Rant The use of 'TBH'

I use it in real life and although it sounds weird when you analyse the phrase, it fits into our cultural norms quite well. In the UK we do not tend to be very direct with our thoughts and often do not say what we are actually thinking as we do not want to appear to be rude. As Nexxo has pointed has pointed out "To be honest" and "To be frank" mean pretty much the same thing.

It must be weird for you Nexxo as the Dutch tend to be very frank and direct and in the UK we are the opposite.

 

I feel using the abbreviation to qualify a statement has the opposite effect, as overuse has diluted the original intention. Thus the use becomes automatic, like finishing every sentence with 'lol'.

 

I tend to use them when what I'm writing has no real importance in my life FWIW.

 

God yes. Even when I think I'm being polite I have been accused of being a bit brusque. And sometimes the British tendency to avoid just addressing or questioning an issue frankly drives me insane.

 

This thread: tl;dr.

tbh

 

QFT

 

Having a northern european GF soon knocks that on the head.

Mind you, sometimes it is better if people don't speak rather than say every single bloody thing that's on their mind.

 

Came here expecting a thread full of tbh's.

Was not disappointed, tbh.

 

TBH STFU, I dont wanna hear from you after saying so. Do you realize that computers and components are The Life for some of us, and we don't find them boring at all!

But back to the topic, I have nothing to add what has been said already.

 

This thread is probably close to 10 years too late, maybe if it was started earlier this annoying habit could have been stopped!

 

Tbh this is true and it could of been stopped sooner rather than later.

 

I like to use atc sometimes instead of tbh.

 

Why does it show a lack of vocabulary if people wish to abbreviate common terms? That's a choice that people make, and not an indicator of their grasp of English. Just because you don't like it being used, it doesn't make using it wrong or improper in the context that it is used on forums. I hear people adding qualifiers to their statements all the time, it's nothing new and it is common practice. Nothing to get worked up about to be honest

 

AFAIK this is QFT..

 

The other half worked for Shell (lot's of Dutch employees obviously) so she said it took a while to learn they were not being impolite, just straight to the point.

Just to add that "tbh" is a lot less annoying than the footballers favourite.... "at the end of the day".

 

So then would that be TBF? TBH, all these things get kinda crazy. SRSLY what did OP expect when posting this?

 

Yeah, my wife went through a similar adjustment period. Luckily she has a friend with a German boyfriend who could clarify things for her at the time.

My workplace still struggles a bit --and occasionally I struggle with them. I have a German colleague and at meetings we occasionally discreetly glance across the table at each other and roll our eyes.

 

Have sympathy for us Brits who do the same then.

 

YMMV, but TBH you're quite right

 

You came to the wrong forum, buddy!

The phrase "to be honest" really has little to do with truth or honesty. Rather it's used as a way to politely put forward a dissenting opinion or to clarify when one is being serious about a statement which might be regarded as sarcastic.