Disclaimer: We KNOW plenty of men say all this stuff too often as well, but the fact remains that it's usually women who lean unhealthily on these particular adjectives, adverbs and nouns that tend to take away our power. Sorry, not sorry! 

8. Yes

Your friend is getting married and your boss asks you to do weekend overtime at the last minute. "Yes" you say, meaning "NO NO NO!" There's a party on and you've been invited, but you really just want a date with Netflix. "Going" you click on the Facebook event, after hovering over "Can't go" for half an hour. "Yes" can get even more dangerous, though. What about that creepy guy who offers to walk you to your car? How far will your politeness go?

7. Whatever

This sounds confrontational, and sometimes it is. Sometimes, though, it really isn't. It's basically saying "Do anything you like, my opinion doesn't matter, I'm too weak to argue." "Whatever" is passing power to the other person, offering them the chance to make decisions on your behalf. "Whatever" is often uttered by someone who's given up. Don't give up. Never give up.

6. Fine

"How are you?" comes the question. You're anything but, yet you hear a faux-cheerful "Fine" tripping quickly off your tongue. Because sometimes "Fine" means "No, I feel like utter shit - my girlfriend broke up with me, my boss is mad at me and I just want to go and live in a hut in the desert with only gerbils for company." "Fine" is for the other person's benefit, not yours. "Fine" is a façade. That goes for those times when you're blissfully happy and want to tell the whole world, too. Don't hold back - you don't have to tell whoever's asking that you're about to marry your girlfriend, you just freshly dyed your hair and life feels good, but you can say "I'm great, thanks!"

5. Nothing

"Nothing" is the evil twin sister of "Fine". "What's wrong?" your friend asks, knowing full well something has got your goat. "Nothing," you respond, when what you mean is "I'm enormously angry because someone's just done something totally out of order to me and I have every right to be enormously angry." If someone knows you're not happy and they're asking what's up, just tell them. At the very least, tell them you're not OK and don't want to talk about it.

4. Should

OK, we know it's contained in the title of this article, but bear with us... Context is everything. "I should have gone to the gym with Sarah," you sigh. "I should be 30 pounds lighter." Who says you "should" do anything? "Should" is, in many cases, an admission that you're not good enough. It's also often a bow to other people's standards. If you're going to go to the gym, do it for you. Do it because you want to feel fit, not because society plasters fit bodies all over every fucking magazine and billboard.

3. Just

"I was just wondering if you'd read my email yet," you hesitantly type to a colleague. "Just wanted to check that you'd locked all the doors," reads your text to your roommate. "Just" is an embarrassed way of asking for what you want. "Just" qualifies your needs as secondary to the other person's. It expresses regret that you have to intrude on their time, which you clearly see as being far more important than yours.

2. Can't

This is the absolute worst. It plagues me 24/7. It's like my school bullies are permanently living inside my head. I know damn well I've missed out on some plum opportunities in life because when they presented themselves to me, all I could do was stutter "I can't". Studies show that men tend to apply for jobs they're not fully qualified for all the time, while women err towards obsessively checking off the criteria and giving up if the slightest thing doesn't quite fit. Women are also more likely to suffer from something called "Imposter Syndrome", which means that when they're praised or rewarded for their talents, they feel like it's some kind of clerical error or that people are just being kind and feeling sorry for them.

1. Sorry

You're on the subway and someone stands on your foot. Without even thinking about it, out comes "Sorry." You've been waiting an hour and half for a pizza because your order got left behind at the pizza place. Yet when the delivery driver arrives, you immediately blurt out "Sorry!" What is it that makes women so keen to apologize for everything, even when the fault lies with the other person? What are we apologizing for? Our basic existence? One has to wonder.

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