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alt title(s): Spoon Speaker; Tic Talker; Needs More Desu
"Oh, it's just an endearing little quirk of hers. I'm sure we'll all get used to it.''
"Yees..."
An exceptionally odd Catch Phrase, used to the point it seems more like a bodily emission than speaking. This is often a single nonsense word added at the end of sentences, well past the expected formal variations in speech. Occasionally, it'll be a stretched-out and bizarre play on Japanese grammar. This is rarely, if ever, applied when the series is dubbed into English.
Both variants are extremely common in bishoujo titles, because this makes characters sound cuter. The version where it's just a cute catchphrase seems to have originated from Kanon, which popularized "uguu", among others; the sentence-ender version was wildly popularized, though not invented, by Rozen Maiden, to the point where a cute sentence ender is also called a "desu".
Often associated with catgirls, where some form of "Nya" or "Nyan" (the Japanese onomatopeia for the noise a cat makes) follows nearly anything that they say. The Chinese Girl equivalent is "aru", although in some contexts this might be considered borderline racist and hence it is not prevalent.
The reason this is so endemic in Japanese media is because of the grammar of the language. Sentence-ending "particles" carry significant contextual meaning. For example, take the sentence "Wiki da," or "It's a Wiki." If you add "yo" at the end, (or the more masculine "zo" or "ze" or the Kansai "ya"), you are making a strong declaration: "I'm telling you it's a Wiki." If you add "ne" or "na" to the end, you are making an observation, or a request for for confirmation: "It's a Wiki, right?" If you add "ka," you turn it into a question; if you add, "sa," you express doubt, frustration, or fatalism about it; and so on and so on. These particles' usage changes slowly as part of Japanese cultural churn; some which were once associated with women's speech can now be used by either gender. To help characters stand out, writers frequently invent new particles as a little extra something. It rarely carries over well to dubbed media and is often done poorly or dropped altogether.
A version of this is also used in the west, but generally less cute and more crazy - think Gollum. If the verbal tic is the sole or strongest part of a character's vocabulary, such as with Gollum, the character can end up being named after it.
Contrast with Strange Syntax Speaker, where the character is using language rules unknown to others. See also Character Tics, for similar idiosyncrases applied to physical behaviour.
Aiyyo, this is Truth In Television too, as some regional dialects like, totally have a little bit of this as part of their local mannerisms, eh? Oh, look. Now you've Got Me Doing It.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Tagmec, The Grim Reaper of Marmundo in Aqua Knight, has a habit of randomly tagging "Bone" to the end of his sentences.
- Suupuushan of Houshin Engi adds "-su" to his sentences. His parents also have their own suffixes that they add. There's also Kou Tenka, who adds "-sa".
- One side story in the Hellsing manga had Alucard dreaming about him meeting the spirit of his gun, who was a Bruce Willis parody. Just to hammer the point home, he ended every single sentence with "-wirisu".
- Mikamo, the sadistic torturing robot antagonist from one chapter of the Tenchi Muyo manga, has something like this, in that he occasionally replaces words with "chu". Often used to humorous censoring effect: "Damn you all, you chu-ing scum!"
- Most of the cast of Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does this.
- Colonello in particular as he ends every sentence with "Kora!"
- King Dedede in the Kirby anime ends most of his sentences with zoy. Escargo(o)n, his caretaker, says degesu instead of desu. Both of these quirks were dropped for the dub.
- Referenced/played with when Escargon was pretending to be Dedede, and kept ending his sentences with "degesu zoy".
- In World Destruction, Toppi, a bear-tribe mercenary, adds "kuma" or bear to the end of his sentences. He claims that it is how he shows his racial pride.
- Di Gi Charat - Nyo (Dejiko), Nyu (Puchiko), Gema (Gema), Pyo (Piyoko). The character Murataku was introduced when he came to complain about all the weird people who end their sentences with strange syllables.
- Kurumi's "Kyuiin!" exclamation/interjection in the original Japanese version of Steel Angel Kurumi. (ADV's translation note for this "word" in the manga refers to it as, "totally made up, and inescapably cute"). Also, Kurumi's addition of "desu" to the end of virtually every sentence, which since then has been imitated a lot.
- In The Law of Ueki many of Uekis opponents have this habit. It's even adressed in the anime itself; when the opponent is introduced, Boss Subtitles are displayed, along with the Verbal Tic, if the opponent has one.
- Chichiri's habit of ending every sentence with "no da" in Fushigi Yuugi. (A valid bit of Japanese, but much like adding "Isn't that right?" to every sentence one says - isn't that right?) And if he doesn't have anything to add to the conversation, sometimes he just says "Daaaah!"
- Naruto's titular character has the habit of adding "Dattebayo" or "~ttebayo" to the end of his sentences and speech, which ups the intensity / annoyance factor of the sentence, and is what children use when they're trying to get the attention of adults who are studiously ignoring them. It was translated into "Believe it!" for the American dub, a decent compromise if nothing else. Unfortunately, considering how often it was used (Occasionally more than the original Japanese, especially in the games), it quickly became insanely annoying, Believe it! This was apparently acknowledged, as later episodes use the phrase much less, if at all.
- In one episode, Sasuke mocks Naruto's constant use.
Naruto: Oh no you don't, Sasuke. They came here to interview me, not you.
Sasuke: They came here to interview everyone, loser. There are other ninja here, you know. Believe it!
- Why didn't they go for "You know?", which has the same sense of asking for a response while also being an actual Verbal Tic of some English speakers?
- Other characters have their own phrases; Konohamaru, the grandson of the Third Hokage, ends most of his sentences with "kore", and Akatsuki villain Deidara punctuates his speech with a drawn out "hmm", which is retained verbatim in the dub.
- Himura Kenshin in Rurouni Kenshin makes a habit of speaking in archaically formal Japanese, using the "de gozaru" verb form. (He's using it wrong, however.) This gets translated into English as a rather awkward, repetitive, countrified emphasis in sentence construction, such as "It would not be wise of you to attempt this, that it would not." He also uses the very old and archaic personal pronoun 'sessha', which was generally used by the samurai up until about the time Kenshin lived, but is nearly unheard of anymore. Translating it into 'this one' is actually about right, it's very formal. It wouldn't have been terribly odd to hear someone use it in the time period that Rurouni Kenshin is set in, but it's very odd and distinctive today.
- That may be so in Viz' translation of the manga,but in the english dub of the anime,Kenshin always refers to himself in the first person.Still,he tends to end his sentences with "That I am" or "That I do".
- The "de gozaru" is so frequent that at one point, a baby starts calling him "Gojaru" (babytalk for "de gozaru") because he thinks that's Kenshin's name. And let us not forget Kenshin's famous "oro?" which he uses to mean "what the...?"
- Mugimaru from Nurse Witch Komugi would often use "mugi" at the end of his sentences.
- Nagisa Shiratori from Chou Kuse Ni Narisou
- Mill from Maze Megaburst Space
- Jan-Puu from Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl
- Monta from Eyeshield 21 "-MAX!" as suffix, or "MAXI-" as a prefix in the English manga translation. He tends to use it more as an adjective than a suffix, though. "That's, like, effort MAX!"
- Ikkyuu uses "oni" to mean something like "really, really" or "totally," as in "She's oni pretty." "Oni" means "devil", but that isn't really relevant to this case.
- At which point, "wicked" would be a good translation if you didn't mind sounding Totally Radical.
- That wouldn't make Ikkyuu sound Totally Radical, he'd just sound like a New Englander. (As a proud New Englander, wicked is NOT Totally Radical)
- Almost every doll in Rozen Maiden has something like this.
- As the most direct example, it has Suiseiseki with "desu". In polite Japanese, "desu" at the end of a sentence can mean "is" or "are", but it is typically clipped in speech to something more like 'des'; Suiseiseki, unusually, stresses the final vowel. In fact, the sentence ender as a trope is most often called "the desu" outside of this wiki, due to Memetic Mutation regarding this character. (ED has the full story desu
.)
- Similarly, Hina-Ichigo with "na no," roughly meaning "definitely!"
- To a slightly lesser extent, Shinku with "da wa" (which when not a tic can be legitimate Japanese).
- In the second season, it adds Kanaria with "kashira," roughly translated to "maybe?" (as a parallel to Hina-Ichigo). All of these are natural parts of Japanese sentence structure used to the point of being odd.
- Souseiseki uses the male pronoun "boku" for herself (she lacks the other characteristics of a Bokukko, though). Justified, since she had been impersonating a young boy against her will for quite some time before the series began.
- Finally, the second season's Big Bad, Barasuishou, has a habit of simply repeating what anyone says to her.
- Suigintou seems to have been spared from this trope, although she stretches the ending vocals of sentences.
- Similarly, Risky Safety had one character that appended "desu no" to every sentence where it would be grammatically feasible - if not appropriate.
- Aisha from Outlaw Star tends to throw in the masculine-sounding "zo na" every few sentences.
- In Keroro Gunsou, Keroro tends to append "de arimasu" to almost all his sentences, while Tamama uses "desu", Kururu uses "da yo", and Dororo uses "de gozaru". There's also a minor character, Space Police Officer Poyon, who tends to end her sentences with "poyo". "De arimasu" and "de gozaru" are both valid Japanese (both are polite, military-style forms of "de aru", the Japanese equivalent of the verb "to be"); however, "de gozaru" is rather archaic, and "de arimasu" is rarely used outside of the military - not to mention that Keroro and Dororo use them excessively and outside of proper context.
- The Gikongan flavour "Chappy" in Bleach places an energetic modsoul in your body that ends every sentence with "Pyon". The English (manga) translation has Chappy punctuating her sentences with "Hop."
- Which pretty much is a direct translation of the onomatopoeic word. Somewhat annoyingly, the English dub seems to have abandoned this idea in favor of her using "cutesy-wootsy" speech.
- Then there is Dondochakka that ends his sentences with yansu! (subtitled as Don't cha know).
