That's What They Say

We will share some fun linguistic facts about lickety-split, lickety-split.

From 17th-century England to modern-day gratuities, the evolution of "tip" is a story of l... more

Historically, bloodletting and bloodshed have been different things, but the line has blur... more

When you’re smack dab in the middle of something, you can’t be more in the middle of it.

English spelling can be a museum of earlier pronunciations, as we see in words like "night... more

Given that tuna is a fish, it can seem unnecessary to call that out in the compound tuna f... more

When we eat up or fix up or heal up or hurry up, we’re not actually moving in an upward di... more

Funnily enough, two listeners wrote to us this summer about the phrase funnily enough.

Working out with dumbbells may be a fitness craze now, but the fitness craze that started ... more

If you’d just as soon not learn about an eggcorn that some language pundits really dislike... more

We can be angry or infuriated or outraged or furious or livid or incensed, all of which ma... more

Usage guide writers, seeing some confusion afoot, tell us to be wary about the distinction... more

Even though "mug shots" do not involve drinking or "mugs" in that sense, we can draw a his... more

From campfire wood to troubleshooting, English usage provides plenty of curiosities for an... more

Only some English speakers have grammars that allow them to say “We might could make that ... more

When you have a language podcast, you come across a lot of usages that make you think, “I ... more

Mountains may be peaked, collars may be peaked, but when we’re sick, we’re not “peaked” bu... more

This is a bespoke segment of That’s What They Say that focuses on “bespoke.”

Listeners write to us regularly with their language peeves, which we love. Sometimes they ... more

When we inquire about something, it doesn’t really matter if we "inquire" or "enquire." Ho... more