Sunday 10 October 2010

Exploding heads, and how they don't actually happen.

Okay, so here's something else that annoys me: the use of the word "literally". I don't mind it when it's used for comic effect, in the sense that the person is aware of the stupidity of using "literally", when it becomes a parody of itself.

"Literally" means taken in the literal sense. In other words, you are saying something which is not hyperbolic or any other figure of speech.
It seriously annoys me when people say something like "I literally can't understand why people like this kind of music".
You literally can't understand? Merely the concept of  understanding is beyond your comprehension? No.

You don't tend to hear "literally" used an awful lot in speech or even written, but when you do it is almost universally used incorrectly just as a way of emphasising something. I was reading an article quite recently which featured the line "It literally blew my mind".
No. It figuratively blew your mind.

Stop saying literally. Be interesting.

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