- In the fillers, The Stoic modsoul Nova often says "montai nai," meaning "no problem," and has occasionally said the opposite, "montai ga aru (There is a problem)."
- Lum from Urusei Yatsura ended her sentences with "'cha" or "da'cha".
- She also refers to herself using a rather rare pronoun "uchi", which in addition to the "-cha" was a way girls talked to make themselves sound cuter.
- Sent up in an omake chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist manga, where Al, after asking Ed for advice on how to raise his popularity, is told he should adopt a unique personal speech habit, like "adding 'nyu' or 'nya'" to the end of his sentences.
- The title character of Oruchuban Ebichu has the unusual habit of replacing "s" with "ch" as much as possible - and thus her owner's title of respect repeatedly comes out as "Go-shuujin-chama", which sounds childish.
- Professor Daitokouji in Yu-Gi-Oh GX tends to end sentences with "-nya" (the Japanese sound for a cat's meow), and the dinosaur-loving Kenzan often ends his with "-saurus" or "-don". Sho Marufuji would end many sentences with "ssu" (an elision of "desu"). Professor Chronos de Medici also likes to end his sentences with "(na) no ne" ("Is that not so?"), and his co-worker Napoleon ends his sentences with "de aru".
- In one episode, as they argue bitterly, Chronos and Napoleon take to calling each other by their specific sentence ending.
- The Pretty Cure multiverse gives every Non Human Sidekick one such catch phrase.
- Futari Wa Pretty Cure: Mipple ("mipo"), Mepple ("mepo"), Porun ("popo")
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash*Star: Flappi ("lapi"), Choppi ("chopi"), Mupu ("mupu"), Fupu ("pupu")
- Yes! Precure 5: Coco ("coco"), Nuts ("natsu"), Milk ("miru") - and listing those added in the second season would take too much time.
- Surprisingly averted in Fresh Pretty Cure - Chiffon spoke babytalk until episode 13 and Tart spoke with a heavy Kansai accent.
- Kaede Nagase in Mahou Sensei Negima ends most of her sentences with "de gozaru", the archaic speaking style highlighting her "samurai-like" personality. Ku Fei ends hers in "aru" or "arune", intended to convey a Chinese accent.
- In Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series, the ridiculously stereotypical American Bandit Keith from Yu-Gi-Oh adds "In America!" to the end of most of his sentences. Parodied in the episode where he duels Joey; as Joey plays Copycat, he declares, "This lets me copy your Catch Phrase... in America!"
- Also, Kemo (Pegasus' henchman, known as the "Nameless Henchman" in the series) constantly begins his sentences with "Attention, Duelists!" and narrates his actions and moods in the third person - but replacing references to himself with his (spectacularly pointy) hair. For instance, "My hair is inviting you to enter the castle!" or "Attention, duelists! My hair is assaulting you!"
- At one point, the two run into each other, and mutter to themselves about the other's odd speech patterns.
- Joey very often goes "NYEH!" for no reason. It's been noted that he himself has no idea he's doing it, and seems not to hear it at all, wondering what Bakura means when he references the Nyeh-sound.
- Same with Valentine. "My Breasts.." dot dot dot something.
- Nishiyama Kankuro in Muteki Kanban Musume, adds "nya" to every sentence he finishes. He's quite probably the only male humanoid character in anime who does this.
- Nia, the apprentice Biter in DearS always adds "ni" to her sentences as well. In fact, sometimes it's the only thing she says.
- Mojo Jojo in Demashita Powerpuff Girls Z usually adds "-mojo" to the end of his sentences. (Presumably, the producers gave him this tic because the American version's grandiose grammar-wankery wouldn't translate well into Japanese - especially since, according to some sources, it's a parody of too-literal translations of Japanese into English.)
- This happens with other characters. Peach the digital dog (-wan), the Amoeba boys (-nume), and Fuzzy Lumpkins (-de mon da). Generally this seems to be an indication that the speaker isn't human, except in one certain case: Miyako, who ends her sentences with "desu wa".
- Kamio Misuzu in AIR, who is fascinated with dinosaurs, often says "Gao" (her idea of the sound a dinosaur makes) when surprised, distressed or embarrassed.
- Gao is the sound a dinosaur makes in Japanese. (For extra credit, look up the Japanese word for a dog's barking.)
- Kanon is full of such characters: Nayuki ("nyuu"), Makoto ("auu"), and Ayu ("uguu"), to the point of being overdone. It adds tremendously to the moe factor of the girls though, especially in Ayu's case - it's just so darn cute, which of course it is also helped by the marvelous performance of Yui Hori, Ayu's voice actress.
- Nagisa Furukawa in Clannad is also fond of ending her sentences with desu~.
- Though not a heroine, Sayuri Kurata from Kanon tend to said "ho-e?" a lot. Whether or not this is influenced by Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura is unclear; although, due to Sakura's GenkiGirl personality, her ho-es are usually much more verbal.
- Pani Poni Dash has a cat-like creature who ends its sentences with "nya", a tanuki that ends its sentences with "de yansu", and a giant salamander that ends its sentences with "kero".
- Not to mention Himeko, who says "Maho" practically every other sentence.
- Akane Serizawa, when in her "Roboko" disguise, says "piko piko" randomly in an apparent attempt to indicate Roboko "computing."
- Yanki tends to punctuate his sentences with "dot com."
- Sayaka Suzuki uses "... Of The Year", in English, as her nonsensical way of adding emphasis. (Example: "Becky is hungry of the year.")
- Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew occasionally "nya"s, as she is a catgirl; Chinese Girl Bu-ling avoids the stereotypical "aru" and instead says "nano da" to show that she's a Genki Girl, and Ojou Minto says "desu wa".
- Mocchi from the Monster Rancher series adds "chi" to the ending of most of his lines. Sometiems he simply exclaims "Chi!", too.
- Tsuruya in Suzumiya Haruhi said the word "nyoro" only once in the anime, though she uses it more often in the light novels, in which she is a more prominent character. This, too, has become a Memetic Mutation, with the fan-comic character "Churuya", a chibi version of Tsuruya that says "nyoro~n" at the end of every strip.
- However, she does regularly add an additional 's' at the end of her words. Whether this is a lisp due to her snaggletooth or just a way of talking is anyone's guess.
- Several characters in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni.
- Rena Ryugu has a habit of repeating the final words of sentences, most famously kana, kana (I wonder, I wonder.)
- Satoko Hojo has generally flaky grammar, mixing up her first person pronouns and ending her sentences in wa even when it would be considered improper.
- Rika Furude likes to use nipaa~ (an onomatopoiea for 'smiling') and mii (a nonsense word). Technically, not onomatopoeia but phenomime.
- She occasionally uses the "nipaa" to defuse one of her many Creepy Child moments.
- Rika also has a habit of saying "Nano desu" after her sentences,which is translated as "Sir" in the official manga translation(she uses sir for everyone,including her friends,no matter their gender).
- The second season character Hanyuu's trademark is a cry of au au au! when she is upset.
- She apparently does this a bit more often in the sound novels.
- The main character of Konjiki No Gash Bell ends almost all of his sentences with "na(ru) no da", an expression of emphasis that loosely reads as "isn't it?", although it's seldom translated.
- In the anime-only (that is, not from the original manga) episode of Hayate no Gotoku! (Hayate The Combat Butler), the supporting cast gets caught in a roleplaying game, with a villain whose verbal tic is "-tima." She reveals in one of her monologues that "-tima" is part of her punishment, and something she will be able to get rid of if she defeats the heroes. It's so bad she writes it on a welcome banner.
- RockmanEXE has entirely too many of these. Higure's "de masu" (brought over in the games as "huh", forgotten in the anime), Gutsman's "de gatsu" and Toadman's "kero" (brought over as "guts" and "ribbit"), Aquaman's "pyuu", Iceman's "desu", Bubbleman's "puku", Diveman's "deaaru", the list just doesn't stop.
- In the US version, Bubbleman goes "Blub" about as often as a Smurf says "Smurf". Presumably for the same reason.
- The sequel series, Ryuusei no Rockman (Mega Man Star Force) has a few more of these. The most oustanding is Cancer Bubble's "~buku" dialect. Since Cancer Bubble has the same theme and basic role (inept comic relief villain) as Bubbleman from the original, this might be him actually taking after Bubbleman, puku.
- Nyu/Lucy from Elfen Lied can only say "Nyu" while in her Nyu personality. It's darker than is usually seen with this trope, as it's not just a cute habit; it's brain damage from being shot in head.
- Only in the anime. She starts out this way in the manga, but becomes more articulate as the series progresses, regaining some standard speech habits and even singing. Nyu and Kaede/Lucy are still distinctly separate personalities, though.
- Noda Megumi of Nodame Cantabile often uses nonsense words such as "Mukya!" and "Gyabo!"
- Wilhelmina Carmel of Shakugan No Shana ends nearly every sentence with "de arimasu", de arimasu.
- Said expression was adapted in the dub by making the character say "indeed" in pretty much every sentence. The results are satisfactory indeed. It was indeed a nice Woolseyism.
- Domino uses the unnecesary convoluted "de gozaimasu desu", which is basically the same thing both in a formal and informal way one after the other.
- Freya in Matantei Loki ends absolutely every sentence with "desu" (ie, "Hai desuu!").
- Taichi Dan from Prince Of Tennis is another "desu" user, and Ryoma Echizen almost always says "mada mada dane" when he pwns someone. Subverted in the case of Shinya Yanagisawa: he finishes his phrases with "da ne" and at one point Kaidoh and Momoshiro go all "STFU" at him.
- Suouin Kana from Otome Wa Boku Ni Koishiteru has an annoyingly long sentence ending ~na no desu yo.
- From DGrayMan, Lero, the Millennium Earl's sentient umbrella, adds "-lero" to the end of his sentences.
- The sadisitc Akuma Eshi, being an artist when still human, begins most of his sentences with "Title."
