Sad to hear of Leonard Lopate’s death. We always enjoyed his wit (and execrable puns) -- and always loved being on his show talking about language. We’ll miss him.

Proof that we should consider putting Latin back in the curriculum. www.thepoke.com/2025/05/15/a...

Phonetic spelling at its phinest, nez pah?

It's the 200th episode of You're Saying It Wrong ... and we (Kathy, Ross, and @fletcherpowell.bsky.social ) still have a lot to discuss. This week, it's a look at words that are just about 200 years old. Wow, talk about your coincidences! www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...

@acesediting.bsky.social, challenge accepted: a haiku for National Grammar Day, dedicated to my favorite copy editing pet peeve. "Use the comma splice at your peril, however periods are good." #ACES #GrammarDay

This week, we answer more listener questions. What's with the r's popping up in non-r words like idear and warsh and such. And why is something as easy as pie? It's a fine how do you do! Yes, we talk about how do you do too -- with @fletcherpowell.bsky.social, of course! www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...

Got Nero on your mind? Or just wondering what certain oft-used Latin phrases mean (we're looking at you, sui generis!)? Have we got a YSIW episode for you! Et tu @fletcherpowell.bsky.social ? www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...

You're older and wiser these days, right? BUT ... could you do decently on the SAT if you had to take it right now? This week, we're up to the Ds on those pesky SAT words we all know how to spell and define ... don't we? (Yes, we're looking at you, @fletcherpowell.bsky.social !) bit.ly/3QkcLFe

Romance is in the air! Move over, Wuthering Heights.

Yesterday's blog post on a slew of past tense forms and whether they're different in American and British English (perhaps not as much as some might think!) separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/02/ed-v...

Baby, it’s cold outside! So let’s talk COLD!!! COLD things like shoulders and feet and thin ice and such … Yup, on this week’s You’re Saying It Wrong, we’re looking at winter-related idioms. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg … @fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...

“Like, we were getting off the boat the other day in Le Havre, and this French dame comes up to me and says, ‘Etes-vous un Rat?’' She's asking me, am I a Rat? I don't dig. Then I dig. She's asking me about the Rat Pack, you dig? But there's no word in French for Rat Pack, you dig?”

In the course of looking for something completely different, we ran across this old but still vitally important newspaper correction. www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/p...

Okay, sometimes AI isn't that bad. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Move over Who's On First! youtu.be/0-FWOKzWpXU

As someone who studied Arabic, surprised that I, R, didn’t know that tariff -- a word too much in the news, comes from the ta'rif, the verbal noun from arafa, to know. I do know one thing, not wild about tariffs!

Let’s speak Canadian, eh? This week, in answer to a listener e-mail, we’re talking about that specific kind of English from the Great White North. Get your double double, take off your toque and give it a listen! With @fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...

Works for Fridays too!

You can't make these things up ... www.404media.co/trump-admin-...

Got curious about the White House press secretary’s use of the word rescission yesterday. It’s odd. There were two high and brief peaks of the word on Google Ngram (an admittedly unscientific source) in 1933 and 1977. Both peaks were four to five times higher than usage currently. Wonder why?

Let’s talk — or should we say converse? Yes, a Norman and an Old English word for the same idea … which is this week’s topic: how Norman words poured into the English language and won the "sounds classier" sweepstakes. @fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...

Pretty ambiguous, eh?

Our entire show has been seven years of me unlearning language rules that aren’t really rules. If I can do it, anyone can!

UK Children's #WotY2024 is KINDNESS www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A couple of these are a little debatable to us (one in particular) but things have changed in 112 years!

Saw this headline the other day: “Exeunt the Man from Scranton” (as in stage directions) and thought: wait a minute! That’s a Latin plural, and “man” is singular.

You can't get no satisfaction? Maybe listening to this week's podcast all about negatives -- double and even triple! -- will help. It isn't not fun at all! @fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...