ENGLISH

People Hate the Word ‘Literally’

I think it’s fine

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Lots of English speakers use the word “literally” wrong. We all know this.

“Literally” means “in a literal sense.” It’s used to emphasize the truth or accuracy of a statement. And yet, we have people say things like this:

“Dad was so mad, he literally exploded!”

No he didn’t. Spontaneous combustion isn’t real. The speaker is using “literally” for emphasis.

Some people hate sentences like these and feel obliged to correct the speaker. I’m not one of those people. Sentences are meant to convey meaning, and I understand that sentence perfectly.

Now, imagine if the same speaker had said, “Dad was so mad, he totally exploded!”

That’s also incorrect. The word “totally” doesn’t fit there either, but for some reason, fewer people get upset by that word’s misuse. Why is that?

We have so many adverbs and adverbial phrases that could fit in this sentence:

• Absolutely
• Completely
• Basically
• Definitely
• Pretty much
• More or less
• Full-on (my personal favorite)