Sign in
Comedy
Education
KMUW
From KMUW Studios and part of the NPR Podcast Network, You're Saying It Wrong is a podcast that looks at what we get wrong—and what we sometimes get right—when it comes to this English language. Hosted by KMUW's Fletcher Powell, each episode features a conversation with the sister and brother who wrote the book on it. Literally. You're Saying It Wrong: A Pronunciation Guide to the 150 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words and Their Tangled Histories of Misuse is by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras.On June 24, 2022, You’re Saying It Wrong received first place in Division B for Interview Podcasts from the Public Media Journalists Association. The awards recognize the best work in public media journalism from across the country.
ENCORE: These Names Have Snob Appeal
We look at some names of famous people that, when you pronounce them correctly, can let people know you're an expert... or a snob.
30:2623/11/2024
Getting a B on the SAT
The letter of the week is "B," as we move on to the second part in our series looking at the hardest words on the SAT.
29:1316/11/2024
A Little Stress Relief
This week, we're here to help you relax a little bit by telling you that some of those little language mistakes that raise your blood pressure might not actually be mistakes.
29:1209/11/2024
Electoral Confusion
With the U.S. election upon us, Kathy and Ross quiz Fletcher on the pronunciation and origins of some words related to our democratic process.
29:1302/11/2024
It's Getting Spoooooky Again
Just in time for Halloween, we're talking about some of the creepy parts of the language world, including ghost words and some horrifying hyphens.
29:2326/10/2024
Italian Food!
We're looking at the differences between what people in Italy call their food and what they call it in one very specific place in the world (here's a hint: Tony Soprano has a lot to say about this).
29:2219/10/2024
Make No Mistake
We return to one of our favorite topics: mistakes that aren't really mistakes, even though a whole lot of people will tell you they're mistakes.
29:2312/10/2024
The "Most" Words
A Merriam-Webster poll sets off our conversation today as we make our picks for the most overrated word, the most underrated word, the most pleasant word to say, and a number of other mosts, bests, and worsts.
29:2405/10/2024
Of Course! A Mere Trifle.
There are a whole lot of things you can say when someone thanks you for something... But what do they all really mean?
29:2228/09/2024
The Hidden World of Syllable Stress
We continue our fascination with rules we don't know we know with a look at the importance of where we put the stress when we say words out loud.
29:2421/09/2024
Let's Hop Across the Pond
Jump in your estate car and head to the chemist, this week we're looking at some British equivalents of American English words.
29:2314/09/2024
Getting an A on the SAT
The letter of the day is "A"! We're getting you (or your kids) ready for the SATs with some tricky vocabulary from the beginning of the alphabet.
29:2207/09/2024
We Simply Must Talk About Modal Verbs
Must, could, should, shall, might, may... We dig into the weird, wiggly, weaselly world of modal verbs.
29:2331/08/2024
Let's Hit the Beach
Grab your swimsuit! Or your bathing suit. That's up to you. We're heading to the beach for a look at the language of tides, waves, and other things beachy.
29:2424/08/2024
Now is the winter of our discontent made brat summer
With Charli XCX sparking a summer phenomenon, we take a look at the nature of slang: who uses it, why we use it, and how we need to be very careful with it.
29:0117/08/2024
Back-formations
Today we look at words that came from other words even though we think the second word should have come first.
29:2410/08/2024
Silly Rules (Or, the Unpredictability of the English Language)
Today, we look at language rules that are rules sometimes, and rules that don't make sense. Well, they make some sense. Whatever. They're rules, anyway.
29:2503/08/2024
The Etymology Olympics
With the world's greatest sporting event upon us, we look at the origins of some sports-related words.
29:2427/07/2024
Is This a Fossil? Or Just Some Dumb Old Rock?
A listener question prompts us to think about words like rehabilitate, revamp, and nonplussed, and whether we can be plussed about habilitating and vamping, or if we're just talking nonsense.
29:2320/07/2024
The Ambiguity of English (Is the Name of My Jazz Band)
This week, we're talking ambiguous words and ambiguous phrases– sometimes we think we know what we're saying and sometimes we're really wrong.
29:2413/07/2024
It's a Dead Language, I Always Say
Latin may be dead, but we still use it every day. This week we look at some common Latin phrases and what they actually mean.
29:2406/07/2024
Cranberry Morphemes
We know what a berry is, we know what a cranberry is, but what the heck is a "cran?" We enter the sometimes murky world of the cranberry morpheme...