- While not necessarily a verbal tic, the Millennium Earl ends all his sentences (in the manga) with a heart. No matter what. This is occasionally creepy, since the Earl is the Omnicidal Maniac Big Bad.
- Nyake from Kamichama Karin ends her sentences with "da shi".
- Pokemon: In the Japanese version of episodes 18-19, the two Obabas (US: Brutella in ep. 18 and Nastina in ep. 19) would end whatever they say with "-baba".
- Team Rocket's Meowth would occasionally "-nya", which makes sense as he's a cat. The dub tried to do this with the English "meow", but it was quickly dropped. Not to forget Haruka, (US: May), that used "-kamo" at the end of most sentences in the season she is introduced; it was played as a joke with her pokemon, Achamo (AKA Torchic), that always repeated "-chamo" at the end of the sequences.
- There's also Hikari (Dawn) who usually says "Daijobu". Unlike the other examples, it's actually translated into english as "No need to worry".
- The fictional Nessie-like lake monster Kishi in Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro adds "-ki" to the end of every sentence. When the murderer "crosses the line" and transforms, he also speaks in this way.
- Franky of One Piece, among his other eccentricities, uses "super" in a variety of ways (including shouting it at the top of his lungs) when he's in a good mood.
- This is only the tip of the iceberg, a section on the unique laughs
alone would be enough for its own page.
- Unique laughs aside, there are a couple other characters with similar verbal tics. Buggy tends to say "flashy" in a flashy way every sentence where it's remotely flashily possible, for example.
- Nmaa, verbal tics are - Mmmmm!<3 - common in One Piece, chapapa.
- Various characters in Digimon had it: Culumon, Guilmon and Piyomon on occasion, ShogunGekomon. It became particularly prominent in Digimon Frontier, though, with many secondary characters having very obvious ones. Baby I digimon had Pokemon Speak in Digimon Adventure.
- Marumaro of Blue Dragon sometimes added "-maro" as a sentence ender.
- Kogarashi from Kamen No Maid Guy uses "ku ku ku" a lot in his sentences.
- The Robot Buddy Giru in Dragonball GT often repeated his own name.
- Uzura, an animate doll from Princess Tutu, ended most sentences with "zura."
- Dio, the main villain of the 1st & 3rd story arcs of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure ends almost all of his sentences with '-te yare', which is about the most elaborately condescending way to give other people a direct order. It roughly translates in intent to giving an order to an insect or inanimate object.
- As well, a relatively minor enemy from the second story, Wired Beck, can't help but say 'ok' at the end of every sentence.
- Gyro in Steel Ball Run has a weird little chuckle he uses when things get interesting: Nyohoho~
- Coopa of The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk tends to end many of her sentences with "de gozaimasu".
- Many of the Monsters Of The Week in Sailor Moon do this, adding their name or part of it to the end of sentences. (Actually, the monsters that don't do this are generally only capable of saying their own name, period.)
- The Token Loli in Girls Bravo adds "na no da" to all of her sentences. Her magic formula even goes "poru poru poru na no da!".
- Cardcaptor Sakura's main character has her ever present "Hoee".
- Haruko from FLCL sometimes ends her sentences with random tics such as "pyon" or "nyaa", though this is more to come across as an eccentric, mischievous person. Her codas are usually ad hoc, such as "nyaa" in an episode that was framed by a cat theme.
- Mamimi, on the other hand, expresses the -ssu coda throughout.
- Boss in Mazinger Z often ends his words with "Da wa sa". He discards it in the Mazinkaiser OVA, da wa sa.
- Subaru from Comic Party often says "ugyuu" for no reason at all; It's, among other things, her equivalent of "Oh?"
- Ume from Air Gear (in the manga, at least) often punctuates her sentences with "deshi."
- While believing she is a child, the titular character of Nanaka 6/17 often says "Hayaya" or "Hawawa" when surprised by something. This is partly in imitation of the Magical Girl in the Show Within A Show she loves.
- Belbel, Beth's assistant in Petite Princess Yucie, very classically ends every sentence with "desu".
- In the English dub, she ends with a quick 'yes!' every so often.
- In Kyattou Ninden Teyandee (aka Samurai Pizza Cats), Yattaro (Speedy Cerviche) always says "Teyandee!" to whatever he says.
- Chobits has Chii's case, similar to Nyu's mentioned above, and Plum/Sumomo's, that ended her sentences with desu and preceded Suiseiseki on it.
- Shark Fujishiro from Seto No Hanayome speaks as if all sentences were interrogatory.
- Little-known Ken Akamatsu work Mao-chan (originally released around the end of Love Hina's run, though only just now being translated into English in an official publication features a character named Misora who ends her sentences with "arimasu". In the English version, this is translated as "don'tcha know!" or "if ya please!". .
- Also, Sylvia, who refers to the other girls as "dudettes" and often starts sentences with "yo, yo" The translation notes say this was just to convey a general manner of casualness to her speech.
- Misha and her constant "Suuuu~" or "Nyaaa~" at the end of her sentences in Pita Ten. Even lampshaded on occasion by several characters.
- In Shugo Chara, several of the Shugo Chara use Verbal Tics, including Yoru's "~da nya~" and Su's "desu~" (which is pronounced like in Rozen Maiden).
- Mileina Vashti from Gundam 00, perhaps as part of her Genki Girl persona or she's just following Suiseiseki's example, usually ends her sentence with 'Desu'.
- The titular character of Otogi Juushi Akazukin says "juushi" at every opportunity, leading to another character wondering what's so "juicy" anyway.
- Mahoraba Thrives on these, with almost every character having one tic or another.
- Kagura from Gintama ends many of her sentences with "aru" (which is translated as "uh-huh" in the Viz licensed volumes). At one point, when the other characters thought Kagura was gone from the story, Otae (aru/uh-huh), Sacchan (nin-nin) and Catherine (nya/meow) make up their own verbal tics in an attempt to be chosen as the new female lead.
- Paya-tan, the "heroine's" animal mascot in Dai Mahou Touge, ends his sentences with "-paya!" except when in Jouji Nakata mode.
- Arita Shion, Birdy's idol/part-time model alter-ego in Birdy The Mighty: Decode speaks in a forced bubbly manner, accentuating all the final 'u' sounds in words that have them and adding "de arudesu~" to most sentences.
- The demon in Baccano that gave Maiza the secret to eternal life regularly peppers his speech with a phrase that roughly translates into "but, whatever." Now, isn't funny that camorrista Ronnie tends to use that very same phrase...
- The main character of Iono The Fanatics has "-zoyo". As in, "Would you like to be my sobame (concubine), zoyo?"
- Each member of GEAR Fighter Dendoh's Goldfish Poop Gang ends all of his sentences with a different tic: -dawa, -bari, or -jyan.
- Chappy, the enchanted broom from Himechan No Ribon, ends every sentence with the onomatopoeia for "swish swish".
- "Manager" from Excel Saga (the Emeraldas-lookalike character) ends most sentences with "isn't it?" in the English translation of the manga.
- Aah, that's right, Signum of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has her distinctive "Aah" which she uses as a preface for certain statements or simply as a very old-fashioned "Yes".
- There's also Wendi, the cheerful, red-headed, Hover Board riding cyborg who has a habit of adding a "~su" at the end of her sentences ~su.
- Shigure from Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple has an odd habit of pausing once or twice per sentence, oftentimes right in the middle of a wo...rd.
- Miu tends to end her sentences with 'Desu wa.'
- The Chinese Tsun family in Doctor Slump say "yes" often, such as, "Ah! That is Turbo, yes!" So when someone asks Tsun Tsuku-tsun a question, he responds with, "No, yes!"
- In Welcome To The NHK, there's Puru Puru Pururin, where the eponymous heroine ends her sentences with '-purin'.
- In Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, Maria has her trademark "U~." This actually has some significance to the plot. According to her, it's a spell for happiness.
- Also something of a deconstruction; if her mother is to be believed, the weird speech pattern is the reason she's bullied in school and has no friends. It's certainly the reason said mother smacks her.
- Quon from Rah Xephon tends to say "ra ra" when surprised or confused.
- "MISAKA from To Aru Majutsu No Index narrates her own dialogue from the third person perspective," explained the troper.
- "'Similarly, Last Order narrates herself narrating her own dialogue from the third-person perspective,' said the troper," said the troper.
- Sora, the main character of Kaleido Star, occasionally repeats the last word or sound of a sentence three times, times, times. She actually doesn't do it often in the actual series, except when she is very excited or worried about something and mostly for comic relief, but she does it at the end of the brief introduction at the begining of every episode, sode, sode.
- Touka of Saki has a "Desu Wa" Verbal Tic as fitting The Ojou desu wa. The title of her Image Song gave this a Lampshade Hanging: "You Won't Escape... Desu wa!"
- Momoko, meanwhile, has a tendency to add "-su" at the end of her sentences when she's talking aloud-su.
- And don't forget Yuuki's "Je!"
- A one-time character in +Anima ended all of his sentences with "Now,". Because he spoke frequently, and in very short sentences, it got rather grating by the end of the chapter.
- Eruka Frog from Soul Eater often uses "geko," the Japanese equivalent of "ribbit."
- Chikinaro from Utawarerumono often ends his sentences with a drawn-out "Haaaiii..." which actually means "yes" in Japanese. Some Western characters actually do a similar thing, yes. This is only in the Japanese version of anime, though, I have no idea if he does it in the original game or in the English dub.
Rizelmine's Lan-Lan and Rachel have them, being foreigners. Lan-Lan uses the Chinese "-aru" frequently, while Rachel, being Russian, ends her sentences with "-ski" often, as this is a common ending to Russian words.
Comic Books
- The interstellar
bounty hunter freelance peacekeeping agent Death's Head would often end his sentences with "Yes?"
- Or "no?", or "huh?". "Yes?" is the most common, though.
- In the Asterix comic books, the title character is bemused on a visit to England by the locals' habit of adding ", what" to the end of their sentences.
