Some phrases set off little alarm bells in ones head -- AlarmBellPhrase''''''s. Perhaps we also need a list of phrases that turn them off?

* "I think we should all sit down." -- ''Fiddler on the Roof''
* "I'm not sure but perhaps..."
* "I don't understand that, please help me get what you mean."
* "Why don't we..."
* "I'd like to make sure we don't forget..."
* "I hear you say..."
* "I'll rephrase this..."
* "Do you think it would be a good idea to..."
* "I'll get back to you on that."
* "Marketing considerations aside..."
* "You're the expert, you tell me."
* "What can we have done by then?"
* "Let ''me'' worry about explaining this upwards."  
* "We're going to push back the delivery date a few weeks to give you more time to test."
* "I'm more interested in seeing a working system than in reading a bunch of documentation."
* "What's the problem?"
** I can't imagine the circumstances where someone would ask you this, except in response to some kind of obvious unvoiced frustration. Much more common would be "So... What's the problem?" or "What's the ''real'' problem?" which are both AlarmBellPhrase''''''s meaning, "I disacknowledge that this is a problem. Go fish."
* "Here's an example."
* "Hang on - is this a substantive disagreement or are we just misunderstanding one another?"

Phrases that could be an AlarmBellPhrase or NonAlarmBellPhrase''''''s depending on context and tone of voice:

* "Cool!"
* "What an interesting thing to happen! What could it mean?"
* "What are you doing on the weekend?"
* "We need to arrange some vacation time for you."

Contributors: DickBotting, LaurentBossavit, EricHopper, ColJac, KrisJohnson

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''"I hear you say" is an AlarmBellPhrase for me: I used to work for an extremely persuasive guy who would sit in meetings with customers, rephrasing and prefixing what they said with "I hear you say ..." The way he would rearrange what they said would make his goals sound like their ideas and I was the guy who had to try to deliver on those lofty goals. Never worked but sucked the money out of the customer's pockets.'' -- AndrewQueisser

Dick and Andrew set up a nice dialectic here: there are some NonAlarmBellPhrases we use as a 'conversational toolkit' to ensure good communication; but overusing or abusing them can lead to others' perceiving them as AlarmBellPhrase''''''s. Comparing notes is a nice way to learn how they can be abused. -- LaurentBossavit

''I can see "Let ''me'' worry about explaining this upwards" becoming an AlarmBellPhrase; explaining my estimate of X days upwards might mean it becomes X/3 days.  Stranger things have happened.'' -- JamesTwine

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CategoryCommunication