You're Saying It Wrong: Recent Episodes
KMUW
From KMUW Studios and part of the NPR Podcast Network, You're Saying It Wrong is a podcast that looks at what we get wrong—and what we sometimes get right—when it comes to this English language. Hosted by KMUW's Fletcher Powell, each episode features a conversation with the sister and brother who wrote the book on it. Literally. You're Saying It Wrong: A Pronunciation Guide to the 150 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words and Their Tangled Histories of Misuse is by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras.On June 24, 2022, You’re Saying It Wrong received first place in Division B for Interview Podcasts from the Public Media Journalists Association. The awards recognize the best work in public media journalism from across the country.
The letter of the week is "B," as we move on to the second part in our series looking at the hardest words on the SAT.
This week, we're here to help you relax a little bit by telling you that some of those little language mistakes that raise your blood pressure might not actually be mistakes.
With the U.S. election upon us, Kathy and Ross quiz Fletcher on the pronunciation and origins of some words related to our democratic process.
Just in time for Halloween, we're talking about some of the creepy parts of the language world, including ghost words and some horrifying hyphens.
We're looking at the differences between what people in Italy call their food and what they call it in one very specific place in the world (here's a hint: Tony Soprano has a lot to say about this).
We return to one of our favorite topics: mistakes that aren't really mistakes, even though a whole lot of people will tell you they're mistakes.
A Merriam-Webster poll sets off our conversation today as we make our picks for the most overrated word, the most underrated word, the most pleasant word to say, and a number of other mosts, bests, and worsts.
There are a whole lot of things you can say when someone thanks you for something... But what do they all really mean?
We continue our fascination with rules we don't know we know with a look at the importance of where we put the stress when we say words out loud.
Jump in your estate car and head to the chemist, this week we're looking at some British equivalents of American English words.
The letter of the day is "A"! We're getting you (or your kids) ready for the SATs with some tricky vocabulary from the beginning of the alphabet.
Must, could, should, shall, might, may... We dig into the weird, wiggly, weaselly world of modal verbs.
Grab your swimsuit! Or your bathing suit. That's up to you. We're heading to the beach for a look at the language of tides, waves, and other things beachy.
With Charli XCX sparking a summer phenomenon, we take a look at the nature of slang: who uses it, why we use it, and how we need to be very careful with it.
Today we look at words that came from other words even though we think the second word should have come first.
Today, we look at language rules that are rules sometimes, and rules that don't make sense. Well, they make some sense. Whatever. They're rules, anyway.
With the world's greatest sporting event upon us, we look at the origins of some sports-related words.
A listener question prompts us to think about words like rehabilitate, revamp, and nonplussed, and whether we can be plussed about habilitating and vamping, or if we're just talking nonsense.
This week, we're talking ambiguous words and ambiguous phrases– sometimes we think we know what we're saying and sometimes we're really wrong.
Latin may be dead, but we still use it every day. This week we look at some common Latin phrases and what they actually mean.
We know what a berry is, we know what a cranberry is, but what the heck is a "cran?" We enter the sometimes murky world of the cranberry morpheme...
As we head into summer, we'll take a look back to see if we can remember what we've learned over the past year.
After this year's thrilling spell-off in the National Spelling Bee, we try to tease out the definitions of some of the words that won the contest.
This week, we're talking about some of the very oldest words in the English language, and how little some of them have changed over thousands of years.
We're looking at words that were made by smooshing together other words, but it all happened so long ago that we completely forgot about it.
We're dipping back into common rhetorical devices today, and talking about how they can be used to win people to your side... or at least make them laugh a little bit.
We look at some very old words that used to mean something, but that we now only see in very specific instances.
Some of us (Fletcher) can never keep straight what, exactly, the subjunctive is, so fortunately Kathy and Ross are here to remind us!
We have fun with rhetoric and some commonly used rhetorical devices, including how we might be using them even when we don't realize it.
We look at some names of famous people that, when you pronounce them correctly, can let people know you're an expert... or a snob.
This week, Kathy and Ross quiz Fletcher on a list of words that may or may not have been coined by Shakespeare. You might be surprised by which ones we still use today.
We look at why Americans love to talk like our friends from across the pond— or like to think that's what we're doing.
Today we're looking at sentence stress and how the meaning of a sentence can completely change depending on which words you emphasize.
Ouch! Unfortunately, we won't have an episode this week, because even more unfortunately, one of us had an accident and sustained a not-insignificant personal injury. Everything's basically ok, but, you know, it hurts, so we need a week off. Sorry about that, and we'll see you next week!
We get back to one of our favorite topics: Words that sound a lot like other words but have totally different meanings.