- The original French version has them speak using British expressions (translated in French) and use French words but with an English syntax; adjective-noun instead of noun-adjective.
- In the Sandman series, the character Fiddler's Green (A part of land in the Dreaming who walks the world as a human named Gilbert), always interjects the word "Hoom." into his statements.
- Rorschach's "Hrm." According to Jackie Earle Haley, who plays him in The Movie, it's impossible for him to do without wearing the mask.
- Bug, of Micronauts, Annihilation: Conquest and —*Tik!*— Guardians of the Galaxy takes this to its logical extremes, as his tic is that his speech is randomly interrupted by "TIK", a side effect of his speaking difficulties
- Blindfold of X-Men is... hard to describe. Basically, as she's having a conversation with you, she sounds like she's giving yes-or-no answers to someone just offscreen.
- In The Walking Dead, Axel ends most of his sentences with a "You follow me?"
- Golden Age Etta Candy has "woo woo!"
- When facing down a Khund warrior, Modern Age Lt. Candy sarcastically muttered "Woo &^%$ing woo!"
- Fallen Angel has Chief Examiner Slate, henh. It appears to be a trait of the position, as his successor, Ezil, has inherited it.
- Doufu Ma from Bowling King doesn't have a specific phrase he uses... but his constant stammering (which ruins his Bishounen image) is definitely a verbal tic.
- When Canadian John Byrne was writing the Marvel Comics series Alpha Flight (about a Canadian superhero team), Puck had the stereotypical Canadian habit of adding "eh?" to the end of his sentences. He specifically did not have that tic in thought balloons.
- Similarly, several Marvel monsters as seen in Nick Fury's Howling Commandos, including the Glob (who needs a special respirating device to speak and breathes with a deep "-SSSK-" a few times a sentence) and the Zombie, whose limited intelligence keeps him from completing a thought without stumbling through it with several uses of "Um..."
- And following that pattern, as The DCU's Metal Men began to develop more distinct and expressive personalities, Dumb Muscle Lead couldn't complete a thought without interrupting it with "Uhh..." Tin's stammering may also count, and Mercury boasts about the fact that he's the only metal that's liquid at room temperature so often it might as well be one of these, too.
- Batman villain Scarface has a slight variation in that he pronounces the letter "B" as "G" (due to the fact that the Ventriloquist is the one actually talking and this is an actual problem faced by many ventriloquists); Humorously, this means, among other things, that he cannot propoerly say "Batman" or, indeed, speak intelligably at all depending on the context. When Peyton Riley became the new Ventriloquist, Scarface's "B" sounds became actual "B" sounds.
- In a more straight example that ties into this, Scarface often ends sentences with "guddy goy."
- Oyuki-chan, or as Ninjette calls her in reference to her verbal tic, "████ing Oyuki-chan".
- Grant Morrison gave unique pseudo-tic catch phrases to several characters in his JLA run (most of them were Gotham-based) including Batman: "hh", Huntress: "tt" and Commissioner Gordon: "ff". He even uses Damian Wayne's "tff" as a subtle cue that he really is Bruce's son.
- In the Morrison penned Final Crisis, "hh" is Batman's dying word.
Fan Fic
- Daneel Rush of TFF
fame has given us Higashiyama Sayuri, the Badass Loli Kyuubi No Youko (who won her tails in a drunken bout of poker with Inari-sama) sealed inside of Uzumaki Naruto, who ends most every sentence with Mugyuu, the shortened Mugii, or (if her tails are mentioned or she's exceedingly happy) a "Wai!" followed by wagging her tails.
- Also in the same story is Higashiyama Yurine, Sayuri's aunt, who uses "Hawa" to much the same effect.
Film
- Spoofed in the film Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, in which the villain Betty constantly ended his sentences with "nngggggg!" and love interest Ling said "Weeee-ooo-weee-ooo-weee!". (Both were done by the voice actor to fill in the gaps made by the lip movements.) By the end of one scene, they were conversing entirely in these sounds.
- In Office Space. there's Bill Lumburgh, Peter's hated boss, who begins every line in the movie with a long droning "yyyyeeeah", and ends every sentence with a patronizing "mmmkay"?
- Also, prefacing verbs with "go ahead and," sometimes multiple times in a sentence.
- Yoda speaks in the reversed order of Subject Complement - Linking Verb - Subject when he says "Reckless is he" and "Luminous beings are we" and "Always in motion is the future." This order is Main Verb - Direct Object - Subject - Modal Auxiliary Verb when he says "Help you I can" and "Found someone you have" and "Told you I did!" Distinctive it is, yes.
- Mr. Hand in Dark City, closing most of their affirmative or interrogative phrases with Yes?. "We remember, yes?".
- Kenneth Williams in the Carry On movies and elsewhere: "Nnnnnnnnoooooooooooo, stop messin' about!"
- Fingers, in the film Shira: Vampire Samurai is practically an English-speaking version of Naruto, ending almost every sentence with a hearty "Believe that!"
- Monty Python And The Holy Grail: the Knights Who Say NI!.
- George III, as seen in The Madness of King George, has one of these, wot wot? This is actually true of Nigel Hawthorne in general.
- ThE MasTeR woUlD noT apProVE. YoU canNot stAy. ThE MasTeR wOulD noT apProVe. NoT deAd tHe waY yOu kNoW iT. He iS wiTh uS aLwaYs. NoT deAd thE wAy yoU kNoW iT. He iS wItH uS alWayS.
- Mr. Deltoid, yes, from A Clockwork Orange, yes, has a tendency to insert the word yes into every sentence, sometimes at the beginning, yes, but often at the end as well, oh yes. It also begins to rub off on Alex, but more so in the book than the film.
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: Watto ends many sentences with "methinks".
- Pirates Of The Caribbean: Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?
- This expression comes from French colonists, who added "savez?" at the end of sentences to make sure the natives understood. It comes from "savoir", "know", but became "get it?" later on.
- Jack probably got the idea from Long John Silver. Arrrrr, that he must of. Because the influence of ol' Long John reaches farrrrr and wide, that it does, me hearties. Arr.
- In The Squid and the Whale, the tennis instructor Ivan tacks "my brother" onto the end of every sentence. Eventually, he becomes a dubious role model for his young pupil Frank, who starts imitating the same goofy tic.
- Stephen King's Desperation had "Sherrif" Collie Entragian who had a habit of adding "TAK!" to the end of random sentences. He was Posessed by Ultimate Evil at the time
Literature
- Hasimir Fenring of Frank Herbert's Dune tends to pepper his dialog with phrases such as "hmmmm" and "hmmmm-aaah" for no apparent reason. However, this is actually a plot point - Fenring and his wife have a private code disguised as humming, allowing them to hide a conversation with one another in the midst of an overt conversation with someone else. However, it sounds like a verbal tic to other characters.
- The bally hares in Redwall, wot!
- Asmodeus the snake also has the odd habit of hissing his own name between sentences. Ego issues?
- Asmodeus' descendant, Baliss, does the same thing.
- The Paul Jennings short story Without A Shirt concerns a kid who can't speak without ending his sentences with the titular phrase.
- Stephen King's IT: Bill had a stutter as a child, which came back when he had to return to the Town With A Dark Secret.
- Rachel Lynde in Anne Of Green Gables, that's what.
- Carcer Dun of Night Watch is arguably one of these - he punctuates his speech with an "irritatingly patronising chortle", which is always rendered in the text as "haha."
- Brother Nhumrod of Small Gods has a habit of repeating the last few words of the previous speaker. Many of Terry Pratchett's characters (especially his villains) have this sort of verbal tic, whether by the in-sertion of mispla-ced pauses orbyhaving... the speedof the... words be . . . curiouslyrandom or just by using a lot of —ing Unusual Euphemisms.
- Umbridge in Harry Potter frequently clears her throat (usually to interrupt someone), rendered as "hem hem."
- As mentioned in the main description, Gollum in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. In this case, the character is actually named after his catchphrase. He also addresses his words to the Precccioussssss frequently.
Live Action TV
- A possible Ur-Example would be Curly from The Three Stooges, who liberally adds "nyuk-nyuk-nyuk" or "woo-woo-woo" at the end of his lines.
- Model/actress Kikouden Misa appears often on Japanese TV, spoofing the Kawaiiko phenomenon. Her Kawaiiko parody, an airhead Genki Girl calling herself Hakyuun, can hardly finish a sentence without throwing in a cutesy nonsense phrase (e.g. "Pakyunwa" or "desu nyo" or the occasional "Kyuiin!" borrowed from Kurumi above).
- Chantho, an alien in the Doctor Who episode Utopia, begins every sentence with "Chan" and ends it with "to" or "tho" (depending on your preferred spelling - TV subtitles used the latter). When asked why she does so, she explains that to not begin and end her sentences thusly would be her species' equivalent of profanity.
- And Martha immediately tries to get her to do it. Chantho, after some reluctance, finally just says "No," to their mutual amusement.
- Doctor Who: The First Doctor, William Hartnell, had a habit of ending many if not most of his lines with a "hmmm?", plus interjecting the terms "young man" and "my child" into seemingly every third phrase.
- Not to mention the habit of mangling his companion's last name ("Chesterton" becomes Chatterton, Chesterfield, Chessington, etc.)
- The Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, tended to roll his R's, leading to a deeply unfortunate incident when he encountered aliens known as the Gods of Rrrrrrrrrrrragnarrrrrrrrrrrrok. Oh boy.
- The Eighth Doctor liked monosyllables. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" "No, no, no, no, no..." "Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace!" Like that. Generally when he was excited, really thinking, or, as one character in the Expanded Universe observes, when he was distressed.
- Toku example: Mahou Sentai Magiranger's Small Annoying Houseplant Mandora Boy de gozarimasu desu!
