CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Pet Peeve: The Word "Literally"

Monday, August 15, 2011

this entry brought to you by franz ferdinand, "do you wanna?"


Of course, the big problem with the word "literally" is when people say it when they mean "figuratively", which is the exact opposite of "literally". They'll say "Literally, my head exploded." Well of course your head didn't literally explode. Everyone knows this is annoying, and everybody complains about it.

But I'll tell you, a pet peeve I have that is quickly becoming as annoying as that is when people say "literally" when the statement they are about to say is completely reasonable, and does not need to be qualified by saying "literally".

For example, a person might say, "We were at the restaurant and my girlfriend just dumped me right there and got up and left. I literally just sat there without moving for two minutes."

Well, yes. That's a perfectly reasonable reaction to being dumped in a restaurant. You didn't need to say "literally", as if I would think you were exaggerating if you didn't qualify it. On the other hand, if you to have said something true but unreasonable, for example, "I literally sat there for two hours without moving or anything," you would need to have some way of qualifying that you aren't exaggerating.

"I saw that the gas was 5 dollars a gallon, and I was literally shocked."

Of course you were, 5 dollars a gallon is unreasonable.

"I saw that the gas was 5 dollars a gallon, and I was literally happy to pay it."

That statement is much less reasonable.
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with love from CRS @ 11:08 AM 

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