Fix your English grammar – “Repeat Again”

Fix your English grammar “repeat again”

Fix your English grammar – “Repeat Again”

Fix your English grammar “repeat again”

Dr. Alison Parker

Fix your English grammar “repeat again”

Smart Brains Spotlight

Fix your English grammar “repeat again”

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?

The topic for today is “Is it correct to say I repeat again?“. Learning should be for life. Every moment of every day we are being presented with new and important lessons. Here we will present you one handpicked new and important lesson every day from smart brains and experts around the world.

Fix your English grammar “repeat again” Dr. Alison explains that “Repeat again” should be unimpeachable on a second repetition or beyond.

Thank you.

Susana Yana Avila

Smart Brains Spotlight Selection

English Language Academy Moderator L.2

Fix your English grammar “repeat again”

Fix your English Grammar

Thank you, Dr. Alison Parker and Quora.

Fix your English Grammar

Fix your English grammar

Can we say repeat again?

Fix your English Grammar

Dr. Alison Parker

Fix your English Grammar

How can I become fluent in English?

Fix your English Grammar

Polite English: How to ask people to repeat themselves

Thank you, Please subscribe to this popular YouTube channel –  Learn English with Gill (engVid).

Fix your English grammar repeat again

Fix your English grammar repeat again

Can we say repeat again?

Answer by Dr. Alison Parker, (AB, PhD Classics, Princeton, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). All credit goes to Dr Alison Parker, Thank you!

How did I learn English

7.6 / 10

Can we say repeat again?

Particularly in the the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, journalists (including Ambrose Bierce) and crusty schoolteachers got into the act of “cleaning up” the English language by insisting on their personal aesthetics, and a whole host of people today are still infected with the rules engendered. The “rule” against “repeat again” seems to be one such abomination. The idea? “Re” already means “again,” so “repeat again” is redundant and evil. [*] 

 That the rule is fairly recent is evident from the following.

In the almost always rational and useful Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (1994) and in Merriam-Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage (2002—highly recommended by eminent linguist Geoffrey Pullum), we read this under “repeat again”:

“Jensen 1935, Copperud 1980, and Shaw 1987 consider repeat again redundant for repeat. But look at this example:

‘A theme was repeated again and again. In the middle of grace-notes, runs and catches it recurred with a strange, almost holy, solemnity’—James Stephens, The Crock of Gold, 1912

“This is a perfect example of useful redundancy.”

You see a hint of this sentiment in a Grammarphobia column on “reiterate,” a word with its own controversy (Repeat performance):

“But I see nothing wrong with using ‘reiterate’ as in post-classical Latin and other languages – for both ‘repeat’ and ‘repeat again.’”

Even in a post that tells the reader to ding the “again” in “repeat again,” the author concedes that there can be a point to redundancy (Common Redundancies in the English Language)

In specific contexts, some of these phrases may serve a purpose. More often, however, the phrases weigh down our writing with unnecessary words. We can eliminate the needless repetition in each case by omitting the word or phrase in parentheses.

And Grammarist says the following (Repeat again: This is redundant when something is repeated for the first time.):

 “Repeat again: This is redundant when something is repeated for the first time.”

   I’ll repeat (as I’ve said it only once before, I can’t repeat it again): “Repeat again” should be unimpeachable on a second repetition or beyond. But if your teacher is hidebound, you might have to bring out the big guns.

[*] Even Garner fell into the trap, but he’s a lawyer and loves concision:

 “✳repeat again; ✳repeat back. Both are needless redundancies. See REDUNDANCY.”

Excerpt From: Bryan Garner. “Garner’s Modern English Usage.” iBooks. ‎Garner’s Modern English Usage

See also Writing Concise Sentences

Reference: Dr Alison Parker, “Is it correct to say ‘I repeat again.’?” originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Fix your English grammar repeat again

Fix your English grammar – “Repeat Again”

Medal icon and other icons are powered by Icons8 | Image powered by Image by F1 Digitals from Pixabay

Fix your English grammar – “Repeat Again”