Kathy Petras & Ross Petras
@kandrpetras.bsky.social
word nuts | siblings | writers | NYT bestseller You’re Saying it Wrong | co-hosts with @FletcherPowell of award-winning KMUW/NPR syndicated radio show & podcast You’re Saying It Wrong
Sad to hear of Leonard Lopate’s death. We always enjoyed his wit (and execrable puns) -- and always loved being on his show talking about language. We’ll miss him.
August 7, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Sad to hear of Leonard Lopate’s death. We always enjoyed his wit (and execrable puns) -- and always loved being on his show talking about language. We’ll miss him.
Phonetic spelling at its phinest, nez pah?
May 4, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Phonetic spelling at its phinest, nez pah?
It's the 200th episode of You're Saying It Wrong ... and we (Kathy, Ross, and @fletcherpowell.bsky.social ) still have a lot to discuss. This week, it's a look at words that are just about 200 years old. Wow, talk about your coincidences!
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Happy 200!
We celebrate our 200th episode (!) by taking a trip back in time to look at some words that popped up 200 years ago.
www.kmuw.org
March 16, 2025 at 12:52 PM
It's the 200th episode of You're Saying It Wrong ... and we (Kathy, Ross, and @fletcherpowell.bsky.social ) still have a lot to discuss. This week, it's a look at words that are just about 200 years old. Wow, talk about your coincidences!
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross Petras
@acesediting.bsky.social, challenge accepted: a haiku for National Grammar Day, dedicated to my favorite copy editing pet peeve.
"Use the comma splice
at your peril, however
periods are good."
#ACES #GrammarDay
"Use the comma splice
at your peril, however
periods are good."
#ACES #GrammarDay
February 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
@acesediting.bsky.social, challenge accepted: a haiku for National Grammar Day, dedicated to my favorite copy editing pet peeve.
"Use the comma splice
at your peril, however
periods are good."
#ACES #GrammarDay
"Use the comma splice
at your peril, however
periods are good."
#ACES #GrammarDay
This week, we answer more listener questions. What's with the r's popping up in non-r words like idear and warsh and such. And why is something as easy as pie? It's a fine how do you do! Yes, we talk about how do you do too -- with @fletcherpowell.bsky.social, of course! www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Mailbag Day!
We answer listeners' most burning language questions, including one about how the letter "R" seems to disappear and reappear in the strangest places, and about whether or not anything can ever be call...
www.kmuw.org
March 2, 2025 at 6:03 PM
This week, we answer more listener questions. What's with the r's popping up in non-r words like idear and warsh and such. And why is something as easy as pie? It's a fine how do you do! Yes, we talk about how do you do too -- with @fletcherpowell.bsky.social, of course! www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Got Nero on your mind? Or just wondering what certain oft-used Latin phrases mean (we're looking at you, sui generis!)? Have we got a YSIW episode for you! Et tu @fletcherpowell.bsky.social ? www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Enough With the Latin Already!
Latin may be a dead language, but it sure seems to come up a lot! This week, we'll look at some common Latin phrases that we think we understand, but that we may not get quite right.
www.kmuw.org
February 23, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Got Nero on your mind? Or just wondering what certain oft-used Latin phrases mean (we're looking at you, sui generis!)? Have we got a YSIW episode for you! Et tu @fletcherpowell.bsky.social ? www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
You're older and wiser these days, right? BUT ... could you do decently on the SAT if you had to take it right now? This week, we're up to the Ds on those pesky SAT words we all know how to spell and define ... don't we? (Yes, we're looking at you, @fletcherpowell.bsky.social !) bit.ly/3QkcLFe
Getting a D on the SAT
We return to our series looking at the most devilish words ever found on the SAT.
www.kmuw.org
February 16, 2025 at 7:52 PM
You're older and wiser these days, right? BUT ... could you do decently on the SAT if you had to take it right now? This week, we're up to the Ds on those pesky SAT words we all know how to spell and define ... don't we? (Yes, we're looking at you, @fletcherpowell.bsky.social !) bit.ly/3QkcLFe
Romance is in the air! Move over, Wuthering Heights.
February 13, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Romance is in the air! Move over, Wuthering Heights.
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross Petras
Yesterday's blog post on a slew of past tense forms and whether they're different in American and British English (perhaps not as much as some might think!)
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/02/ed-v...
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/02/ed-v...
-ed versus -t
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
February 10, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Yesterday's blog post on a slew of past tense forms and whether they're different in American and British English (perhaps not as much as some might think!)
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/02/ed-v...
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/02/ed-v...
