I can’t say for sure why I care; maybe it’s because I learned English as a second language. We worked very hard on making our written and spoken English flawless. And that was what our teachers genuinely seemed to want for us. So, now, when I observe native speakers of English make the mistakes that my classmates and I would have lost a lot of points for, I feel bitter and annoyed — the latter because it’s really not that difficult to do better.

One increasingly common redundancy I’ve been observing is ‘collaborate together’.

Why say this?! You cannot collaborate alone; togetherness is built into the meaning of the word. The “co” means ‘together’. So, “collaborate” means ‘work together’. Are we worried that others are not going to understand? Is it because no one trusts anyone else to know the meanings of words? If so, this behavior is making it worse.

There is also the 2025 favorite, “Welcome in!”

What else could it be but “in”? I suppose you could welcome people to your garden party by saying “Welcome outside!” (or “Welcome out!”), but that’s awkward; you wouldn’t say that. In any case, how many shopkeepers are welcoming people somewhere outdoors? Welcoming is almost always for when someone enters, not exits. Is “welcome” too plain?

That brings me to the next one: “Enter into…”

What the heck? When’s the last time you saw anyone enter out of someplace?