — McCarthy’s findings will be of interest to you.

This weekend, McCarthy presented some of his research in a talk at a conference organized by BESIG, the Business English Special Interest Group. BESIG is part of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL). The annual conference is an excellent opportunity to learn about developments in business English teaching.

In his talk, McCarthy focused on frequently used phrases, rather than irritating ones. Nevertheless, at the top of his list of phrases with six words was also “at the end of the day”.

McCarthy argues that native speakers use this phrase as a filler. While they are saying the “meaningless” phrase he believes they can be thinking about what they really want to say. He suggests that learners should be using this phrase, too, so that they can sound more fluent.

If you do decide to use this phrase, say it fast. The quicker you can say “at the end of the day”, the more natural you could sound. Just try not to say it too often, or you could become just irritating rather than fluent.

Wise Words: at the end of the day

"You decide if you want to use it or not! At the end of the day, it's your decision."

Definition: when everything is taken into consideration.

According to the Urban Dictionary, this is a "rubbish phrase used by many annoying people".