A frequently uttered sentence, phrase, or question [closed]

Question

I am looking for a word or phrase that captures the idea of a frequently uttered sentence, phrase, or question.

For instance, there is one sentence or phrase which can be uttered most often during communication:

Henry: Your best friend has stolen my pen.

John: - What is his name? James? James is honest; he wouldn't steal anyone's pen.

John asked "What's his name?" even when he knows that his best friend's name is James.

For another example, suppose John meets his best friend, James, and asked James whether he had stolen the pen:

John: James, did you steel Henry's pen? He blamed you.

James: No, I didn't steal it. But I did see my younger brother, Jacob, steal that pen.

John: What's his name? Harry? Perhaps he stole it.

I have two examples of such repeatedly uttered sentences/arguments in my native language (with translation):

1. Mind na kariye ga. [translation: don't mind]

2. Allah apko neki de. [translation: may Allah guide you]

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Note that the word earworm is not what I am looking for. Earworm means:

A catchy song or tune that runs continually through a person's mind.

Thus it is wrong to use such word in this case.

Answer 1

Could you be thinking of "a refrain"?

It's generally used in music, e.g. when the chorus is repeated. Though TFD gives

A repeated utterance or theme.

and

a much repeated saying or idea

as secondary definitions

Richard Le Gallienne used the word, to mean repetition of an utterance, in chapter VII of his book The Quest of The Golden Girl

Dinner!

Is there a more beautiful word in the language?

Dinner!

Let the beautiful word come as a refrain to and fro this chapter.

Dinner!

Just eating and drinking, nothing more, but so much!

On doing further research, searching the term often repeated utterance, I found mantra as a possibility.

a statement or slogan repeated frequently.

"the environmental mantra that energy has for too long been too cheap"

or maybe you are just looking for tics?

an idiosyncratic and habitual feature of a person's behaviour.

"they've developed a verbal tic which involves repeating odd bits of each other's utterances"

or perissology and pleonasm ?

perissology (noun rhetoric)

the use of a superfluity of words; an expression of something using more words than necessary

From Collins Dictionary

pleonasm (noun rhetoric)

1. the use of more words than necessary or an instance of this, such as a tiny little child

2. a word or phrase that is superfluous

Answer 2

Pet phrase

Not the best source, but confirms usage I have heard:

Pet phrase is an informal term for an expression frequently used by an individual in speech and/or writing.

A pet phrase may be widely known (a cliché, for instance) or peculiar to the individual who employs it.

I can't think of anything else that Bookmanu hasn't already added.

Answer 3

If the phrase is somewhat habitual, consider calling it a verbal tic.

1.1 An idiosyncratic and habitual feature of a person's behaviour. ‘they've developed a verbal tic which involves repeating odd bits of each other's utterances’ - ODO