- Another Super Sentai example is the Engines in Engine Sentai Go-onger. All of them have a verbal tic, usually the last syllable of their name. Speedor, for example, usually says "doru doru!". It's also onomatopoeia of their vehicles' sounds, in some cases ("doru" doubles as the drrrrr! for engine revving, for example.)
- Several Monsters of the Week mimic this, as is sentai tradition. Oddly enough, the leading villains' verbal tics occur nowhere in their names: Kitaneidas '-zoyo', Kegalesia '-ojaru', Yogostein '-nari', and his father Yogoshimacritein '-narina'.
- To top it off, among the Rangers, Sousuke throws in "mach" where it really doesn't work as an adjective (this is mach exciting!) in addition to his catch phrase of doing things at "mach speed." Ren (Renn?) also adds -su to many of his sentences, and adds "just" before stating a fact (as with Sousuke's "mach," it doesn't always work.) And then, there's their helper robot, Bomper, who adds a "bom" or two to (or before) things he says, though it's expected with a childlike character such as him.
- Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series, like anime cat girls, laced virtually every sentence she spoke with some variety of catlike vocalization.
Purrrrrrrfect!
- On the same show, compare the Penguin's muttering "wah-wah" chuckles.
- Count Blah from Greg The Bunny, blah. It even extends to his writing:
Gil (reading) "Greg the Bunny is a filthy old sock, blah" (sarcastic) People, if you don't sign your names, we're not gonna know who wrote it!
Count Blah That one's mine, blah.
Gil Yes, Blah. We're all aware of your ridiculous verbal tic.
Blah Hey. Blah me!
- And his wife's tombstone read "Beloved Wife, Blah. R.I.P.B."
- Martin Short's SCTV and Saturday Night Live character Ed Grimley, I must say!
- James Carville played a rather exaggerated version of himself on 30 Rock that ended every sentence with "Cajun style."
- The Vicar Of Dibley's Jim would start every sentence with 'No..no..no..no..no...'. In one episode it is revealed his wife starts her sentences with 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...'
- At the start of the series final, Jim tells the village council how he went on Deal Or No Deal, where his Verbal Tic cost him 100,000 pounds. He ended up with 50p.
- Jon Lovitz's Compulsive Liar character on Saturday Night Live ended most of his sentences with "yeah, that's it" and his really big lies with "Yeah, that's the ticket!"
- Desmond on Lost is almost guaranteed to end his sentence with "brotha" when he's initiating a conversation with someone.
- Rather amusingly, one episode featured flashbacks to his time in a monastery that served no apparent purpose besides explaining this habit, brotha.
- From No Heroics episode 2:
Timebomb: Powers are against pub rules.
Fusebox: ...prules.
Timebomb: What is this shit you're doing?
Fusebox: It's a nervous tic— word fusion... wusion.
Timebomb: It's fucking annoying.
Fusebox: Sorry. Bad habit... babit.
- Pepe the King Prawn from Muppets Tonight almost always ends his sentences with either "okay" or "alright".
- John Cage, Ally Mc Beal´s resident Bunny Ears Lawyer, would stammer "P-P-Poughkeepsie!" whenever he got nervous.
- Randy from American Idol used to call the contestants "dawg" a lot. He probably made a conscious effort to stop after sketch comedy shows Flanderized the phrase in their impersonations of him.
- Clifford from All The Small Things can barely speak a sentence without replacing a noun or verb with "thingy" or "whatsit".
- One Round The Twist episode had a ghost dog inflict one of these on Pete when he touched it, without my pants. It made his life very difficult, without my pants. In case you hadn't guessed, yes, he ends all his sentences with the phrase "Without my pants," without my pants.
- Robot Buddy Twiki from the 1970s Buck Rogers series was infamous for his "Bidi-Bidi-Bidi" tic.
- On This Is Wonderland, Alice mutters to herself a lot. Swear words often come into it.
Rude Man: Hey, I heard that! Alice: Bite me.
- Horatio Caine of CSI Miami tends to repeat sentences for emphasis.
- Babylon Five. Londo Mollari would say yes at the end of every sentence, yes?
- Boston Legal: Bunny Ears Lawyer Denny Crane. Denny Crane. Denny Crane.
- Jon Stewart's "New York Italian" voice on The Daily Show comes punctuated with "no disrespect" and "how you doin'" in places where they make no sense at all. "So I'm tellin' you, take your Salvation Army and your breast-cancer ribbons and shove 'em up Gandhi's ass! Boom!... no disrespect how you doin'."
- Viewers of The West Wing have sometimes noted with frustration that the characters say "yeah" and "okay" a lot more than people do in Real Life. To a lesser extent, the same applies to "you know."
- "She's thin, she's blonde, she says "Wow!" a lot!!"
Professional Wrestling
- Ric Flair is almost incapable of finishing a sentence without adding at least one "Wooo!". The more passionate he gets, the more they show up.
- Steve Austin used to do this by adding "What?" between every word he spoke to cut off any response, a habit that started during his memorable 2001 heel run (when it was supposed to be rude and annoying). Like most things during that run, the crowd absolutely loved it and used it long after Stone Cold stopped.
- Let me tell you something, brother, that Hulk Hogan sure uses "brother" a lot, brother!
- The Ultimate Warrior punctuated his sentences with a sort of nasal, feral grunt, which got immortalized in his short-lived comic book as, "SKRONK!"
Close Professional Wrestling
Radio
- Neddie Seagoon (Harry Secombe) from The Goon Show frequently fills the time the audience laughs at someone else's joke at him by simply going whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat... until the laughter fades.
Theatre
Videogames
- All townspeople (or rather, town animals) in Animal Crossing. They can also allow you to change what they say, which is just asking for trouble.
- NP Cs that appear in every town (i.e. in the shops, town hall, etc.) would probably also count. Brewster (the pigeon who runs The Roost, a coffee shop) tends to say "coo" frequently when he talks, and owl siblings Blathers and Celeste often say "hoo" and "hootie-toot," respectively. Tom Nook also has a habit of saying "yes, yes" and "hm?", though unlike the other examples, that's unrelated to the kind of animal he is. Unlike the normal, apparently unemployed villagers, these phrases cannot be changed.
- In the Final Fantasy series, the Moogles - wherever they appear and whatever they may look like - always stick "-kupo" in at the end of every sentence, if they can say any other words at all. Some incarnations, in the Japanese versions, use "mogu" in place of a personal pronoun like "watashi" or "boku".
- Final Fantasy VII with Reno's 'zotto'. Much more apparent in the Compilation. Sometimes translated as ending every sentence with 'yo'.
- Final Fantasy VIII has underling Raijin, who ends every sentence with "ya know?" Raijin's "ya know?" was carried over into Kingdom Hearts II, revealing that this is much more annoying in spoken form.
- In Final Fantasy X, Wakka would end whatever he says with "ya?"
- In Final Fantasy XI, most Tarutaru NPCs have some sort of verbal tic, though it varies widely from person to person. The most common variant is adding extensions to random words to make them rhyme (for example, "timey-wimey") and ending words that would normally end in "t" with "taru." e.g. "Didn'taru you know? The homepoint is over that way"
- Mithra NPCs have a habit of trippling "r"s(for example, "Rrreally, that's interesting!") in a few words in each conversation, but thankfully not EVERY word.
- Elvaan NPCs have a habit of screaming "foreigner!". ...On a more serious note, a voice which is heavily implied to be Absolute Virtue typically addsss extra sss to everything, probably to indicate [hisssing or sssomething.
- A special mention goes to [[Dissidia Final Fantasy]] when several characters are given such with Warrior of Light's love for his namesake, with Cecil right behind him with a little darkness here and there. And let's not forget Ex Death's infatuation for the Void and nothingness.
- In the English dub of the Disgaea games, Prinnies tend to insert the word "dood" somewhere into one of their sentences whenever they speak. In Japanese, they slur at the ends of sentences ("ssu" is the most common way).
- In addition, Yukimaru from Disgaea 2 adds the word "zam" to all her sentences ("de gozaru" in the Japanese version).
- Mr. Champloo needs emphasis, boom!
- In the Art Of Fighting games (And The King Of Fighters series that followed it), Yuri Sakazaki frequently appends "-cchi" to her speech, a bit of nonsense that doesn't mean anything.
- Speaking of The King Of Fighters, don't forget Choi Bounge, yansu! It's been weakly translated as "Yeeessss..." or "Buddy-boy" in different sources, since the fact that he says it is central to his character.
- Nekonin (Or Katz) of the Tales Series end each sentence with "nya" or distort the last syllable into "~ya" (The english version has "Meow" instead, natch). They're not really catgirls, but a species that looks like humans in cat costumes, though exactly what they are is unclear.
- The "Jack" class of demons/persona (Jack Frost, Pyro Jack, Black Frost, King Frost, etc) in the Shin Megami Tensei series tend to add "hee-ho!" to every sentence they speak. Various other demons speak IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS or iN ToRGo sPEeCh.
- Don't forget Teddie's un-bear-able bear puns.........-kuma.
- From Star Ocean 4, Lymle speaks like this, kay?
- Western example: T-Bone from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ends each and every sentence with "ese"; however, as described below, he does it to sound more cholo. César Villalpando also does this, though less often, and also ends his phrases with "holmes" and "vato".
- A fan-translation of Chrono Trigger reveals that the character Mayonay (known as Flea in the SNES release) would end her(?) sentances with "yo nay", which was meant to sound like her name and be sickeningly cute at the same time..
- Chrono Cross practically revolves around this— the number of characters you could invite to your party was so vast that the lines given to your party members during story scenes were the same for most party members, but modified by that character's 'accent'— many times this meant adding a Verbal Tic of some sort.
- In Tales Of Innocence, Kouda, a frightening little mascot-thing traveling with one of the characters, will end many of his sentences with "shikashi." Hermana, the ten-year-old fistfighter, will draw out the final syllable of her attack names and sentences into a "ya~" or "yan."
- We are not pleased that our speech patterns haven't been mentioned.
- Spark Brushel in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is a reporter who likes to ends most phrases with "End Quote".