29:2329/06/2024
Final Exams
As we head into summer, we'll take a look back to see if we can remember what we've learned over the past year.
29:2322/06/2024
The Defining Words of the Spelling Bee
After this year's thrilling spell-off in the National Spelling Bee, we try to tease out the definitions of some of the words that won the contest.
29:2315/06/2024
The Oldest of Old Words
This week, we're talking about some of the very oldest words in the English language, and how little some of them have changed over thousands of years.
29:2108/06/2024
Smooshed-up Words
We're looking at words that were made by smooshing together other words, but it all happened so long ago that we completely forgot about it.
29:2301/06/2024
The Rheturn of Rhetoric
We're dipping back into common rhetorical devices today, and talking about how they can be used to win people to your side... or at least make them laugh a little bit.
29:1625/05/2024
Ye Olde Fossil Words
We look at some very old words that used to mean something, but that we now only see in very specific instances.
29:1518/05/2024
If I Were To Talk About The Subjunctive...
Some of us (Fletcher) can never keep straight what, exactly, the subjunctive is, so fortunately Kathy and Ross are here to remind us!
29:1411/05/2024
We are all rhetoricians now
We have fun with rhetoric and some commonly used rhetorical devices, including how we might be using them even when we don't realize it.
29:1404/05/2024
These Names Have Snob Appeal
We look at some names of famous people that, when you pronounce them correctly, can let people know you're an expert... or a snob.
29:2227/04/2024
Shakespeare: He made up a lot of words
This week, Kathy and Ross quiz Fletcher on a list of words that may or may not have been coined by Shakespeare. You might be surprised by which ones we still use today.
29:2320/04/2024
British-isms
We look at why Americans love to talk like our friends from across the pond— or like to think that's what we're doing.
29:2213/04/2024
The Good Kind of Stress
Today we're looking at sentence stress and how the meaning of a sentence can completely change depending on which words you emphasize.
29:2206/04/2024
A message from You're Saying It Wrong
Ouch! Unfortunately, we won't have an episode this week, because even more unfortunately, one of us had an accident and sustained a not-insignificant personal injury. Everything's basically ok, but, you know, it hurts, so we need a week off. Sorry about that, and we'll see you next week!
01:3630/03/2024
Return of the Confusables
We get back to one of our favorite topics: Words that sound a lot like other words but have totally different meanings.
29:2423/03/2024
Weird Word Origins
We look at some words that we think are related to other words, but actually aren't. Except sometimes they are.
29:2216/03/2024
Pretending to be proper
We look at some "rules" of the language that were mostly just made up so people could feel like they were speaking proper English.
29:2409/03/2024
Sticky, tricky grammar moments
We run through some particularly confusing grammar mistakes and how sometimes we might think we’re saying one thing when we’re really saying another.
29:2302/03/2024
Psilence!
We run through a few of the many, many English words that contain silent letters and some of the baffling reasons we pronounce those words the way we do.
29:2024/02/2024
The Latin Craze
We dig into why certain words are spelled ridiculously thanks to a bunch of scholars a few hundred years ago who got a little too nutso about making everything look Latin.
29:2117/02/2024
Sneaky rules we don't know we follow
Some of us like to be rule breakers, but here are a few rules of the English language we can’t help but follow. And we probably don’t even know they exist.
29:1810/02/2024
Hyperforeignisms and other times we just get too excited
We look at what happens when we approach non-English words with a little too much gusto, and how exactly we should be saying foreign words so that we don’t sound silly (a tall order for some of us!).
29:1903/02/2024
Doublespeak!
We look at unconscious ways we follow the rules of English by doubling sounds and words, and how meanings of words can change when we say them twice. Now: are you confused? Or are you confused confused?
30:0227/01/2024
Big News!
You’re Saying It Wrong is now more than just a podcast!
01:2119/01/2024
The Words of 2023
This week we rizz you up (did we say that right?) by looking at what dictionaries picked as the words of the year for 2023!
24:2205/01/2024
Deck the Halls!
We look at the origins of some holiday-related words, including a reindeer controversy and a little bird that's surprisingly rude.
28:1522/12/2023
Stop being so non-positive!
This week, we look at the official (?) rules of negativity in English.
28:2608/12/2023
Escher sentences (and other nice ways of saying nothing)
Today we look at phrases that seem at first glance to mean something, but are actually complete nonsense.
32:1524/11/2023
Garden paths, crash blossoms, and other terrible ways of saying things
Sometimes what we say or write can be grammatically correct but still make no sense whatsoever. Come along with us down this winding road...
28:1210/11/2023