People forget your exact words by lunch. They remember your tone for weeks.

Specific words evaporate almost immediately. What stays is the feeling attached to them, whether you were irritated, distracted, warm or dismissive, and that residue gets attached to you rather than to the conversation. This is why people remember arguments they cannot reconstruct. It is also why a kind sentence delivered flatly lands as nothing at all.

Before a conversation that matters, decide how you want to sound rather than only what you want to say. If you are in a bad mood, say so out loud so it does not get read as being about them.