You're Saying It Wrong

The year is 1066: William the Conqueror lands upon the shores of England and changes the course of the English language forever. So what does that mean for us?

We take a look at some modern-day idioms, where they came from, and what they could possibly mean.

We look at a list of words people want to banish in this new year. Some of them we agree with, some of them we won't let go without a fight!

We continue our alphabetical trip through the most challenging words from the SAT.

We'll run through the various dictionaries' selections for the words of the year and offer up a few of our own.

What could be more fun for the holidays than digging into the bizarre world of Latin and Greek plurals? Nothing! That's what!

We wade into the social media wars as we take a look at some of the most common language mistakes people make when they're posting online.

We hit a number of language-related topics this week, kicked off by a listener question about what the heck a participle actually is.

This week, Kathy and Ross quiz Fletcher on words that are surprising relatives– and some that are surprisingly not.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

There are a whole lot of things you can say when someone thanks you for something... But what do they all really mean?

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.

Jump in your estate car and head to the chemist, this week we're looking at some British equivalents of American English words.

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.

Must, could, should, shall, might, may... We dig into the weird, wiggly, weaselly world of modal verbs.

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.

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.

Today we look at words that came from other words even though we think the second word should have come first.