let me digress
let me change the subject
TRANSLATION
digress = abschweifen, vom Thema abweichen --- GOOGLE INDEX let me digress: approximately 4,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Before I propose specifics, LET ME DIGRESS a bit and talk about how Saudi Arabia keeps their crime rate to near nonexistent and has no problem with over-crowded prisons.
(from an internet political blog)
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His comments were irrelevant and his manner crude and rude – but he was the president and he got a pass. BUT I DIGRESS because that had nothing to do with his capacity to lead or not lead the Federal Reserve.
(Forbes magazine)
(from an internet political blog)
---
His comments were irrelevant and his manner crude and rude – but he was the president and he got a pass. BUT I DIGRESS because that had nothing to do with his capacity to lead or not lead the Federal Reserve.
(Forbes magazine)
Did you
know?
digress
verb
- to move away from the main subject you are writing or talking about and to write or talk about something else
(Cambridge Dictionaries)
---
Everyone is familiar with this situation: you are explaining something when you suddenly realise that you have strayed from the subject. Perhaps you wanted to tell a friend about the features that come with your new smart phone and after several minutes you are rambling about the lack of data privacy in today’s world. The mind is a wonderful, but often unpredictable thing.
In this case, the English language offers an eloquent way out of this sticky situation with the expression "But I digress..." It’s basically a way of apologizing for unintentionally getting off track.
There are also instances where you might want to deliberately veer from the subject at hand. In this case you can use the phrase "Let me digress..." Here you are essentially apologizing in advance and warning your audience that you are about to talk about something else. If you want to inject a bit of humour, try the famous line from the same-named Monty Python film "And now for something completely different."
Etymology: (16th century) from the Latin digressus, past participle of digredi (to go aside, depart) or it may be a back-formation of the noun digression.
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SYNONYMS
get sidetracked, get off track, stray, meander, wander, drift, ramble, get off the subject, go off on a tangent
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Before we present the new sales strategy, let me digress and talk about last year’s performance."
verb
- to move away from the main subject you are writing or talking about and to write or talk about something else
(Cambridge Dictionaries)
---
Everyone is familiar with this situation: you are explaining something when you suddenly realise that you have strayed from the subject. Perhaps you wanted to tell a friend about the features that come with your new smart phone and after several minutes you are rambling about the lack of data privacy in today’s world. The mind is a wonderful, but often unpredictable thing.
In this case, the English language offers an eloquent way out of this sticky situation with the expression "But I digress..." It’s basically a way of apologizing for unintentionally getting off track.
There are also instances where you might want to deliberately veer from the subject at hand. In this case you can use the phrase "Let me digress..." Here you are essentially apologizing in advance and warning your audience that you are about to talk about something else. If you want to inject a bit of humour, try the famous line from the same-named Monty Python film "And now for something completely different."
Etymology: (16th century) from the Latin digressus, past participle of digredi (to go aside, depart) or it may be a back-formation of the noun digression.
---
SYNONYMS
get sidetracked, get off track, stray, meander, wander, drift, ramble, get off the subject, go off on a tangent
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Before we present the new sales strategy, let me digress and talk about last year’s performance."
