I'm bad with "actually" and "really," but I've been making an effort not to use literally unless I mean it. Not too successfully, I should add.
Spike: Taking up smoking, are you? Harmony: I am a villain, Spike. Hello!
Spike/Harm ,'Help'
Natter 70: Hookers and Blow
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Amy - Jun 13, 2012 7:24:32 am PDT #9480 of 30001
Because books.
Polter-Cow - Jun 13, 2012 7:25:28 am PDT #9481 of 30001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Literally, really, totally, actually, I use ALL THE ADVERBS. Strunk and White hate me.
Burrell - Jun 13, 2012 7:28:04 am PDT #9482 of 30001
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!
I am sure I misuse literally sometimes. I make other grammar errors too.
If so...do you get snippy if someone asks if that's what you really meant (especially when it's obvious you didn't?)?
No, but now that I teach writing, I make every effort to suppress correcting people's spoken grammar errors. I find it makes people defensive--perhaps since they associate me with teaching and grammar?--and usually when I'm speaking to someone I don't want to make them defensive.
Steph L. - Jun 13, 2012 7:31:01 am PDT #9483 of 30001
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
I use "totally" in the same way. So I am annoying, ungrammatical AND a throwback to the '80s.
As in "We totally went to the pier"? I do that all the time. Based on my spoken English, no one should EVER believe I get paid to edit.
brenda m - Jun 13, 2012 7:33:18 am PDT #9484 of 30001
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
I STILL speak to the dog in LOLCAT.
Sophia Brooks - Jun 13, 2012 7:40:48 am PDT #9485 of 30001
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
Do you put on a funny accent when you speak LOLCAT? Because I do when I am talking to my cat!
Steph L. - Jun 13, 2012 7:41:15 am PDT #9486 of 30001
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
I STILL speak to the dog in LOLCAT.
Hell, I talk to Tim in LOLCAT.
Jessica - Jun 13, 2012 7:42:06 am PDT #9487 of 30001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
"Literally" used as an intensifier dates as far back as 1760, and examples can be found in Dickens, Joyce, Bronte, Hardy, and more. I think I'm pretty safe in saying that, while idiomatic, "literally" used in this way is not, literally, wrong.
Polter-Cow - Jun 13, 2012 7:47:03 am PDT #9488 of 30001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
As in "We totally went to the pier"? I do that all the time. Based on my spoken English, no one should EVER believe I get paid to edit.
Or how every year, I totally go to Comic-Con.
Burrell - Jun 13, 2012 7:52:25 am PDT #9489 of 30001
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!
I grew up in Southern California in the 80s. I consider "totally" a birthright. Totally.