The words you use say a lot about you. It’s obvious. If you say ‘utilise’ instead of use, or ‘facilitate’ instead of do or make, you’re sending out a signal to the world, consciously or unconsciously.

Think about it. It’s a lot harder to say, “We’ll utilise all of our resources to facilitate a solution”, than it is to say, “We’ll work hard to solve the problem”.  Actually, it’s not only harder, it’s longer and less direct.

So, what do people get out of speaking like that? What’s the benefit?

If you look at some of the most powerful speeches ever made you’ll find they rely on single-sound words to drive the key messages. You know the kind of thing: “We will fight them on the beaches …”, “I have a dream”, “I did not have sex with that woman.”

People ordinarily use single-sound words in every day speech too. You have to listen carefully, but if you go into a bar you’ll hear whole conversations like this:

“What do you want?”

“I think I’ll have a glass of wine for a change.”

“Do you want some crisps too?”

“No, but I’ll have some nuts if you’re in the chair.”

It’s amazing, in fact, how much we use single-sound words in speech. We Anglo-Saxons like short Anglo-Saxon words. So much so that there isn’t a single romance word in the top 20 most-used words in English.

Such brevity does not extend to writing though. When people write, they put on a different head. Usually, it’s a kind of multisyllabic, Latinate and slightly Victorian head, and it is very common in business. The chap who shakes a partner’s hand at the end of a negotiation and says, “Great. That’s a done deal. Thanks”, may well be driven to write about the “successful facilitation of an all-party agreement” when writing to his bosses.

So, what’s the harm in it?, you may ask.

Well, that’s a little trickier to answer. But here goes …