Continue on - Reminders about redundancies

Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

Continue on
Reminders about redundancies

REDUNDANT VERB ADD-ONS

Another rung in the redundancy rundown involves tagging an unnecessary word onto a verb—a word whose meaning has already been captured in the verb itself. For example, consider the common phrase “continue on.” Continue itself means “to go on” or “to move ahead.” So to say “continue on” states the last word twice: “go on on.”

Another example: “Ebeneezer is going to follow up on these stocks for the next month to see how they do.” Why not just “follow these stocks”?

Take a look at the following list for a few other such verb add-ons.

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Memory tip

Visualize a collapsible drinking cup for travelers. The meaning of the second word has already been collapsed into (incorporated in) the prior word.