Is it redundant to append "bye" to "speak to you later"? [closed]

Solution 1:

I think it definitely has a use in some cases. The use is to get the person on the other end of the line to actually stop talking so you can end the call. Usually one starts signalling a desire to end the conversation by abandoning substantive answers in favor of simple affirmatives, transitioning at last to repeated versions of good-bye. Here's how such a dialogue sounds from that side of the conversation:

Yeah, that's a great idea, I'll take a look ... yeah ... uh-huh ... I'll have a look ... uh-huh ... yeah ... yeah ... uh .... uh, OK ... OK ... OK, talk to you later ... bye .... bye-bye. [Hangs up]

I made up my own term to describe this kind of dragged-out phone-call-ending: conversational dieseling (from dieseling as used in automobile parlance).

Solution 2:

You can definitely say "see you later" or "talk to you later" as the final utterance before ending your conversation. You can add "bye" afterwards if you choose — it wouldn't sound strange, but it is not needed.

The other person may respond with "bye" (but could also say other things like "see you"), but it is not necessary for you to then say "bye" in return if you have already said "see you later" (although there is nothing wrong with it).

Solution 3:

Yes it's redundant, and yes it's annoying, but my mother (sorry Mum) does it all the time.

I speculate it came about as a way of softening potential awkwardness when terminating a phone conversation.

So, rather than simply hang up, my mother (for instance) repeats (more than once) the word "bye" in a decreasing volume and tone, thus blurring the end of the exchange, until one or both hang up.

That, or its a nervous tic.

Oh, and also see this.