What’s New
We’ll be happy to tell you what this episode is about just as soon as we get back from using the bathroom—I mean, the restroom—I mean, the washroom—I mean, the facilities—I mean
Today we address a couple of listener questions, including one about the Third Conditional (???), before moving on to a quiz about Middle English vs. Latin spellings.
Today we have a wide-ranging discussion about the words we use, when we use them, and the enormous power they can have.
Sometimes words get a whole lot less specific over time, and sometimes people get really mad about that!
We look at how a tiny little prefix or suffix can completely change the meaning of a word. Or how it could do nothing at all!
The most confident people do 10 ‘subtle’ things to influence others, say communication experts (CNBC)We finish our discussion of the words people would like to see banned from the English language in 2026 and then we uncover some uncommonly odd things about one particular prefix.
We go through a list of words people want to banish in 2026 and then take a swing over to the weird world of contractions. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!
We explore all sorts of love and love-related words as we honor St. Valentine (and some other unexpected saints).
We look at how much a word can change if we just give it a little nudge this way or that, which leads us into a discussion of how certain Arabic words made their way into English.
We look at the top 10 most commonly misspelled words. Watch those double letters!
It’s been a strange winter so far, so let’s talk about some strange winter words! Brrrrrrrrrr!!!
We indulge in one of our favorite pastimes: quibbling over tiny differences in the way people say things. What fun!
We all like to feel a bit fancy from time to time, but when we turn to French, it can get us in trouble.
We continue our annual tradition of looking back at the words that defined the year, as chosen by dictionaries, listeners… and us!
As we reach the end of the year, we get some grab-bag whiplash with English questions and conundrums from all over the language spectrum.
This week, we look at some words that have come unstuck in time.
We extend our quiz about abbreviated words into a second episode, and Kathy learns that people don’t always do things just to look fancy (a lot of the time they do, though!).
We answer a few listener questions, including one about a changing pronunciation that drives one person nuts, and another about abbreviations that leads us to some surprising (and confusing) places.
In celebration of Thanksgiving and all the food that comes with it, we’ll take an etymological trip around the dinner plate.
After an extended discussion about plurals, Kathy and Ross give Fletcher a wide-ranging quiz on grammar, pronunciation, etymology, and whatever else they decide to throw at him.
We return to our series looking at the hardest words ever found on the SAT by exploring the letter “G.”
We mark Día de los Muertos with some words about the dead, some of which have been brought back to life, and some that should have remained dead.
We celebrate the season by taking a look at the origins of some Halloween-related words, and we introduce two of the most horrifying words we’ve ever had on the show. Boo!
We return to one of our favorite topics: the surprising and strange origins of everyday words
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.