We look at some words that we think are related to other words, but actually aren't. Except sometimes they are.
We look at some "rules" of the language that were mostly just made up so people could feel like they were speaking proper English.
We run through some particularly confusing grammar mistakes and how sometimes we might think we’re saying one thing when we’re really saying another.
We run through a few of the many, many English words that contain silent letters and some of the baffling reasons we pronounce those words the way we do.
We dig into why certain words are spelled ridiculously thanks to a bunch of scholars a few hundred years ago who got a little too nutso about making everything look Latin.
Some of us like to be rule breakers, but here are a few rules of the English language we can’t help but follow. And we probably don’t even know they exist.
We look at what happens when we approach non-English words with a little too much gusto, and how exactly we should be saying foreign words so that we don’t sound silly (a tall order for some of us!).
We look at unconscious ways we follow the rules of English by doubling sounds and words, and how meanings of words can change when we say them twice. Now: are you confused? Or are you confused confused?
This week we rizz you up (did we say that right?) by looking at what dictionaries picked as the words of the year for 2023!
We look at the origins of some holiday-related words, including a reindeer controversy and a little bird that's surprisingly rude.
Today we look at phrases that seem at first glance to mean something, but are actually complete nonsense.
Sometimes what we say or write can be grammatically correct but still make no sense whatsoever. Come along with us down this winding road...
Now that we're out of summer, it's finally cooled down enough for us to go outside to check the mailbox! We tackle some listener questions and pet peeves, and we take a look at a bizarre new phrase that's entered the language.
We continue on with our look at the newest words that have been added to dictionaries, and Kathy offers an enormous mea culpa.
Hot off the presses (or whatever the internet is... cyberpresses?), we look at the newest entries into Dictionary.com!
This week, we look at some of those nitpicky little grammar traps that sometimes trip us up.
With the kids headed back to school, Kathy and Ross decided to challenge Fletcher (former two-time district spelling bee runner-up) to a spelling bee!
It's hot! Still. And why mess with a good thing? We heat up a little more with a quiz about summer-related words!
Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia... England... a lot of places have tough to pronounce names for Americans, and our listeners aren't letting us forget it. It's time for a global road trip!
Having been bamboozled by Kathy and Ross in the previous episode, Fletcher resolves to get at one question right this time around. Don't hold your breath, Fletch.
With the words we use in English coming from so many different languages, Kathy and Ross challenge Fletcher to a quiz about word origins. And somehow we end up talking about both bazookas and grenades, so things escalate quickly.
Kathy and Ross try to stump Fletcher with some tricky grammar questions, including a long, confusing trip through collective nouns.
This time, we're taking a trip through some of the most commonly mispronounced places in the good ol' USA. Hop in! Things might get a little bumpy...
Hey there, guy, grab a plate of meat and join us as we look at some everyday words that have REALLY changed their meanings over time!
A listener question forces us to take a hard look at how we use prepositions, including whether we do things "by" accident or "on" accident, and Fletcher asks why we can't just do things "by" purpose.
We've been a little bit cranky lately, so we thought we'd dig up some big-sounding words we're actually fond of. How deliquescent! (wait, that's not right...)
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!
Have you ever wondered who Jimi Hendrix was talking about when he sang, "'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy"? We don't know! Because that's not what he said. Today we look at mondegreens, those times we mishear lyrics or phrases in ways that completely change their meaning.
Horrors! As a result of some unforeseen circumstances, we're without a new episode this week. We're disappointed, too! But this does give us a chance to listen back to one of our favorite episodes (actually two of them, combined), from early 2020, which also contains some information that's very relevant to current global events. We really do apologize, and we'll be back in two weeks with a shiny new episode for your ears to enjoy.
First we take a look at a survey of words that people think make other people sound smart, and then we tackle the most difficult word quiz we've ever had on the show. No, really, this is sorta nuts. Plus, some investing advice you should definitely NOT take.
If I were you, I'd hold on to my hat, because in this week's episode we're going to try to tackle the subjunctive mood! We're doing a lot of this under protest.
Some listener emails prompted Kathy and Ross to take a look at the idea that women are the real drivers of innovation in language.
It's our annual airing of grievances, as we vent about the words we'd like to leave in the rear view mirror as we head into a new year. And fair warning: we get pretty petty!
We wrap up 2021 with a look at the most mispronounced words of the year-- we don't even know what some of these things are, let alone how to say them!
Prompted by some listener emails, we're returning to our bread and butter: words we accidentally use when we mean to use other words. It's confusable time!
Medial cluster what now?? Come on, you know you want to hear this. It's something you're doing basically all the time...