- Det. Gumshoe ends most of his sentences with "pal" when he's addressing someone.
- Don't forget fake Director Hotti, hmm, yes? It even rubs off on Phoenix temporarily.
- Ron De Lite's speech always trails off into nothing, which also affects other characters in the area.
- "Foolish fools who foolishly dream of foolish dreams! Franziska von Karma has no foolish verbal tic!"
- Count Bleck in Super Paper Mario tends to punctuate sentences with his own name ("My victory will soon be complete, Bleck.") or maniacal laughter, also in the form of his own name ("O'Chunks! Get him! Bleh-heh-he-heck!"). Or, more rarely, with simply "...mused Count Bleck."
- Certain theories explain that use of the third person as Bleck quoting his dialogue directly from the Dark Prognosticus.
- Nerdy chameleon Francis likes saying "nerr."
- Don't forget Nastasia, 'kay?
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has even more of them, many of them villains with a distinctive (and annoying) Evil Laugh.
- Emperor Grodus's "Gaaaack aaaack aaaack aaaack aaaack!"
- Lord Crump's "Buh huh huh huh huh!", along with other punctuations of "Buh!" within his speech.
- Beldam's "Mwee hee hee hee hee"
- Also Doopliss's habit of calling everyone "Slick".
- Most of the fighters at the Glitz Pit also have a Verbal Tic, some as mild as an interesting manner of speaking (like the Hulk Speaking Hyper Bald Cleft or the Totally Radical King K), some as egregious as putting BOMB! in the middle of their sentences randomly, BOMB!
- The Bob-bombs at Fahr Outpost occasionally do this too, but not nearly as bad as the one at the Glitz Pit.
- Then there's Rawk Hawk, who lets out a loud RAAAAAAAAAAAWK!!!!!!!
- Don't forget about Mr. Saturn, boing!
- Axel Almer, during his stitch as the amnesiac hero in Super Robot Wars Advance, often ends his sentence with 'korenara' or 'koitsuna' (which means 'that is'). He drops it completely if he's the Rival or his OG 2 version. But in Original Generations, he occasionally (not very often) slips up.
- In Drawn to Life, the Raposa are an entire species that exhibits the same verbal tic. They refer to themselves as "Rapos" (ie "that young Rapo," "you stubborn Rapo," etc.), which isn't that unusual-but their money is "Rapo Tokens", and occasionally the townsfolk will, without provocation, scatter "Rapo" into their sentences. Also, when you talk to NPC children not important to the plot, the voice clip the little girls will spout is a joyous "Wapo!" and the little boys a rather bewildered "Wapo...?" Once in a while, you also get the curious "opa," which seems a little out of the pattern.
- "opa" could be a corruption of the "osa" part of "Raposa", although it still doesn't fit "Rapo".
- And Xenogears has the infamous Chu Chu, who replaces many ordinary words by "chu" and has a shrill voice clip. It later turns out that there's a whole race of little chus who insert "chu" everywhere, have shrill voice clips and let's say it's a bit chu much.
- The Oresoren from Tales Of Legendia, ors!
- The Gorons from The Legend Of Zelda series tend to do this, goro. In Ocarina of Time, this wasn't translated, but in Majora's Mask, one Goron uses it. In Twilight Princess, they use "brother" instead, brother.
- My God, now we know what an entire race of Hulk Hogans would look and sound like...
- Don't forget Spat from Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak, pfpth!
- Bowyer in Super Mario RPG (at least in Ted Woolsey's translation) likes to go around shouting "Nya!" Object-Subject-Verb sentence form he also uses, much like Yoda.
- Dr. Toadley's intern in Mario And Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, by boogity. Does Toadley himself phrase each of his sentences in the form of a question and answer? He does.
- In the Touhou series, Cute Witch Marisa Kirisame's brash, tomboyish attitude is emphasized by her use of the masculine "ze".
- SHODAN's stutter, combined with the Creepy Monotone, makes for one of the most Bad Ass tics in history.
"L-l-look at you, hacker. A p-p-pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you r-run through my corridors-s. H-h-how can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"
- Salsa in Eternal Sonata tends to end a lot of her sentences with "tabe" in the Japanese dialogue.
- "As part of a required test protocol, we will stop enhancing the truth in three, two, bzzt.."
- One of the characters in Bahamut Lagoon routinely ends sentences with "De Arimasu" in the Japanese. This was left out of the fan translation; but, oddly, this was cited as being because the translator couldn't think of a way to translate it — it actually translates fairly well as someone using "Sir" or "Yes sir" as a sentence ender; although this isn't even close to a literal translation, it has the same militaristic and over-regimented connotations.
- Zhjaeve of Neverwinter Nights 2 has the habit of starting every statement with "know that...", its bad enough that the other characters actually start to pick up the habit late in the game.
- Solid Snake's growling increases ten-fold in Metal Gear Solid 4...
- In Baroque, the Coffin Man punctuates all of his speech with "Goddamn" and "Goddammit" placed in completely inappropriate places, regardless of his actual feelings or tone. It's kind of creepy, but less so than the Bagged One, who speaks entirely in quotes from other people, prefacing everything with a statement of its original source.
- Knights Of The Old Republic. Statement: How DARE you meatbags neglect to mention me!
- Justification: Less a verbal tic and more a very, um, convincing characterization that somehow manages to be more badass than annoying. Conjecture: perhaps the writers felt that it would dehumanize him. It seems to have had the opposite effect.
- In Dune 2000, House Ordos' Mentat often feels the need to clarify a sentence by stating its nature immediately afterwards. That is an example. It's quite distinctive. That is an opinion.
- In Deus Ex, the AI Helios has a habit of adding a confirming "yes" to his sentences, occasionally drawling it out unnaturally. His first word upon being 'born', in fact, is "Y-e-e-e-e-s-s-s..."
- The Mutant Master from Fallout has the awesome tic of switching between his
three two voice actors mid-sentence - a sarcastic intellectual for most of his speech, a raving lunatic whenever anything violent is mentioned and a woman whenever anything "pleasant" comes up. Since his voice is generated by a synthesiser in-game, it also sometimes "fuzzes out" into a more electronic-sounding tone.
"The Unity will bring about the master race. Master! MASTER! One able to survive, or even thrive in the wasteland. As long as there are differences, we will TEAR OURSELVES APART! fighting each other. We need one race! Race! RACE! One goal! GOAL! Goal! One people . . . to move forward to our destiny. Destiny."
- Rise and. Shine Mister Freee. Man. Rise and. Shine.
- Pommy in Bomberman 64 The Second Attack would throw "myu" randomly in most of his sentences.
- FALCON -
- In Dynasty Warriors, Yellow Turban leader Zhang Jiao rolls his "R"s and pretty much talks like a televangelist.
- In Brass Restoration, Minori has a habbit of saying "Nyu, Nyu" when Ryo teases her or she's stressed. Kouri also says "Pigyuu" occasionally.
- In Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, the Harvest sprites say "budum" after pretty much every sentence.
- The old and slightly loony Dr. Brackman in Supreme Commander has a habit of saying "oh yes" at various moments (often at the end of something as emphasis), which is kinda creepy with his weird accent/voice. To be fair, being nothing but a brain in a jar hooked up to supercomputers (and having been so for over a thousand years) probably isn't good for one's sanity - Dostya tells you to be patient; he may be a bit wonky upstairs, but he is a genius.
- Sho Minamimoto of The World Ends With You uses liberal amounts of advanced mathematical terminology in his speech, such as calling the meddling protagonists 'Factoring hectopascals!'. He's especially fond of the term Zetta, using it as an excliamation, modifier, noun, frequently, sometimes repeatedly in the same sentence.
- The bunnies in Super Mario Galaxy, boiyoing!
- We are Ermac. In the Mortal Kombat series, we usually refer to ourselves as a group of beings rather than a singular individual, much like Venom does.
- Phantasy Star IV's musk cats have a charming tendency to end or begin all of their sentences with 'meow' in the English version. "I can get the top off this bottle, meow."
- The Gaws from Popful Mail are a race of diminutive dragons who often end their sentences with "gaw!"
- Popple from Mario And Luigi Superstar Saga also has a tic, see?
- In the Japanese version of Tales Of The Abyss, the Team Pet fuzzy mascot character Mieu ended every sentence with "desuno." This was removed completely in the English version, though he is prone to punctuating his dialog with "Miieeeuuuuu..." or "Mieu mieu!"
- Without the aid of the Sorcerer's Ring, all cheagles can say is "mieu."
- In the Japanese version of Persona 3 Aigis ends most of her sentences with "de arimasu."
- I say, Adeccor from Tales Of Vesperia belongs on this list!
- Miki from iDOLM@STER has two of them nano! ...afu.
- Got it memorized?
- And on that note: Everything return to darkness!
- This one is impressed that you have forgotten the Hanar from Mass Effect.
- You have neglected to input the Omar from Deus Ex: Invisible War. We are not pleased with your tactless non-piezochem architecture.
- The merchant-inclined Shugo in Aion sometimes add "ekekekekek" or especially "nyerk!" to dialogue. The US/EU beta forums actually started using that latter tic as part of the censor, one nyerk per letter, so that "fucking" for example became "nyerknyerknyerknyerking". Now the official and fansite forums have inherited it: "I killed a lot of nyerking worgs today. None of them dropped anything good, nyerk."
Web Animation
- The Old Baton Man from Alejo y Valentina, an Argentinian web cartoon, ends all his lines with "viteh", which in heavily accented Buenos Aires Spanish translates to something like "see?".
- Rumble Red, the old-timey Great Gazoo knockoff from Homestar Runner, frequently ending sentences with "...rumble?"
- Homestar's "Sewiously" could be counted too, as well as Homsar's "A Aaa A Aaa AA..." and drawing out vowel sounds in words. Also, the King Of Town's "Doo-hoo-hoo-hoo".
