Grammar
For some reason people find certain words more fashionable than others and will use them whenever possible. Literally is one such example and has recently become a word that is continuously being misused and therefore loses its meaning.
Out of boredom, the other night, I searched on Twitter for random phrases with the word literally in them to see how people use it in colloquial language. That gives you, by the way, a rough idea of what I'm up to in my spare time. Yes, they say if you have no life, you can't be killed, ergo I am immortal so it doesn't bother me anyway. Back to the topic in hand, there are two phrases that are especially funny and will hopefully make you realise that it is often worth thinking twice before you say something.
No. You did not have your innards removed. I can imagine, however, that some animals happen to be literally gutted every now and then and so are people if they are unfortunate enough to meet a psychopath with a big knife.
Accidents happen, right? Then again I’m not going to believe that all those people on Twitter actually pissed their pants that day. As I was wondering about that phenomenon @BroughtonLass joined in, saying:
I agreed with that, I shouldn’t have a go at people, but at the actual mistakes they make. Please, try to avoid using words if their meaning isn’t suitable. Remember, if something literally happens it really happens.
- Not Exactly What I Meant
We all make mistakes and it just so happens that some of those mistakes are truly hilarious. I think the funniest ones I come across are made by non-native English speakers, including me. When I first moved to the UK I must have been 18 or 19 and my English,...
- Evolution Of Spelling?
I got involved in an interesting discussion with @ciarancurran76 and @rougeit on Twitter which I’d like to share with you. I might be following it up with a longer article soon as well. Let me just add that both lovely gentlemen are totally worth following...
- Morphology
What is morhology? ‘Morphology’ literally stands for ‘ the study of forms’ and was originally used in biology but since the middle of 19th century it’s been used to describe the analysis of basic elements used in a given...
- Cohesion
There are two ways of telling something to somebody. A long one and a short one. You can easily measure the size of it by the pause that one takes after they say to you: 'I must tell you something...'. If it's going to be a good or neutral...
- Whomwatch #1
.whomWatch{ font-style:italic; font-family:georgia; font-weight:bold; color:#cc00ff; text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px #555; } Fairly recently I had a go at websites that make a big song and dance about people misusing apostrophes. But it's not only apostrophes,...
Grammar
This is Literally Hilarious
For some reason people find certain words more fashionable than others and will use them whenever possible. Literally is one such example and has recently become a word that is continuously being misused and therefore loses its meaning.
Out of boredom, the other night, I searched on Twitter for random phrases with the word literally in them to see how people use it in colloquial language. That gives you, by the way, a rough idea of what I'm up to in my spare time. Yes, they say if you have no life, you can't be killed, ergo I am immortal so it doesn't bother me anyway. Back to the topic in hand, there are two phrases that are especially funny and will hopefully make you realise that it is often worth thinking twice before you say something.
I was literally gutted
No. You did not have your innards removed. I can imagine, however, that some animals happen to be literally gutted every now and then and so are people if they are unfortunate enough to meet a psychopath with a big knife.
I literally pissed myself
Accidents happen, right? Then again I’m not going to believe that all those people on Twitter actually pissed their pants that day. As I was wondering about that phenomenon @BroughtonLass joined in, saying:
You need to recognise when people are being facetious or just talking slang (...) these are everyday people, not arbiters of the language. I hate inaccuracy too but these aren’t published comments, so maybe should be given some leeway?
I agreed with that, I shouldn’t have a go at people, but at the actual mistakes they make. Please, try to avoid using words if their meaning isn’t suitable. Remember, if something literally happens it really happens.
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- Not Exactly What I Meant
We all make mistakes and it just so happens that some of those mistakes are truly hilarious. I think the funniest ones I come across are made by non-native English speakers, including me. When I first moved to the UK I must have been 18 or 19 and my English,...
- Evolution Of Spelling?
I got involved in an interesting discussion with @ciarancurran76 and @rougeit on Twitter which I’d like to share with you. I might be following it up with a longer article soon as well. Let me just add that both lovely gentlemen are totally worth following...
- Morphology
What is morhology? ‘Morphology’ literally stands for ‘ the study of forms’ and was originally used in biology but since the middle of 19th century it’s been used to describe the analysis of basic elements used in a given...
- Cohesion
There are two ways of telling something to somebody. A long one and a short one. You can easily measure the size of it by the pause that one takes after they say to you: 'I must tell you something...'. If it's going to be a good or neutral...
- Whomwatch #1
.whomWatch{ font-style:italic; font-family:georgia; font-weight:bold; color:#cc00ff; text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px #555; } Fairly recently I had a go at websites that make a big song and dance about people misusing apostrophes. But it's not only apostrophes,...