“Honestly….”
“Truth be told…”
“I’ll be honest…”
“To tell you the truth…”
When someone starts a sentence like that, I wonder, were you speaking honestly or truthfully up until that point? And now you are going to switch gears and tell me the truth?
It’s just weird.
Although I do understand. These starter sentences are simply a natural way to couch our discomfort in what we are about to say. We are punctuating the fact that we are not at ease to share that information.
So why don’t we say, “This is uncomfortable for me to say…?”
Rather than rely on an idiomatic phrase, try saying what you mean.
