Jen in Denton, Texas, grew up in upstate New York hearing her Brooklyn-born parents say scutch when someone was being a pest, as in “Don’t be a scutch.” The family spelling she gives is scutch, while a more often seen Italian-American spelling is...
If you tell someone you have a set of twins, does that mean you have two kids or four kids? It depends on the meaning of the word set. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Set of Twins” Hi, you have A Way with Words. This...
Linguistic freezes, also known as binomials or irreversible pairs, are words that tend to appear in a certain order, such as now and then, black and white, or spaghetti and meatballs. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
An eighth-grade history teacher from Denton, Texas, is teaching about colonial America, and wonders if there’s a difference between the phrases to found a colony or establish a colony. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
A Denton, Texas, caller wonders: Are politicians increasingly starting sentences with the phrase “Now, look…”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Now, Look…” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Good...
Why do the Brits pronounce the H in herbal? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Silent “H” in Herbal” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, guys. This is Kyle calling from Denton, Texas at the University of...