That's What They Say
Sunday at 9:35 AM
That's What They Say is a weekly segment on Michigan Public that explores our changing language. Each week University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan will discuss why we say what we say with Michigan Public Weekend Edition host Rebecca Kruth.
Latest Episodes
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Currying favor has everything to do with flattery and horses, and nothing to do with food.
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There’s a children’s rhyme that involves liars and pants on fire and various types of wires. Now, we can say things are “pants on fire” false.
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If you worry about if or whether you should use "if" or "whether" in exactly this construction, you're not alone.
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It's been really dreary and so icy outside lately. It's awfully tempting to wear super cozy clothes and use lots of intensifiers.
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Badgers live underground and are nocturnal, so we don't see them running around all that often. Somehow though, they're associated with a negative, annoying verb.
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The year 2023 is officially in the record books. As part of taking stock, the members of the American Dialect Society met to consider what we've all been up to linguistically.
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Many of us were taught the rule that we shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition, and honestly this is a rule we should be asking questions about.
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It's undeniable that "Tupperware" has become a generic catch-all for plastic containers, regardless of shape, size, or brand. Not everyone likes this.
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When you stop to think about a verb like "batten," you may be struck by just how few objects it can take.
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Sometimes something you think is a slip or a mistake, perhaps a product of happenstance, is not that.