Literally

"Literally" is a word that is very often misused.

Here are a few examples:
"I literally died when she told me about what I did at the party."
or
"When he jumped out from behind the desk, I flew fifteen feet into the air, literally"
or
"Man, that girl literally knocked my socks off"


You did not "literally" die, when something happened. If you had, you'd not be telling the story.
You did not "literally" fly fifteen feet into the air when someone scared you. If you had, you'd likely be in the hospital or dead.
You did not "literally" get your socks knocked off. If you had… well, that would be awesome.

The word "literally" is to be used when something "LITERALLY" happens. If you'd like to be figurative, then just DROP the word. "I died when that happened." "I flew fifteen feet into the air." "That knocked my socks off."
Your continued incorrect use of this word may literally drive me to insanity. Though, it's more likely that a car will literally drive me somewhere, and your use of this term will just anger me further.

Right / Write / Wright / Rite

This entry will be fairly short, mainly because I NEVER thought I'd have to explain this one.
I was on a social networking website the other day and an acquaintance wrote, "I didn't wright that comment."
My jaw literally dropped… hanging open in shock.

Write = To compose, to form words, to express or communicate using acknowledged shapes, etc.
As in: To write on a piece of paper.

Right = Proper, Correct, legal claim to a title, the opposite of left, etc.
As in: To be right about something in an argument.

Wright = a worker or builder, attached to words to form a "creator" of said other word (e.g. playwright), or Orville and Wilbur "creators" of the first plane.
As in: The playwright composed a sonnet.

Rite = Religious act, any established ceremony.
As in: Spring cleaning is almost a rite of passage.

Remember the writing rite is every playwright's right.

Your / You're

I had a whole plan of what the next few blog entries would be; however, I received an email that changed this objective. (The subject line of said email will be included in my examples below.)

The subject of this blog was going to be covered in a few weeks, and it would have been grouped with a few other rules. This shall be no longer.

I will present one that should be obvious to all, but for some reason it's not.
Your = Possessive
You're = You are

This is really simple and should never ever be confused. The best way to remember it is that the "re" in "you're" is the word "are" with the "a" cut off.

If one can replace the word in the sentence with "you are" then use "you're"… it's as easy as that.

For example: "You're late for dinner."
That means, "You are late for dinner."
Alternatively, "Your dinner is on the table."
That means "The dinner that belongs to you is on the table."

When one says "your" in place of "you're" the confusion is astronomical.
For example, "I believe your offended."
My response would be, "You believe my offended?"

Conversely, "I have taken you're phone."
My response would be, "You have taken I am phone?"

Finally, "This dog is you'res"
My response would be, "Go away, and read a grammar textbook."
("You'res" is NEVER a word)

You're really going to have to learn your grammar.

Y

Today's post isn't something that drives me crazy; it's something that came up as a question via text message last week. In my friend's honour, I decided I would make a post about our lovely friend, the letter "Y".

"In what case is Y a vowel?" (To quote my friend's message)

The quickest and simplest answer to figuring this out is, "If there are no other vowels around it, 'Y' becomes a vowel."
The remaining rule would be "when it sounds like a vowel, it is a vowel."

Consider the sound the letter makes. When it sounds like an "ee" or a long "i" it is a vowel. When it is a sharp sound, or it precedes or proceeds a long vowel sound, it is a consonant.

Examples of both:
Vowel because no other vowels are present: Myth or Why
Vowel because of sound: Betty
Consonant: Yes, Yell, Hurray

Lastly, while the word "hurray" almost sounds like the "Y" is making the "ee" sound, it is the long "a" that is making that sound, the "Y" is sharp.

That would be the "Why of Y"... so to speak.

Since When

When did people begin to use this one? It very nearly drives me to climb a brick wall using my bare hands as anchors.

"Since when did that happen?"
"Since when did you get sick?"
"Since when is it proper to use since when?"

When considering that question, that terribly malformed question, the meaning can be one of two things.
1) "How long has this been going on?" Meaning, the person would like a specific amount of time.
However, the following, I find, is the more likely meaning.
2) "When"

If one is asking for a specific amount of time, "Since when did you get sick?" should be phrased as, "How long ago did you get sick?" or something along those lines.

If one is asking "When?", please for the love of all that is holy, just drop the "Since".
One of the reasons people speak incorrectly is due to laziness, in this scenario be lazy, drop that extra word!