What’s New
Getting a Little Too Fancy After we talk a bit about some British/American English pronunciation differences, we’ll take a look at a few words that listeners think are simply too fancy to be used as often as they are.Pet Peeve-a-Palooza! (Part 2) We continue sifting through the language complaints that drive our listeners up the wall.
Pet Peeve-a-Palooza! (Part 1) We’ve been asking, you’ve delivered! It’s time to tackle our pile of listener pet peeves. Get ready to be annoyed! (In a good way.)Calques We look at word-for-word translations from other languages that become common phrases in English Getting an F on the SAT No, this time the F isn’t for for Fail, it’s for Fun! And Fantastic! And Fabulous! We return to our series looking at the hardest words ever found on the SAT with a dive into the English alphabet’s sixth letter.Irish Names Are My Pet Piamh A listener email prompts us to try to get a handle on Irish spellings and pronunciations. It doesn’t go well!An E-Prime Cut of Beef What happens when you remove an entire verb from the English language? Chaos! Well, not quite. But it used to cause Kathy quite a bit of consternation. Also: we try to nail down the correct spellings of various grunts and murmurs.In the Heighths We tackle a few listener emails about some unusual pet peeves, including people tacking an extra sound on the end of the word “height,” and another wondering why people say they want to “try and” do something.Pet Peeves for Persnickety Pedants We’ll dive into some common mistakes and pet peeves we have regarding the literary world, and then Kathy and Ross challenge Fletcher to another round of “Related… Or NOT??”The Graham Cracker Rule of ‘Those Ones’ Pet peeves, grammar groaners, and other language catastrophes are on the agenda this week, as we come up with a rock-solid rule grammatical rule that no one will ever question or disagree with.The Secret of -nym Homonyms, synonyms, antonyms… we’ll look at some “wordly” similarities and differences, and explore the vague space in between.
American History Needs a Little Copy Editing We’ll look at some questionable language decisions the American Founding Fathers made when writing some of the country’s most important documents.Suffix Fight! Collectable or collectible? Why is it a computer and not a computor? Or is it? We look at the confusing and sometimes (seemingly) chaotic world of suffixes.The Debatables When we disagree about what a word means or how to pronounce it, how do we know who’s right and who’s wrong? And what if we’re both right?Dislocate Your Syntax, Not Your Shoulder After entertaining a few more listener pet peeves, we jump into a discussion on right and left dislocation in syntax, and then touch on the always entertaining world of nominative determinism (wait till you hear about the guy who invented the toilet!).Let’s Take a Look in the Ol’ Grab Bag… We tackle a range of topics this week, including a brief quiz on winning spelling bee words, a common pet peeve, and some origins of fancy words.I, For One, Do Not Welcome Our Robot Overlords We wade into the conversation about AI with a look at the effects it’s having on our language. Expect some grumbling!Pet Peeves, Oxymorons, and Other Unusual Animals Get ready for some (barely) controlled chaos as we look at phrases that seem to contradict themselves, and others that just get under our skin.
The Spell-a-Thon From Hell-a-Thon (Part 1) and The Spell-a-Thon From Hell-a-Thon (Part 2) Kathy and Ross give Fletcher one of the most deceptively difficult spelling tests you’re ever likely to see, courtesy writer/professor John McPhee and his Princeton course. 
Who Gets Credit, Anyway? This week, we’re looking at words with literary origins. You may not know this, but sometimes writers just make words up.Just published by Hachette Book Group, our newest collection: “Believe You Can and You’re Halfway There”: Discover Your Inner Confidence We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 1985 1985 may not seem like a long time ago, but people back then had some pretty different ideas about how to speak “properly.”Tulip Mania! What does the stock market have to do with piracy in the West Indies? The Dutch, of course! (Really!)
Where Are the Beeves? The plural of thief is thieves, so why isn’t the plural of chief chieves? And as the old woman once said, where are the beeves??? On today’s show, we tackle the tricky nuance of plurals and synonyms that aren’t actually synonyms.
The Letter of the Day is E! We return to our series looking at the most enigmatic, evil words ever found on the SAT. 
People who sound smart do 7 things when talking to others, say communication experts (CNBC Make It)
Spring Has Sprung! We’re talking about some words of the season as the temperatures have fortunately turned for the better and allergies unfortunately have not.
We’re looking to the past Today we’re taking a trip back into the past — past tense, past participles… When we try to tell someone about something that already happened, it can be trickier than we might think.
Happy 200! We celebrate our 200th episode (!) by taking a trip back in time to look at some words thatpopped up 200 years ago.
Let’s Get Fancy Put on your best evening wear, we’re getting fancy! Or maybe we’re just getting stuffy. This week we’re looking at language that’s grammatically correct, but that sounds like you’re just trying to impress.
Mailbag Day! We answer listeners’ most burning language questions, including one about how the letter “R” seems to disappear and reappear in the strangest places, and about whether or not anything can ever be called “epic” ever again.
Enough With the Latin Already! Latin may be a dead language, but it sure seems to come up a lot! This week, we’ll look at some common Latin phrases that we think we understand, but that we may not get quite right.
Getting a D on the SAT We return to our series looking at the most devilish words ever found on the SAT.
We’ll Never Give You the Cold Shoulder Baby, it’s cold outside! So let’s talk COLD!!! COLD things like shoulders and feet and thin ice and such. Yup, on this week’s You’re Saying It Wrong, we’re looking at winter-related idioms. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg …
Canadian English Let’s speak Canadian, eh? This week, in answer to a listener e-mail, we’re talking about that specific kind of English from the Great White North. Get your double double, take off your toque and give it a listen!
People who are ‘emotionally immature’ use these 12 phrases, say communication experts (CNBC Make It)
The Norman Conquest of the English Language Let’s talk, or rather converse. Yes, a Norman and an Old English word for the same idea … which is this week’s topic: how Norman words poured into the English language and won the “sounds classier” sweepstakes.
Idioms: They’re Not Rocket Science We take a look at some modern-day idioms, where they came from, and what they could possibly mean.
Get These Words Outta Here! We look at a list of words people want to banish in this new year — the overused, overhyped, and sometimes just plain irritating ones. Some of them we agree with, some of them we won’t let go without a fight!
Getting a C on the SAT We continue our alphabetical trip through the most challenging words from the SAT. It’s time for the c’s!
The Words of 2024 We’ll run through the various dictionaries’ selections for the words of the year. A lot of them are ones you’d expect — from demure (can we stop with that now please?) to brat (ditto!) to brain rot (okay, so that one’s different! to polarization (ditto!) plus other unexpected ones — and we offer up a few of our own.
Just sold to Hachette Book Group — our newest motivational book, You Are More Powerful Than You Know
A Plethora of Plurals! Octopuses or octopi or octopodi? And what’s the plural of Tyrannosaurus? What could be more fun for the holidays than digging into the bizarre world of Latin and Greek plurals? Nothing! That’s what!
Is This Socially Acceptable?? We wade into the social media wars as we take a look at some of the most common language mistakes people make when they’re posting online. Woah! We advice you to stay calm and not loose your mind! 
from the Confusables Department: affect vs effect — the right way to use these two commonly confused words