Web Comics
Web Original
Western Animation
- Pinky from Pinky And The Brain had quite a few of these phrases, including "Narf", "Zort", "Poit", "Troz". And very occasionally, "Fjord". That one's Brain's fault... kinda. Brain is not entirely immune either, as he frequently adds an over-emphatic "Yes!" after his sentences, for no particular reason.
- The versions of Mega Man and Kid Icarus seen in Captain N The Game Master affix the prefix "Mega-" and the suffix "-icus", respectively, to half the words that come out of their mouths. Game Boy is even worse, as Seanbaby points out in an issue of EGM-Not only does he make electronic beeps and blorts completely at random, he does it because he likes to-he moves his digital lips to accompany.
- Another sentence-ender, but a far more serious one, Megatron from Transformers: Beast Wars had a habit of finishing sentences with a drawn out yeessss, or occasionally, nnooo. (Not of the Big No variety, mind you, a very smooth one.) Watch here.
This is because Megatron's Achilles Heel happens to be his overblown sense of drama.Yeeessssssss... His loss of this suave and endearing quirk in Beast Machines says a lot about Beast Machines itself. But that's neither here nor there, nnooo...
- In fact, this one might be contagious. Characters talking about Megatron, and at least once when talking to him, will sometimes imitatively add a "yeeesss" themselves. The fandom, of course, just has to do this themselves when Megs comes up in conversation. In fact, many do this when talking about his voice actor David Kaye (who actually ad-libbed the line) or any character he voices. It must be contagious, yeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss...
- Indeed, Terrorsaur lets one slip after beating Megatron in the Beast Wars episode "Power Surge".
- This makes for an excellent drinking game too, and while not as reliable as downing a shot every time Waspinator gets blown up, it certainly happens more often...
- This also led to someone putting together a .wav of all the times Megatron used his catchphrase, growing more emphatic as it goes along. Put together, they sound disturbingly like he's having an orgasm.
- In the original series, the Insecticon Shrapnel would often repeat the last word of a sentence, sentence.
- Mixmaster did something similar on one occasion, and can Never Live It Down. It's a pretty characterful tic, you gotta admit; he repeats the first syllable of the last word/noun of a sentence, i.e. "auto-auto-auto-bots!", AND it sort of fits his name. It's a shame he didn't stick with it.
- Armada's Tidal Wave has a penchant for beginning or ending (sometimes both) sentences with his own name. He's also a Hulk Speaker, and the fandom can never quite decide if he's that stupid, or if it's just some kind of speech impediment. In the original Japanese, Tidal Wave (called Shockwave) kept that tic when he upgraded to Mirage (called Shockfleet). He ended all his sentences with "Shock!". However, in the American dub Mirage didn't have the tic.
- After being given his name, Wreck-Gar of Animated begins every sentence that pertains to himself with "I am Wreck-Gar!" The original Wreck-Gar, along with all theo other Junkions, spoke almost exclusively in TV catch-phrases. As they put it "We talk TV!" This stems from the Junkions learning to speak by watching old television broadcasts from Earth.
- "Me Grimlock!"
- In the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, Silverbolt ended every sentence with desu.
- Japanese-dub Beast Wars had two of these from Quickstrike - he'd end sentences with "gicchon" (Japanese for "snippety!"), and the cobra head on his tail would end with "ko", "bura", or "kobura" (verging on Pokemon Speak).
- And then there was Cheetor, who'd make a growling noise.
- The Beast Wars Japanese dub had a lot of these. Scorponok also often made the sound "ora" for no apparent reason, while Waspinator would end his sentances with a "buuun" sound (which I'm assuming is the Japanese onomatopoeia for buzzing).
- Warpath from the original cartoon had it so bad - it was rare to hear him go more than four or five words without a pow or zowie.
- Mention of Omega Supreme: Not found. Problem: easily corrected.
- Beast Boy in Teen Titans tends to randomly add Dude to his sentences.
- Fred Fredburger in The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy. Yes! Along with Irwin, yo.
- Mr. Mackey in South Park, mmmkay? In one episode, he's speaking Spanish, and ends his sentences with "mmmbien"?
- In another episode of South Park, magician and cult leader David Blaine tends to end sentences with "twaaa."
- Jimmy has a habit of saying "very much" at the end of sentences, very much.
- Their parody of Mickey Mouse ended all of his sentences with his signature "huh-huh" laugh. This is kind of disturbing when he's kicking a Jonas Brother until he bleeds.
- In an early-season episode, the plane-arium director / baddie hypnotist fibs that he has a medical condition that prevents him from pronouncing the "T" in plane-arium.
- On Family Guy, Glenn Quagmire's characteristic "Giggity giggity goo", "All right", and "Oh!" may have contributed to him becoming one of the most popular characters on the show.
- In an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, the titular character gets stuck in "Rock Bottom," where everyone interjects "thbbbbbt" noises randomly into their sentences, and can't understand the "accent" of anyone who doesn't do the same.
- Snarf, from Thundercats, who often ended his sentences with his own name. Snarfer did it with his name as well. (And as far as we know that is his name. Most uncreative parents ever.)
- Slythe was also fond of adding "yessss?" to the end of his sentences.
- The Berzerkers would repeat the last word or phrase of a sentence a couple of times (a couple of times! a couple of times!)
- Ben Gali tended to growl. It was half Narm, half sexy.
- And of course, Chilla had to use ice puns as often as possible.
- Serpentor from GI Joe debatably had such a tic, as he took his Catch Phrase to tic-like levels. THIS, I COMMAND!
- Flownominal of The Boondocks ends nearly every sentence with "y'knaw what I mean?". In an episode where Riley and Grandad watch too much BET, they can't stop interspersing and ending their sentences with "y'feel me?" and "dog."
- One episode of The Tick featured a tribe of pseudo-Aztecs who said "-tlan" at the end of each sentence. (They were actually an abandoned soccer team who got their knowledge of Aztec culture from a badly written pulp novel.) They were doing it on purpose, to sound more Aztec. When Carmelita asked what all the "itlan" nonsense is, the team captain calls out to the rest of them, "I declare that we shall all stop saying itlan, itlan!"
- Boomhauer of King Of The Hill has an incredible array of verbal tics which have a tendency to consume his sentences like some horrifying cancerous growth. Combine this with the speed at which he speaks, and it can make his comments very difficult to dang-ol' understand, man.
- Ned Flanders from The Simpsons peppers ran-diddly-andom words with odd sounds like "diddly" and "doodly". This trait appears to run in his extended family. When Ned finally has a nervous breakdown, the sentence devolves totally into "-diddly-doodly-" until he's dragged away. It comes to light that this tic is an ineffective release valve for Ned's repressed negative emotions, as a result of being spanked from a hyperactive child into a model citizen. Notably, when he breaks down after the town completely fails to rebuild his house (among other things—long story), he lashes out at them ("Aw hell diddley-ding-dong crap! Can't you morons do anything right?) and the tic disappears for a while.
- In the episode E-I-E-I- (Annoyed Grunt) there's a Southern colonel who adds "I say" into the middle of every other sentence, for example "Sir, I say Sir, it's time for our duel!" This is of course based on Foghorn Leghorn.
- Don't, er, ah, forget Mayor, er, ah, Quimby.
- Marge's disapproving "Hmmm..." and Homer's annoyed/despairing "Ohhhh...!" might count as well.
- Kevin French from Mission Hill has a tendency to say "bling, blong" whenever he's nervous or trying to concentrate on something.
- The Director from Animaniacs. And all his wacky henchmen with the "HOY-yal!" and of course, "Freunleven!"
- Also, more noticeable, Yakko tends to stammer/draw out the word "I" when it begins a sentence to emphasize discomfort or, well, to just sound a little more sarcastic, leading to, "Yaaaaaaaaahhhhh I don't think so," or variations thereof. If the sentence doesn't start with "I" he'll just take on a long "Ahhhh" at the beginning.
- Ducky, from The Land Before Time, ends most sentences with either "yep, yep, yep" or "nope, nope, nope."
- In fact, the voice actress' tombstone has "Yep yep yep" on it.
- In Jimmy Neutron, Sam ends pretty much every statement with "yeah." One time he even did it in song.
- Motor Ed from Kim Possible seriously can't talk two sentences, seriously, without using the word seriously, seriously. Seriously, it's lampshaded every time when someone seriously mimics his seriously expression.
- The hick wolf from the Tex Avery cartoon Billy Boy repeated the last word of his sentences three times.
- Butt-head of Beavis and Butt-head begins many of his sentences with "Uhhh?", while Beavis laughs before he talks.
- Both boys tend to laugh when they're not talking.
- And David Van Driessen, like Mr. Mackey in South Park, ends sentences with "mkay".
- A sentient galaxy in Futurama that may or may not be God has a habit of ending sentences with "my good chum."
- Morbo the Newsmonster typically begins sentences with variations on "Pathetic humans" and ends them with variants of "I WILL DESTROY YOU!"
- Richard Nixon's head peppers his speach with "Aroo".
- Mr. Di Martino of Daria fame, who was even more high-strung than Principal Mc Vicker on Beavis and Butt-Head, would emphasize certain words when chastising or complaining about anything or anyone, complete with his left eye bulging in a Night Mare Fuel fashion.
- Whenever Donald Duck realizes something he'll shout "Quack!" as an exclamation, instead of humming or grumbling he'll quack instead, and when he's really mad he'll go into a series of furious quacks.
- Ed from "Ed, Edd, n Eddy" sometimes randomly shouts Buttered Toast! or Gravy!, once during an argument between the threesome all Ed was saying was "Buttered Toast!".
- Snagglepuss has a number of verbal tics, catchphrases even, along the lines of "Heavens to Murgatroyd" or "Exit stage left," even.
- Skeeter of Doug makes a honking noise occasionally. It's revealed in one episode that he doesn't even realize he's doing it.
- Jacob Two Two earned his nickname because, as the youngest child in his big family, he's used to saying things twice. Twice!
