You're Saying It Wrong

"Last night I lay down my book and sunk into a deep sleep."

Yep. That's the sentence Fletcher received from Kathy and Ross, and it sent him on an emotional journey.

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.

We also have a short discussion about the current vs. original pronunciations of "gerrymander" in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision on partisan gerrymandering.

So... you should probably go ahead and listen, don't ya think?

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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.

You're Saying It Wrong was recorded and produced at KMUW studios. Thanks to our language experts, Kathy Petras and Ross Petras. You can follow them at their website: kandrpetras.com

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.

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?

It's all here:

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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.

And our listener question asks why we pronounce primer as "primmer" when we're talking about the little instructional booklets, when the rules of English would seem to indicate we should pronounce it with a long "i", like we do when we're talking about an undercoat of paint.

So much to discuss...

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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.