Kathy & Ross Petras

word nuts | siblings | writers | NYT bestseller You’re Saying it Wrong | co-hosts with @FletcherPowell of award-winning KMUW/NPR podcast You’re Saying It Wrong

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

@Agile_Gal Thanks for asking! All well here -- we're actually in Armilla (just outside of Granada) so we just got very wet; nothing more than that. Up North is, sadly, a very different story ...

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

An anti-grammar police episode! We're talking about those things that people tell you are wrong, but they're not! Well, but we do have some debates about this ... https://t.co/RHZElAelqq

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

Thank you! You're welcome! No problem! Sure! Of course! A plethora of possibile replies and a plethora of meanings, This week, spurred by a listener question, we look at those phabulous phatic expressions we use to say, er, you're welcome! https://t.co/dBLhkMgZfE

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

All about brat and a look at how slang starts ... and how it lasts (or doesn't). Yes, this episode is definitely brat! (But not cheugy — remember that?!?) https://t.co/6n4NX0DWFa

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

Baby's got back ... formations! Which came first, burgle or burglar? Upholster or upholsterer? It's words that came from longer words even though it sounds like the opposite. (& hooray! We're on 2 new stations! #wwno #kwmr) https://t.co/GKcehDujHj

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

What's next Monday—the one coming up or the one after that? If something's biweekly, is it twice a week or every 2 weeks? If you're here until Tuesday, are you leaving on Tuesday or Monday? It's ambiguity time!
https://t.co/6k3IDwcrGW

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

It's time to see if we REALLY know what those Latin and other foreign phrases we use so often mean. Do you have the bona fides to handle it?https://t.co/YRgED219kV

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

What's the cran in cranberries, a listener asked us ... which led us to talk about linguistic thingies called "cranberry morphemes" —those chunks of words (like cran) that only exist in that one word. But it gets a little more complicated than that ...https://t.co/YaB3XL6mCu

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

It's a grab bag of of language questions for the end of the school year—from how do you pronounce geoduck to what was the initial meaning of "cute"to is saying "my wife and I's dinner"right or wrong? Can YOU ace the You're Saying It Wrong final exam? https://t.co/xHDnNdmZsn

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

This week, we're looking back on the amazing end of the 2024 Scripps Spelling Bee & testing ourselves—not can we spell the words (we cannot), but can we figure out what the heck they mean? (It's tough!) https://t.co/Hg20zi6Oif

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

We're talking the oldest --- and we mean waaay back to prehistoric times on the steppes -- words that we STILL use in English. (Hint for one: What do you like on your bagel with a schmear?) https://t.co/KCI5Ojx7Ke

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

@Wordrider @MerriamWebster Which reminds me of "please pass the elmeno peas" -- in the decabet, of course! https://t.co/Ymc7p5044C

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

Rheturn of the Rhetoric! Some Monty Python, a smidge of Will Shakes, Groucho, and , of course, https://t.co/9j7XY8vUKm. (Well, duh.) Yup, all of them -- and you too! -- are using fancy tricks from ancient Greece. Can YOU figure them out?!?
https://t.co/qJWGhnRkD7

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

@reelingblazejoe So glad you found our podcast (also a syndicated radio show!) -- and hope you enjoy!

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

It's time to dig up some fossil words—words that don't really exist any more except in certain phrases, like "kith" as in "...and kin"), or "shebang" (as in "the whole ...) What did they mean? And what's with the "ye" in all those "ye olde" signs? https://t.co/rS7XJWL8nt

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

Were? Was? Arrgh!! This week it's time to tackle that pesky mood (yup, mood!) we call the subjunctive. From be that as it may to bless you to so be it ... those frickin subjunctives are all around us! https://t.co/TayIoBKiEV

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

Move over, Cicero! Most of us are using rhetorical devices regularly ... and might not even know it. This week, that's what we're talking about -- along with some help from everyone from Churchill to Tolkein, from Shakespeare to Yoda!
https://t.co/rbRq7seNuF

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

From Byron's Don Juan to W.E.B. Dubois to Diane Arbus ... names you might not know how to pronounce even though you THINK you do!
https://t.co/5MQq20ZuUU

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

It's said that Shakespeare invented or introduced over 1,700 words to the English language, but can you figure out WHICH ones? Yup, it's the Very Big Shakespeare Quiz on this week's episode of YSIW!. And now, once more unto the breach, as Will also wrote! https://t.co/cLYBlnEzPr

[Kathy & Ross Petras @kandrpetras]

It's time to get stressed out! This week, we're talking sentence stress: how we use emphasis on specific words to get our meaning across . We get 7 different meanings from the exact same sentence. Pretty wild!)https://t.co/8RbYxnbbxG