That's What They Say
Friday at 4:45 and Sunday at 9:35 AM
That's What They Say is a weekly segment on Michigan Public that explores our changing language. Each week University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan will discuss why we say what we say with Michigan Public All Things Considered host Rebecca Kruth.
Latest Episodes
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The word "kid" is already informal, and now we have the word "kiddo" living alongside it. -
When it comes to media, here's the message: It’s time for a truce between the singular agreement people and the plural agreement people.
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If you are trying to do good in the world, some would now argue it’s better to be a “good doer” than a “do gooder.”
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It is less ambiguous to say “I badly need to shower” than it is to say “I need to shower badly.”
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There’s the hair on our heads and the hares in our yards, and there has been some confusion about which one is part of the expression "harebrained."
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We can presume things, which may or may not be presumptuous. We can also assume things, which then raises the question of whether things can be "assumptuous."
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For those of us of a certain age, if we whack a tennis ball or a softball too hard or at the wrong angle, we could throw our back out of whack.
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We sometimes talk about stealing or robbery in terms of "lifting" things, and this is relevant to "heists" as well.
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We will never know some of the informal language that was bandied about among speakers in the time of Beowulf.
