Regards vs. Regard

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you?

Hi, who’s this?

Who is this?

This is Gary McDonald from San Diego.

Hi, Gary, what’s cooking?

I was calling to see when you use in regards to or in regard to.

And I wasn’t sure if it was a pluralization thing or if it was something else.

So you’re writing business correspondence and you’re saying in regards to the water damage to my basement, you owe me a million dollars, something like that.

Exactly.

-huh.

Or versus in regard to.

Right.

Well, there’s a quick answer to that.

You never say in regards to.

Oh.

Just don’t ever put an S on regard in that situation.

If you did, you wouldn’t be alone, but it still doesn’t make it right.

Right.

The traditional rule is in regard to, never in regards to.

Oh, okay.

You’d never say irregardless.

No, I wouldn’t.

Yeah, exactly.

I wouldn’t.

Grant would do it to get under my skin, but again, the traditional rule is that irregardless is not a word.

Exactly.

And it’s a word, but it’s incorrect.

Oh, it’s kind of like anyways, because people say anyways.

Yeah.

And it’s anyway.

Right.

They do.

That’s interesting.

So you never use in regards to.

Right.

Right.

There’s a little bit of logic behind that that might help you remember it.

Do you want it?

Sure, please.

All right.

The thing is when you hold someone in high regard, which is a similar phrase, you only have one regard.

Right.

And so there’s no S there.

And this is the same regard.

It’s the same one as in regard to.

It’s kind of a mass noun that means attention or consideration.

On the other hand, when you give your regards, right, you have more than one regard.

Right.

But it’s a different kind of regard.

It’s like good wishes or warm feelings.

Okay.

So it is a little bit of a plural thing that shouldn’t be happening here.

You should not have more than one regard when you talk about in regard to.

I thought it was more so in regard to the many versus in regards to the one.

So it’s not a pluralization thing at all.

No, it’s not.

Regard is a noun here.

Right.

Regard is not a verb.

Okay.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Well, thank you very much.

All right.

And I’ve asked a number of people, and they didn’t know.

Aha.

Well, now you know.

And I’m going to share it with them, too.

Excellent.

You’re in a position to influence people?

Absolutely.

And you have a wonderful show, by the way.

I just love listening to you.

Oh, thanks, Gary.

That’s nice to hear.

We enjoyed listening to you, too.

Well, thank you very much.

Have a great day.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, irregardless of what you say, Martha, I’m going to use that word.

He did it again.

I feel like Charlie Brown in the football.

I keep trusting that you’re not.

Why am I Lucy?

I feel more like Linus.

Or Schroeder, maybe.

Except I don’t play the piano.

I think of you more as Snoopy, actually.

No, no.

I just walk into that every time.

I just trust that you’re not going to say irregardless, and then you do.

What can I say?

You know, what’s funny is it’s one of those words that although I try not to judge other people for using it, I do my derndest to keep it out of my own speech.

You know, you try really hard not to judge others for their mistakes, but then you hold yourself to a much higher standard.

Right.

Irregardless Hall is fully in that category.

Did you have to break yourself of the habit?

Did you grow up saying irregardless?

You know, it was one of those things that once it became clear that I had a better choice in the word regardless, then it’s easier.

But sometimes when we have these language dilemmas, the better choice isn’t always clear.

That’s true.

So in this case, I think the better choice is clear and it’s easy just to say, oh, I’m not going to use it regardless.

Mm—

Mm—

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