Baby, it’s cold outside! So let’s talk COLD!!! COLD things like shoulders and feet and thin ice and such … Yup, on this week’s You’re Saying It Wrong, we’re looking at winter-related idioms. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg …
@fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
@fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
We'll Never Give You the Cold Shoulder
We celebrate the season by looking at some winter-related idioms.
www.kmuw.org
February 8, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Baby, it’s cold outside! So let’s talk COLD!!! COLD things like shoulders and feet and thin ice and such … Yup, on this week’s You’re Saying It Wrong, we’re looking at winter-related idioms. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg …
@fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
@fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
“Like, we were getting off the boat the other day in Le Havre, and this French dame comes up to me and says, ‘Etes-vous un Rat?’' She's asking me, am I a Rat? I don't dig. Then I dig. She's asking me about the Rat Pack, you dig? But there's no word in French for Rat Pack, you dig?”
February 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
“Like, we were getting off the boat the other day in Le Havre, and this French dame comes up to me and says, ‘Etes-vous un Rat?’' She's asking me, am I a Rat? I don't dig. Then I dig. She's asking me about the Rat Pack, you dig? But there's no word in French for Rat Pack, you dig?”
In the course of looking for something completely different, we ran across this old but still vitally important newspaper correction. www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/p...
February 6, 2025 at 4:16 PM
In the course of looking for something completely different, we ran across this old but still vitally important newspaper correction. www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/p...
Okay, sometimes AI isn't that bad. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
AI helps researchers read ancient scroll burned to a crisp in Vesuvius eruption
Writing on PHerc. 172 papyrus, found at Roman mansion in Herculaneum, revealed after 3D X-rays and software competition
www.theguardian.com
February 5, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Okay, sometimes AI isn't that bad. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross Petras
(Some of) Trump’s Wildest Executive Orders Explained
YouTube video by Josh Johnson
youtu.be
February 3, 2025 at 6:10 PM
As someone who studied Arabic, surprised that I, R, didn’t know that tariff -- a word too much in the news, comes from the ta'rif, the verbal noun from arafa, to know. I do know one thing, not wild about tariffs!
February 3, 2025 at 6:05 PM
As someone who studied Arabic, surprised that I, R, didn’t know that tariff -- a word too much in the news, comes from the ta'rif, the verbal noun from arafa, to know. I do know one thing, not wild about tariffs!
Let’s speak Canadian, eh? This week, in answer to a listener e-mail, we’re talking about that specific kind of English from the Great White North. Get your double double, take off your toque and give it a listen! With @fletcherpowell.bsky.social
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Canadian English
We've tackled the differences between American and British English, but let's not forget Canadians also have a language of their own.
www.kmuw.org
February 1, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Let’s speak Canadian, eh? This week, in answer to a listener e-mail, we’re talking about that specific kind of English from the Great White North. Get your double double, take off your toque and give it a listen! With @fletcherpowell.bsky.social
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Works for Fridays too!
My thought for this Tuesday ☕️☕️☕️
January 31, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Works for Fridays too!
You can't make these things up ... www.404media.co/trump-admin-...
Trump Admin Deletes Video Explaining Grammatical Concept of Pronouns in War Against DEI
Github is also revealing a widespread, scattershot effort to nuke not only "DEI" but things that have nothing to do with it.
www.404media.co
January 30, 2025 at 4:33 PM
You can't make these things up ... www.404media.co/trump-admin-...
Got curious about the White House press secretary’s use of the word rescission yesterday. It’s odd. There were two high and brief peaks of the word on Google Ngram (an admittedly unscientific source) in 1933 and 1977. Both peaks were four to five times higher than usage currently. Wonder why?
January 30, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Got curious about the White House press secretary’s use of the word rescission yesterday. It’s odd. There were two high and brief peaks of the word on Google Ngram (an admittedly unscientific source) in 1933 and 1977. Both peaks were four to five times higher than usage currently. Wonder why?
Let’s talk — or should we say converse? Yes, a Norman and an Old English word for the same idea … which is this week’s topic: how Norman words poured into the English language and won the "sounds classier" sweepstakes. @fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
The Norman Conquest of the English Language
The year is 1066: William the Conqueror lands upon the shores of England and changes the course of the English language forever. So what does that mean for us?
www.kmuw.org
January 28, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Let’s talk — or should we say converse? Yes, a Norman and an Old English word for the same idea … which is this week’s topic: how Norman words poured into the English language and won the "sounds classier" sweepstakes. @fletcherpowell.bsky.social www.kmuw.org/podcast/your...
Pretty ambiguous, eh?
January 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Pretty ambiguous, eh?
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross Petras
Our entire show has been seven years of me unlearning language rules that aren’t really rules. If I can do it, anyone can!
January 22, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Our entire show has been seven years of me unlearning language rules that aren’t really rules. If I can do it, anyone can!
Reposted by Kathy Petras & Ross Petras
A couple of these are a little debatable to us (one in particular) but things have changed in 112 years!
Could you pass a Cambridge English exam from 1913?
Three teachers sat - and failed - the first Cambridge English exam 112 years ago. How would you do?
www.bbc.com
January 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
A couple of these are a little debatable to us (one in particular) but things have changed in 112 years!