A few stolen minutes out of your day to talk words and communication, because our daily lives are surrounded by the evolution and influence of words. Forget the grammar police. There is so much more to this conversation.
A few stolen minutes out of your day to talk words and communication, because our daily lives are surrounded by the evolution and influence of words. Forget the grammar police. There is so much more to this conversation.
Why do I call this the “Words You Should Know” podcast? It’s not a lecture. The whole idea of grammar police annoys me. This is the podcast that reminds you that Ben Franklin and Kurt Cobain both influenced our modern English language, and that spelling memes deserve to be debunked. See past episodes for those details.
Today, let’s start with Franz Kafka, and if you’re thinking of the author of The Metamorphosis and having flashbacks to a story about a man transformed into a giant cockroach-like bug, your mind is in the right place. One of my favorite quotes from Kafka is, “Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
What are your most intense obsessions? It’s a good question to ask yourself isn’t it? And are you following them mercilessly?
People surround us. Words surround us. The words we use for people surround us. And things can get tricky.
We might fall into traps of not knowing better with some words, like “gypsy,” which is often considered a racial slur to people of the Roma population—along with the word “gyped,” as in “I was gyped,” which stems from this “gypsy” word. So, hint on that, it’s one you probably want to cut from your vocabulary.
I could go way, way deeper on language that offends—clearly—but what got me started on this concept of words for groups is the word “hipster.” Some words are cooler than cool, and this is one of them. Hipster. And is it related to hippie?
Hip hip hooray. Hip. Hep. Let’s get excited, folks. This is the Words You Should Know podcast, Season 3, Episode 5.
What’s in store for this season? Oh, just you wait.
The a British-Zimbabwean novelist Doris Lessing once said, “In the writing process, the more a thing cooks, the better.” It’s true, a story needs time. A writer needs time. But in so many of our efforts, time is an essential piece of the whole. It’s true for podcasts too, I suppose. But I’m happy to be back with you.
I don’t know if birth order has anything to do with grammar persnicketiness. Do eldest children have a tendency of dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s? Are youngest children inclined toward utter grammar rebellion?
Was that first known person to drop an “OMG” in 1917—yep, I said that date correctly, 1917—was he a youngest child? I bet he was.
Was the member of One Direction who once jumped off the stage to correct the grammar on a fan’s sign an oldest child? I have no idea, but that’s my guess.
Here’s what I do know:
Lindley Murray, often called the “Father of Grammar” was an eldest child.
Noah Webster, American English renegade, was the 4th child out of 5.
Ben Franklin, English language revolutionary, was the 15th child out of 17. (Yikes, power to that mama…)
This is the Words You Should Know podcast, Season 2: Episode 9, and it’s time to go deeper.
Today, let’s fight fire with grammatical fire. Or, let’s at least get your spelling right when you’re talking about fire. Think fast: if you have a “flaring” temper, how is that spelled? Is it the same as having a “flair” for fashion? And what is the past tense of the verb, “to light”? Lit? Lighted? What about the past tense of “burn”? Burned? Burnt?
So many burning questions. So little time.
This is the Words You Should Know Podcast, season 2, episode 8. Let’s dive in.
“Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.” So says Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind, and you know, it’s a true statement.
It’s tax season, so let’s dive in. Into the numbers? Nope, not here. Let’s dive into the language of money.
When should “money” be written in the plural form “monies”? When should we talk about “the amount of” something versus “the number of” something? Yep, there’s a difference. And lastly, what is the language equation that baffles math minds everywhere where the plural plus the plural of this money term equals the singular form? (You’ve probably heard me talk about this last one before, but it’s one of my favorite math equations. I can’t help but bring it to my podcast.)
This is season 2, episode 6 of the Words You Should Know podcast
This is the start of season 2. How to start with that bang? Let’s talk Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, and a classic Broadway show—and, of course, the words they use. You might not have known it, but they have a major disagreement on the usage of a phrase. Specifically, should it be “if I were” or “if I was”?
Today, we’re going to get down to the root of it, plus answer another big one that I know has been bothering you: Is it “ring in the new year” or “bring in the new year”?
At twelve months old, babies are already beginning to recognize “adjacent relationships” of words, how language fits together to organize itself. The learning process with listening, speaking, and writing, begins there and often lasts for a lifetime.
There’s no medal awarded for correctness, but a strong command of your words is one way to show your mettle. But we’ll get back to that.