Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 07/08/2025Sad 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. 011
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Proof that we should consider putting Latin back in the curriculum. www.thepoke.com/2025/05/15/a...thepoke.comAn anti-vax conspiracy theorist fell for an obviously fake Latin translation of AstraZeneca, and got owned to the stars and backBack in 2021, Nebraska-based chiropracter Dr(?) Ben Tapper was one of the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s Disinformation Dozen – a group of people responsible at that time for sharing two thirds ... 020
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 04/05/2025Phonetic spelling at its phinest, nez pah? 040
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 16/03/2025It'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...kmuw.orgHappy 200!We celebrate our 200th episode (!) by taking a trip back in time to look at some words that popped up 200 years ago. 141
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross PetrasBFranklin @bfranklin1205.bsky.social · 19/02/2025@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 087
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 02/03/2025This 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...kmuw.orgMailbag Day!We answer listeners' most burning language questions, including one about how the letter "R" seems to disappear and reappear in the strangest places, and about whether or not anything can ever be call... 020
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 23/02/2025Got 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...kmuw.orgEnough With the Latin Already!Latin may be a dead language, but it sure seems to come up a lot! This week, we'll look at some common Latin phrases that we think we understand, but that we may not get quite right. 032
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 16/02/2025You'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/3QkcLFekmuw.orgGetting a D on the SATWe return to our series looking at the most devilish words ever found on the SAT. 031
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 13/02/2025Romance is in the air! Move over, Wuthering Heights. 011
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross PetrasLynne Murphy @lynneguist.bsky.social · 10/02/2025Yesterday'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...separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com-ed versus -t 1227
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 08/02/2025Baby, 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...kmuw.orgWe'll Never Give You the Cold ShoulderWe celebrate the season by looking at some winter-related idioms. 042
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 07/02/2025“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?” 100
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 06/02/2025In 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... 000
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 05/02/2025Okay, sometimes AI isn't that bad. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...theguardian.comAI helps researchers read ancient scroll burned to a crisp in Vesuvius eruptionWriting on PHerc. 172 papyrus, found at Roman mansion in Herculaneum, revealed after 3D X-rays and software competition 010
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross PetrasKathy Petras @kathypetras.bsky.social · 03/02/2025Move over Who's On First! youtu.be/0-FWOKzWpXUyoutu.be(Some of) Trump’s Wildest Executive Orders ExplainedYouTube video by Josh Johnson 143
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 03/02/2025As 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! 011
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 01/02/2025Let’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...kmuw.orgCanadian EnglishWe've tackled the differences between American and British English, but let's not forget Canadians also have a language of their own. 031
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 30/01/2025You can't make these things up ... www.404media.co/trump-admin-...404media.coTrump Admin Deletes Video Explaining Grammatical Concept of Pronouns in War Against DEIGithub is also revealing a widespread, scattershot effort to nuke not only "DEI" but things that have nothing to do with it. 044
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 30/01/2025Got 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? 100
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 28/01/2025Let’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...kmuw.orgThe Norman Conquest of the English LanguageThe 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? 001
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross PetrasFletcher Powell @fletcherpowell.bsky.social · 22/01/2025Our entire show has been seven years of me unlearning language rules that aren’t really rules. If I can do it, anyone can!npr.orgYou're Saying It WrongFrom KMUW Studios, 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 ep... 032
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross PetrasLynne Murphy @lynneguist.bsky.social · 22/01/2025UK Children's #WotY2024 is KINDNESS www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukWord of the Year: Kindness wins children's 2024 vote 193
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 23/01/2025A couple of these are a little debatable to us (one in particular) but things have changed in 112 years!bbc.comCould you pass a Cambridge English exam from 1913?Three teachers sat - and failed - the first Cambridge English exam 112 years ago. How would you do? 021
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 23/01/2025Saw 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. 110
Kathy Petras & Ross Petras @kandrpetras.bsky.social · 11/12/2023You 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...kmuw.orgStop being so non-positive!This week, we look at the official (?) rules of negativity in English. 061