- The Smurfs smurf this smurf all the smurf. All that smurfing gets really annoying.
- Toki and Skwissgar from "Metalocaypse" tends to pluralisings their words unneccecarily, and be havings a bad grasp of English grammars.
Tabletop RPG
- The Skaven have a habit of repeating some words (yes-yes! run-run!) and call other races as (name)-things, like "Man-things"
Real Life
- Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome. Of course in that case it really is an unavoidable compulsion.
- Eddie Izzard, so... yeah, he probably fits.
- Oh the ehh, subject of, ehh, comedians, ehh... Dara, ehh, Ò Briain, eeehhh... Probably fits this trope-ehhhh...
- Jive has "yunno whaddam sayin'?".
- Québecois French qualifies as tic, as some locals have the habit of saying "là" ("there") at the end of each sentence. "Alors" ("so") also sometimes fills this role, and "moi" ("me") and "lui" ("him") are often thrown in where an English speaker would consider the sentence complete without them. Eg, "Il est tropeur, lui" would be "he is a troper, him".
- Those constructions - for example, "He's a troper, him" or "I like beer, me" - are also associated with certain English dialects, particularly Geordie / those from the North East.
- Canadian English speakers often do the same thing with "eh". This tends to be exaggerated in American depictions of Canadians in general - and mind you, that usually means grossly, horrendously exaggerated, eh.
- Similarly, some Taiwanese speakers will end sentences with "ho" ("good"). This editor saw a restaurant owner talking about her restaurant use it as the end of every declarative sentence.
- Mexican people, especially those from Mexico City, often append "güey" (alternatively a friendly word, kind like "dude", or a serious insult equal to "fool") at the end of their sentences; Northerners and Mexican-Americans, meanwhile, often do the same with "ese" ("homeboy").
- Argentines often start their phrases with "che"; the rebel leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna gained his nickname because of this habit.
- It's also very common, especially in and around the Buenos Aires province, to append a "viteh" to the end of almost any declaratory statement. It's basically "¿viste?" in heavily accented Buenos Aires Spanish; literally, it means "did you see?", but is used colloquially as the Minnesotan "doncha know?".
- Singaporeans and Malaysians often use "lah" at the end of sentences, to soften the impact of the message. Eg. "Take out the trash," carries more emphasis than "Take out the trash, lah."
- In Ghanaian and Nigerian English "la" has the opposite effect, so "Take out the trash la" would be roughly equivalent to "Take the trash out already!" Singaporeans and Malaysians beware.
- Aiyoh, must be careful when speaking to them...
- Also, in the drinking game Kings (or Circle of Death), one card allows the person who picked it to make up a rule, the penalty of breaking which is to drink. A very common rule in some places is to add the "In my pants" rule mentioned below, making for interesting conversation.
- Not all Minnesotans end every sentence with "doncha know," but yeah, a few of us do, doncha know?
- The stereotypical Pittsburgh "Yinzer" is someone who, among other verbal quirks, ends most sentences with "annat" (short for "and all that"), annat.
- Not to mention that the name comes from their use of "yinz", as opposed to "y'all", as a second-person plural — and as with "y'all", it's frequently misused as a singular pronoun.
- Italians speaking English tenda to put As where they don'ta belong.
- Among Italians, for a skilled listener, it's usually incredibly easy to tell from which region, province, sometimes even city soneone hails from: regional accents and dialects are both incredibly numerous ([1] lists about 200 of them) and often quite different from one another. Tuscans use "but huat you doin?" instead of "what are you doing?" ("ma he tu fai?" instead of "cosa stai facendo?") and cut the "doing" and "going" verbs, Romans change "l"s into "r"s, double "rr"s into single "r"s, and are fond of using and abusing "Aò!" (roughly "Hey!"), while Neapolitan is practically a different language with a different vocabulary, among other things.
- Inner-city dwellers in Britain sometimes end every other sentence with the word "though". Some people make fun of them mercilessly ("I know, though - innit, though! What, though? You know, though!").
- Depending on which city we're talking about, "innit" or "like" may be used instead. Or even both, innit like?
- Like, how has stereotypical Valley Girl speak not ended up on here, or whatever?
- The equivalent in Mexico and Venezuela, the "Niñas fresas" and "sifrinas" liked to pepper their speech with "O sea" and "¿vez?".
- It's a common practice in certain circles in the U.S. to read a fortune cookie and add "In Bed" to the end. "You will receive a great gift... in bed." "You are skilled at making friends... in bed." "Your lucky number is three... in bed." Etc.
- King George III of the UK was famous for involuntarily adding "what what" to most things he said. Yes, it was just him.
- Once, he reportedly added "peacock" to all his sentences.
- Dominican people have a habit of adding the phrase "Tu sabe" to just about any sentence in just about any place in the sentence, being middle, beginning, or end of the sentence. It's equivalent to a lot of Black people saying "You know what I'm sayin?"
- Some Cajuns begin or end sentences with "Mais" (pronounced "meh"), like "well" but more involuntary.
- And of course, almost everyone you talk to says "uh" at least once in conversation.
- Mark Twain, world traveller, in his writings on the German language, asserts that "Also!" can be thrown in anywhere, and is properly interjected multiple times into each sentence. Of course, he also intentionally retranslated one of his short stories back from the French without adjusting for syntax, so he's not the most reliable.
- The Dutch have a word
for this.
- "Stop word"
is a term commonly used by computational linguists. In computational linguistics, it refers to everything you filter out because it's not useful to you. Data mining hundreds of megabytes of plain text becomes much easier when you don't try to learn the meaning of "the" or "a".
- Caroline Kennedy's attempt at being taken seriously was embarassed by revelations that she used 'y'know' 30 times in a two-minute interview, and over 140 times in another.
- Sometimes the Welsh do this, Boyo! I've lived in Cardiff for years and I'm glad it hasn't rubbed off on me, lovely.
- And the Cornish do it dreckley!
- Faith and begohra, neouw, are ye be sayin' the Irish don't have that stereotype, me fine young Troper?
- Ach, themmuns in Stroke Country have a few of thon wee tics as well, so they do!
- Stereotypically, Glaswegians end every sentence with "jim" or "jimmy" (and according to Billy Connolly, the drunker they are the longer it takes for the meandering sentence to reach that point), while Yorkshiremen often end sentences with "tha knows" (informal dialect form of "you know?")
- The stereotypical Yorkshire accent also includes the replacement of "the" or "to the" with a weird glottal sound usually written as "t'" as in "Going t'shops".
- The same goes for Lancashire. It can be heard in the works of Peter Kay: he talks like that normally, but often exaggerates it for comic effect.
- A variation of a sort: in Poland, there are numerous self-deprecating jokes about such usage of the local equivalent of the eff-word.
- A clever Bilingual Bonus in this
Penny Arcade strip, as the word in question ("kurwa") does literally mean "whore" and indeed tends to be one of the first words foreigners pick up, to the chagrin of some Poles and the amusement of others.
- Brazilians often tag their phrase starts with "então" and "daí" ("then") and phrase ends with "né?" ("isn't it?")
- People who speak Swedish with a strong Stockholm accent tend to pepper their speech with "dårå" (literally "then then" but used more as "you see") and "va" ("what"). Then there's Rinkebysvenska (sort of a swedish dialect spoken primarily by immigrants from the Middle East) where the arabian word 'jalla' is used in all kinds of totally random ways, like 'jalla hejdå' (jalla goodbye), 'jalla godnatt' (jalla goodnight). The tendency of some swedish-speakers to use "asså", "liksom" and "typ" is pretty common as well, as is "ba".
- Australians, along with a tendency to swear incredibly often, quite usually make heavy use of the words 'bloody' (the great Australian adjective) and 'bastard'. This Australian finds it hilarious when people from other cultures use it as a full blown insult, quoth his father on the complete lack of impact: "Well, that just means he's practically your cousin, doesnit?"
- Queenslanders often place "but" on the end of their sentences, instead of earlier. People from the other states think it's a weird thing to say, but.
- When angry, girls from NJ and NY in the US add an A to the end of words. Like "Stopa!" "Knock it offa!" Though this is probably from the Italian influence around here, even some Russian girls I know do it. I, personally, LOVE to make fun of it. Of course, since this is only when angry, it may not even count.
- Some people from Galicia (an autonomous community in northwestern Spain) add "hom", "ho" or "oh" at the end of some sentences (usually questions or exclamations)
- In Russian language: "-s" (as in "spy") added at the end of a sentence or just at the end of any word whatsoever. It's not quite that common nowadays. It still exists. It was much more widespread in the 19th century, though it was already considered something of a quirk in high society. Porfiry Petrovich from Crime and Punishment had this, in particular.
- The "-s" ending is called slovoyers and originally was a polite, respectful form of speaking (it is a shortening of sudar "sir" or sudarinya "madam"). The usage of the slovoyers discontinued after the Red October. Now used mostly in irony and sarcasm.
- The Filipino people use the word 'po', which is used to show respect to someone. Sometimes, however, some people can use it so much that they start using it in sentences unconsciously, even when highly inappropriate (Like Yours Truly). Of course, po, since 'po' can be added into sentences so easily, po, and can be repeated many times, po, ending up with sentences like this, po, it's hard to tell whether the person saying it is being respectful, has a tic, or is just trying to be annoying, po.
- Also, Cebuanos and Ilocanos often pronounce their 'e's (Pronounced 'eh') as 'i's (Pronounced 'ee'). Exaggerated in the media, but sometimes hilarious none the less.
- There's also the frequent use of kuwa/thing as a pronoun. "It's in the thing".
- As Bill Engvall points out, "I tell you what" is a complete sentence in Texas. ("Well, what??" "I just told you!")
- The 14th Dalai Lama, when publicly speaking in English, often finishes a long sentence with "like that?" As English is not his first language, he's checking with his interpreter to make sure his grammar is correct.
- Alaska governor Sarah Palin, you betcha!
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