After our discussion of plurals in the last episode, we got to thinking about all the trouble apostrophes cause us, and Ross proposes a rather extreme solution.
Oct 29, 2021•33 min
All sorts of fun with plurals today: what we get wrong when we try to use Latin plurals, the rules of English plurals, pluralizing compound words... Look out, our opinions on plurals are like a charging herd of rhinocerotes!
Oct 15, 2021•42 min
We continue with our look at the most commonly misspelled words in the English language, as we dig into why it is we tend to spell them incorrectly, and the rules about why we spell them the way we do. And since this is English, we know rules are made to be broken!
Oct 01, 2021•37 min
Kathy and Ross challenge Fletcher to a spelling bee, as they tackle some of the English language's most commonly misspelled words and Fletcher immediately regrets bragging about how good he is at spelling.
Sep 17, 2021•31 min
Kathy, Ross & Fletcher dip back into their bag of commonly confused words with some particularly pretentious examples.
Sep 03, 2021•36 min
We continue with our discussion of contronyms by jumping into some seemingly simple words that turn out to have some complicated meanings. And the summer heat has made us a little loopy, which means we devolve into just a bit of toilet humor (PG-rated, of course), so... be warned!
Aug 20, 2021•25 min
Do you trim the tree before you trim the tree? Do you have to dust after you dust a cake? Today we're looking at contronyms (or antagonyms, or enantiosemy, or Janus words, or...), those cases where a single word can have two completely opposite meanings.
Aug 06, 2021•41 min
Kathy, Ross & Fletcher explore a few more redundant words and phrases!
Jul 23, 2021•30 min
This week, Kathy and Ross bring us a list of what they call "flapdoodle words," words that are redundant and just kind of junk things up. Or do they? Some of them might be kind of useful!
Jul 09, 2021•34 min
No more limits! All You're Saying It Wrong episodes will be available in one fell swoop!
Jul 07, 2021•1 min
Today, Kathy and Ross teach Fletcher about "flat adverbs," which look just like their adjective counterparts, but are still... adverbs. Think fast! Drive safe! Who needs that pesky -ly ending? Not these words.
Jun 25, 2021•27 min
Today we take a big step back and answer a common listener question about exactly why we don't talk that much about "The Rules" of English. Spoiler: THERE AREN'T ANY! (Ok, we're kidding, there are some.)
Jun 11, 2021•32 min
We dip into some listener questions, including one about our recent "reflexive pronouns" discussion and one that has us revisit a topic from an earlier episode and that whole lie/lay/laid/lain confusion. Spoiler: Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton are both wrong!
May 28, 2021•31 min
We're returning to one of our favorite topics: words we sometimes use without really knowing what they mean, or words we see that we just kind of skim past because we aren't totally sure what they mean — "Blipover words," as Ross calls them. You know, words you see and just sort of "blip" over. And boy oh boy, some of these even we have a hard time getting a handle on. Plus: guest appearances by Bob Dylan, Alanis Morissette and Yoda.
May 14, 2021•34 min
Cue up De La Soul, today we're talking "Me, Myself, and I!" Fletcher tries to wrap his head around reflexive pronouns and gets a remedial grammar lesson, and we all try not to have an identity crisis. Who am I, anyway?
Apr 30, 2021•31 min
After Fletcher vents his rage about a word he's starting to hear being misused more and more often, and then Kathy and Ross answer a listener question about the phrase "out of sorts" (what the heck are sorts?), we jump back into our trip through the commonly confused alphabet with the letters L and M. Things get pretty dark.
Apr 16, 2021•30 min
We return to our trip through the alphabet of commonly confused words, picking up with the letter "F", maybe skipping a few that are boring, and heading on through the letter "J". We'd say we avoid tangents this time, but we all know that's not true. Also, Kathy and Ross take on a listener question that Fletcher just can't wrap his head around.
Apr 02, 2021•34 min
Grab your two favorite words, smoosh 'em up together, and you got yourself a portmanteau! After Fletcher gets over some initial confusion, Kathy and Ross challenge him to figure out which words make up their favorite portmanteaus. Humpty Dumpty would be so proud...
Mar 19, 2021•32 min
We continue our trip through the alphabet of commonly confused words as we tackle the letters D, E, and F... or that's the plan anyway, sometimes we get a little sidetracked...
Mar 05, 2021•37 min
This episode we'll dig into some words (and one punctuation mark!) that we toss around willy-nilly that maybe we don't totally, completely understand, and that we sometimes count on other people not understanding, either. Plus, a listener email makes Fletcher want to revisit "begs the question" to learn where such a strange phrase came from in the first place.
Feb 19, 2021•36 min
Today, we're digging up some fossil words! To wit: We'll wade through the flotsam and jetsam of words that have lost all their meaning to us except in very specific circumstances. So batten down the hatches! We wouldn't want to give this topic short shrift.
Feb 05, 2021•33 min
We start with a quick lightning round of the most mispronounced names of 2020, followed by a TRIPLE redundancy from a listener, and then we'll tackle some of the most commonly confused word pairs in English... but only the ones that start with A, B, or C. Otherwise we'd be here forever.
Jan 22, 2021•30 min
Prompted by a listener email about pet peeves, we'll look at redundant phrases people use every day, and talk about how sometimes redundancy... can be good?
Jan 08, 2021•30 min
It's time for the airing of grievances! We'll toss around our least favorite examples of business jargon and PR puffery—it's a good, old-fashioned gripe session for Christmas.
Dec 25, 2020•32 min
We dig into the second half of our holiday feast with some pasta, hot and cold soups, ancient grains, and even a little digestif. Plus, we'll take another dip into jus... or au jus, as the case may be. Bon appetit!
Dec 11, 2020•30 min