We won't turn a blind eye if you get caught red-handed trying to steal our thunder, because today we're digging into the sometimes surprising, usually murky origins of phrases we use every day (and we want all the credit, darn it!).
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.
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!
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!
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.
Kathy, Ross & Fletcher dip back into their bag of commonly confused words with some particularly pretentious examples.
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!
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.
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!
No more limits! All You're Saying It Wrong episodes will be available in one fell swoop!
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.
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.)
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!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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!
It's a cornucopia of delights! A feast for the... mouth? Ears? Whatever words are a feast for. We'll scarf down a Brazilian berry, a flaky French treat, and some delicious little potato pastas, while trying not to get yelled at by our Greek waiter. How exactly do you say all of these delicacies?
This time out we're going to get nice and cute and have a little fun with some words that were born on the wrong side of the tracks, but found the path to redemption.
Horse jumping, goats fighting hedgehogs, rude fruit-related gestures... today we look at some of the most surprising and exciting word origins we can think of.
We're continuing on from the last episode's fun and games, but the difficulty is ramping up!
Well, actually Nine Egregious Errors, but Eight looks better, and one of them isn't really THAT bad. We'll look at some of the most common language mistakes, even in major publications, that might make your eyes pop out of your head. But... are they really a big deal?
They're just two small, simple words. But when you put them together... all bets are off.
"She was probly at interpetive dance class at the libry that Febuary fifteenth."No? No good? Try saying it out loud...
It's our 50th podcast extravaganza! We'll talk about the current bête noire of the language world, "irregardless", as well as other redundancies and ways language may be changing for better or worse. Plus, a hodgepodge (or mishmash, or olio, or potpourri, take your pick) of listener pet peeves and whatever else might be on our minds. We can do what we want, we're 50 now.
Grab some aspirin and try to wrap your head around the sloppy Venn diagram of homonyms, homophones, homographs, heteronyms, heterographs, polysemes... confused yet? So are we...
Why do some words sound pleasing while others feel ugly? Listen along as Kathy, Ross, and Fletcher try to work out: Is beauty in the ear of the beholder?
Do you have a smile that gleams and glistens and glows? Does the snot in your snout make you sneeze? Was that a slimy slug that just slithered by? Wait a minute—it seems like there's something going on here...
Two weeks ago, we had so much fun with French phrases, we figured, "why not do Latin?" Fletcher has some thoughts about why not to do Latin.
Is the entire French language Kathy's bête noire? Will Fletcher come up with le mot juste? Or will this whole thing just fill Ross with ennui? La partie commence!
This episode brought to you by the letter "Q." Well, "Qu." Because we don't know any English words that just start with "Q."
Artists, philosophers, movers and shakers—you'd better get these names right or you might be found out as a fraud.
This week we're looking at words we hear a lot, that may have some pretty hazy definitions, or may have ceased to have any meaning at all — including (appropriately) pandemic, socialist, and fascist. Also, well, Fletcher's not exactly himself this week.
Prompted by a listener question, we look at words we have no business pronouncing correctly but that we do anyway. Choir, colonel, phlegm, island... where did these crazy spellings come from, anyway? Also, Ross enlightens us on the joys of, um, "borborygm."
Do you like to enjoy a soda... or a pop? Do you put on your sneakers... or your tennis shoes? This time out, we talk about how we talk about the same things in different ways. And you'll never guess what they call a milkshake in Rhode Island (no, seriously, you'll never guess it).
The thrilling conclusion of our Place Name Showdown — will Fletcher hang on to his early lead and emerge victorious? What kind of devious traps have Kathy and Ross set? And we'll circle all the way back around to Peking duck...and another dish with a name we may need to rethink.
Kathy, Ross, and Fletcher face off to see who's tops at pronouncing unusually named cities, countries, and regions from around the world. Who will emerge as the champion pronouncer? Grab a pen and paper and play along to see if you can beat the experts!
We're talking politics! (Sort of.) Mayoral, electoral, gubernatorial (where the heck does that one come from?)... and Ross pulls a word from waaaaay out in left field.
We're back to German this episode, but we've got some serious language wanderlust. We'll start with realpolitik, hop over to doppelganger, try to rank weltschmerz vs. ennui vs. angst, take a whole lot of detours and try to talk our way through some questions we have, and also chat a bit about... spare ribs?
Schadenfreude, weltschmerz, zeitgeist, sturm und drang... whatever it is, German's probably got a word for it.
In this episode of You're Saying It Wrong, we're talking about "fossil words," words that aren't used anymore except in idioms or very specific contexts, like "ado," "dudgeon," and "petard." And we broaden into words that are dying or might be dying in the future.
