Question from reader edmanuelsong (July 26, 2010):
Mr. Carillo, when trying to emphasize a point or condition, many Filipinos love to say “as a matter of fact...” No big deal to us, but to non-Filipinos, the last word of that phrase sounds funny if not embarrassing. Either we wage a campaign to emphasize the right pronunciation of “fact,” or we should come up with less dangerously sounding phrases in lieu of “as a matter of fact.” Your take on this.
My reply to Ed:
You’re right, Ed! The phrase “as a matter of fact” is one of the most often used intensifiers among Filipinos when they speak in English. I really see nothing wrong with its use every now and then to emphasize a point; what’s objectionable is when it’s used much too often—to the point of being a real pain in the ears (when spoken) and a real pain in the neck (when written). In fact, Ed, those who use “as a matter of fact” or “in fact” for, say, every other statement of theirs strike me as not being altogether truthful; they profess the truthfulness of their claims too much and too often that I get the feeling that they are actually telling lies. (I hope my repeated use of the phrase here for academic discussion purposes exempts me from being perceived as a liar.)
We can, of course, reduce the excessive or habitual use of “as a matter of fact” or “in fact” by using some of its alternatives. In my case, I sometimes replace it with “indeed” when the sentence sounds right or even better with the replacement. Consider the first clause of the third sentence of my first paragraph above, for instance: “In fact, Ed, those who use ‘as a matter of fact’ or ‘in fact’ for, say, every other statement of theirs strike me as not being altogether truthful.” I’m sure you’ll agree that it sounds OK when “in fact” is replaced with “indeed”: “Indeed, Ed, those who use ‘as a matter of fact’ or ‘in fact’ for, say, every other statement of theirs strike me as not being altogether truthful.” I must tell you, though, that the two consecutive “ed” sounds in the new sentence—that of “indeed” and that of your name, “Ed”—would make me think twice about using “indeed” in this specific example. I find those “ed” sounds cacophonic so I’d probably end up dropping “Ed” to get rid of one of them, or else use “actually” to replace “indeed,” as in this new version: “Actually, Ed, those who use ‘as a matter of fact’ or ‘in fact” for, say, every other statement of theirs strike me as not being altogether truthful.” Now I can breathe better!
As to the danger in mispronouncing “fact” to sound something like doing the sexual act, I don’t think it’s right to ban the word for something that really isn’t its fault. I also don’t see how we can wage a campaign against the mispronunciation of “fact” in, say, the local courts of law or in the halls of the Philippine Congress where we are sure to hear the mispronunciation most often. Can we fine the transgressors a fixed percentage of their legal fees or of their Countryside Development Fund (as the case may be) every time they mispronounce “fact”? No, sir, we just couldn’t do that in this democratic country of ours!
So then I’d recommend that we campaign instead for the use of either “actually” or “indeed” instead of “as a matter of fact.” On second thoughts, perhaps we should push only for “actually” as a substitute. I have this nagging feeling that not many can give full justice to the use of “indeed” in their statements. From my experience, I know that “indeed” is such a particularly demanding word that not many writers and speakers can produce the very exacting and precise semantic flourish that it demands from every sentence that uses it.
