You're Saying It Wrong

We return to our trip through the alphabet of commonly confused words, picking up with the letter "F", maybe skipping a few that are boring, and heading on through the letter "J". We'd say we avoid tangents this time, but we all know that's not true. Also, Kathy and Ross take on a listener question that Fletcher just can't wrap his head around.

Grab your two favorite words, smoosh 'em up together, and you got yourself a portmanteau! After Fletcher gets over some initial confusion, Kathy and Ross challenge him to figure out which words make up their favorite portmanteaus. Humpty Dumpty would be so proud...

We continue our trip through the alphabet of commonly confused words as we tackle the letters D, E, and F... or that's the plan anyway, sometimes we get a little sidetracked...

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

This episode we'll dig into some words (and one punctuation mark!) that we toss around willy-nilly that maybe we don't totally, completely understand, and that we sometimes count on other people not understanding, either. Plus, a listener email makes Fletcher want to revisit "begs the question" to learn where such a strange phrase came from in the first place.

Today, we're digging up some fossil words! To wit: We'll wade through the flotsam and jetsam of words that have lost all their meaning to us except in very specific circumstances. So batten down the hatches! We wouldn't want to give this topic short shrift.

We start with a quick lightning round of the most mispronounced names of 2020, followed by a TRIPLE redundancy from a listener, and then we'll tackle some of the most commonly confused word pairs in English... but only the ones that start with A, B, or C. Otherwise we'd be here forever.

Prompted by a listener email about pet peeves, we'll look at redundant phrases people use every day, and talk about how sometimes redundancy... can be good?

It's time for the airing of grievances! We'll toss around our least favorite examples of business jargon and PR puffery—it's a good, old-fashioned gripe session for Christmas.

We dig into the second half of our holiday feast with some pasta, hot and cold soups, ancient grains, and even a little digestif. Plus, we'll take another dip into jus... or au jus, as the case may be. Bon appetit!

It's a cornucopia of delights! A feast for the... mouth? Ears? Whatever words are a feast for. We'll scarf down a Brazilian berry, a flaky French treat, and some delicious little potato pastas, while trying not to get yelled at by our Greek waiter. How exactly do you say all of these delicacies?

We'll also take a little detour and look at the unexpected origins of a recently announced word of the year.