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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.

Total 189 episodes

1

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ENCORE: These Names Have Snob Appeal

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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?

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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!

Big News!

You’re Saying It Wrong is now more than just a podcast!

01:2119/01/2024

The Words of 2023

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!

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!

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)

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

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