Controversial words to bring out the Grammar Police!

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Controversial words to bring out the Grammar Police!

This past week, I responded to a question on Facebook about the use of irregardless and wow…based on the number of comments, I think this has to be the most controversial word in the English language. I decided this would be such a great blog topic and something to research. I wanted to know what other words are grammatically correct, but nonstandard, yet have the same effect on the Grammar Police (who get their panties in quite a wad when someone uses the word). I was “schooled” quite vociferously on this because I inaccurately put forth that regardless, and not irregardless, was the grammatically correct word. I based this on my experience with past English teachers and professors who quickly brought out the red pen whenever I used the word irregardless. I came to find out that, while regardless may be preferable (and the standard use) by English teachers because of that pesky double negative issue with irregardless, irregardless violates zero grammar rules and has been recognized by the Merriam-Webster dictionary since 1934. That’s a long time to piss off English teachers! So what other words bring the Grammar Police but are not actually incorrect by violating a grammar rule?

Preventive versus preventative. According to Merriam-Webster, the words are interchangeable because they mean the same thing. While preventive is the older word, preventative is no spring chicken and can be traced back as far as 1651 in The Strange and Wonderful Predictions of Mr. Christopher Love. Interestingly enough, both words have been used for over 200 years without complaint. I couldn’t find when exactly someone started complaining about preventative, but the grammar police began weighing in on this at the end of the 18th century. By the middle of the 19th century the idea that the extra syllable in preventative was unseemly had made it into dictionaries and usage guides.All right versus alright. People will often say that alright is only acceptable with informal writing, but if Mark Twain who most consider the father of alright can use the word…who are we to argue? He first used the word in his short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” published in 1865. Bottom line is that this is another word that US writing standards consider technically alright…LOL.Incentivize or the British spelling Incentivise is a legitimate word recognized in the dictionary and has been around since the 1940s. Although it tends to bring out the Grammar Police, it is a perfectly acceptable word to use and has found its way into well-written and well edited texts. It’s also being used more frequently than ever before.Supposably and supposedly. Both are legitimate words but have different meanings. The rub comes into play when supposably is used when supposedly is the more standard meaning. In most early uses supposably had a meaning different from supposedly. Supposably means something is conceviable or possible. Supposedly means a claim or belief that cannot be substantiated or implies doubt, another word might be allegedly. However, it seems as though many used supposably as an interchangeable word to supposedly.Undoubtably versus undoubtedly. This is also an example of two words that have slightly different meanings, but are often used interchangeably. The distinction between them can be subtle; something that is undoubted is not doubted, while something that is undoubtable is not capable of being doubted. For example, one might claim that in his or her opinion Aretha Franklin was undoubtably the most influential female singer in history, yet we probably couldn’t say they are undoubtedly so, because, even someone who believes that Aretha was the most influential female singer must acknowledge that there are critics who doubt this.

I have undoubtedly used words in such a way that has editors and English teachers grabbing for their red pens, and I’ve always accepted that I was wrong, but was I? The English language is ever-evolving…so being the colloquial style writer that I am, you can expect me to push the envelope in the future and do my research to arm myself with data that supports using the less formal and evolving word that drives the Grammar Police crazy! If you enjoy a colloquial style of writing, feel free to check out my books by clicking the links below!

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