Having tried to wrap our heads around the world of academic language, we now take a stab at trying to untangle the meaning of phrases bureaucracies and corporations produce as they try to sound fancy (and avoid legal trouble).
A listener question prompts us to try to translate some nearly impenetrable examples of academic writing.
We head back to the mailbag to answer some listener questions, including one about the origins of "woke," and another about the power of the bossy R.
We continue to look back at some words from Kathy and Ross' book "That Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means", and we start to wonder if words actually have any meaning at all.
We revisit Kathy and Ross' 2018 book That Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means (now out on audiobook!) and some of the words they wrote about that still give them trouble.
A lot of slang words only last a year or two, but others stick around. We take a look at some that have stood the test of time, and it turns out a bunch of them are older than we realize.
The old people try their hand at sussing out the meanings of Gen Z slang words, although we all remain skeptical that actual people in Gen Z use any of these words. Groovy!
It's an episode we look forward to each January, as we take a look back at the most mispronounced words of the previous year. Even the dinosaurs said one of these wrong!
Kathy and Ross take major issue with various choices for words of the year for 2022. What makes for a good word of the year? Can anyone please our experts?
While recording the audio versions of their books, Kathy and Ross discover there are words they've written about that they STILL say wrong, even after all these years.
After we puzzle over some words Kathy and Ross recently found in the news, we'll tackle a list of the English language's most misspelled words. Two billion tweets can't be wrong, can they? (Yes, they can, and are.)
Turns out agentive suffixes are popular! We tackle a number of listener questions we got after our first episode on the topic, and Kathy gets VERY excited about a couple of the words that come up.
It's the spoooookiest episode we've ever had, as we dive into the roots of the scary words we hear each Halloween. Vampires! Werewolves! Witches and Warlocks! Press play... if you dare...
A listener asks why some words end in -er, while other similar words end in -or, like "seller" vs. "vendor," or "supervisor" vs. "manager." My friend, you may be sorry you asked!
WARNING: There is some very heated sibling rivalry in this episode, about some things we never would have expected (that title is a hint).
OK, kids! The SATs are coming up, and we've got your perfect study guide right here! We look at some words that tend to trip people up, or maybe that you've never even heard before at all. Disclaimer: We don't actually know how the SAT even works anymore.
Our discussion of spelling differences between American English and British English continues.
On one side, you have people spelling it "realise," on the other, it's "realize." And the poor Canadians are caught right in the middle.
After we take another (brief) run at the lie/lay problem, we continue our discussion of words we often use interchangeably that might actually have different meanings.
A listener question has us talking about words we often use interchangeably that actually might mean different things.
We celebrate our 100th episode with a bunch of listener questions, including some age-old language controversies and even a question from someone we've driven to drink...
We had such a great response to the call for listener questions for the 100th episode of You're Saying It Wrong that we decided to take a little extra time to sift through them. It will be a few more days before that episode comes out, but it'll be worth the wait!
Listen up! After we learn not to take investing advice from Kathy, we move on to a discussion of phrasal verbs. What are phrasal verbs, you ask? Stick around to find out...
You're Saying It Wrong's 100th episode is on the horizon, and we have a special request.
In honor of the National Spelling Bee, we return to our trip through the list of most commonly misspelled words in the English language. Wait... misspelled? Mispelled? Mis-spelled? These darn double letters... Also, we start out with a brief discussion that is *chef's kiss*.
Jumping off from some recent Twitter confusion, we look at how much trouble there can be when we misplace our modifiers, or just let them dangle in the wind. Recording this podcast, no animals were harmed.
We set aside our usual games and quizzes for a wide-ranging discussion about the necessity of grammar rules, when we need them and when we don't, who gets to decide what's "right" and what's "wrong," and whether we need to rethink that.
We continue on with our discussion of trademarks by looking at words that were once trademarked, but have become so widely used that they've actually lost that trademark. Also, Kathy sings! And Ross explains why he never sings.
Hey, can we trademark this? No, I mean, can we trademark the word, "this"? We may not be lawyers, but that's never stopped us from having opinions, especially when it comes to trademarking every word under the sun. I'm sure we can trademark "digression" though, we've cornered the market on that one...
Which came first, the chicken or the chickening out? The egg or the egging on? The noun or the verb? Today we're looking at verbing nouns and nouning verbs, and maybe even a little adjectiving while we're at it. Trust us, this episode is NOT cringe!