Can we be combobulated? Or gruntled? Not Fletcher. He's been disgruntled and discombobulated thinking about this subject for a long time.
Merriam-Webster just added to their definition of the word "they" to indicate it's being used as a non-binary gender pronoun. We happen to think that the singular "they" is excellent. As did Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. In fact, the singular "they" can be traced back to 1375.
In this episode, Fletcher, Kathy & Ross talk about precision in language: why it's good, why it's bad, why we like it, and why we sometimes just need to let it go.
In this episode, we're talking about using "I" vs. "me" in a sentence ("between you and I" or "between you and me"), who vs. whom, and how people "hypercorrect" and work so hard to get things right that they go too far and end up getting them wrong.
So... why do begin sentences this way? Is it OK? In this episode we take a deep dive into the use (or misuse?) of this little word.
It's an avalanche of eggcorns! Good eggcorns, bad eggcorns, eggcorns it's OK to use, eggcorns you should avoid altogether, and even one eggcorn that's maybe a little bit NSFW.
In this episode we're talking about things you actually probably get right. But you get them right without realizing what you're doing.
This episode, we're back to words you might think you know, but that you just might be using incorrectly — brought to you by the letter "P".
Sometimes there are words that really don't mean what they look like they mean. And to avoid confusion, it's probably best you just don't use them.
Now that we have 17 episodes behind us, it's time for a little housekeeping. No, we're not debating the pronunciation of the word "housekeeping," but instead are cleaning up a few odds and ends, answering questions raised from recent episodes.
Fletcher turned the tables on Kathy and Ross and selected a word for them in this episode. How do you say flaccid? Or succinct? How about accessory? Those double 'c' words are becoming tricky!
On this episode of You're Saying It Wrong, Kathy and Ross explain the notion of the magic "e". Does that "e" have anything to do to hyperbole, epitome, Hermione, and Aphrodite? And speaking of Aphrodite, why does hermaphrodite — the combination of Hermes and Aphrodite — play by different rules?
In this episode of You're Saying It Wrong, Kathy, Ross and Fletcher discuss jibe vs. jive. They also look at the origins and connotations of "jive" from the 1920s to today.
In this episode of You're Saying It Wrong, Kathy, Ross and Fletcher discuss prerogative and other examples of metathesis (switching letters or sounds around in a word) like prescription, foliage and cavalry.
In this episode of You're Saying It Wrong, we focus on "confusable words," also sometimes called "paronyms": words that look and/or sound very similar to each other but have different meanings.
This episode is a bit of a departure for us. Instead of a specific word we tend to say wrong, Kathy and Ross present Fletcher with groups of words we say wrong. (That theme is still the same.)
It's probably obvious that we love rules at You're Saying It Wrong. So it's equally unnerving and thrilling when we get to break them. In this episode we're dealing with split infinitives, ending sentences with prepositions, and trying to "Latinize" English — all rules we are allowed to break!
Do you pronounce things the way they're spelled rather than the way they're actually pronounced? This issue of "spelling pronunciation" was raised when Kathy and Ross sent the word clapboard to Fletcher. Which brought up other words like waistcoat, blackguard, and forehead. Has there been a shift toward (or towards, if you fall in that camp) spelling pronunciation?
In this episode, we talk about a lot of different words and how to pluralize them, but the specific question Kathy and Ross asked of our host, Fletcher Powell: "How do you say the plural of octopus?"
Something that a person can do well or a strong ability is called a forte, which is this week's word. You know the definition, but are you saying it wrong?
Location, location, location. It's important in real estate, and often it determines pronunciation. Especially when the word is a place. This week's word is Gotham. How do you say it?
We're back to food in this episode! (We do love to eat.) This week's word is bruschetta. How do you say it?
Have you ever experienced an uninterrupted transition from one piece of music or film scene to another?
This is You're Saying It Wrong, the podcast! If you listened past the credits of episodes 1 and 2, you know that Fletcher is good about tagging on "one more thing" to each podcast. Episode 3 is no exception.
If you're looking for the inaugural episode of the You're Saying It Wrong podcast, you've found it! In this episode, our host, Fletcher Powell, will introduce us to our language experts, sister and brother team Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras, who literally wrote the book on the subject: You're Saying It Wrong. (We stole the title, which is fine, because we stole them, too.)
We're so excited to introduce a new podcast from KMUW. You're Saying It Wrong is hosted by KMUW's Fletcher Powell and features lively conversation with the sister and brother team--Kathy and Ross Petras--who wrote the book You're Saying It Wrong. Really. That's the title. And it features 150 of the most commonly mispronounced words and their tangled histories.