# “Irregardless” **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2000, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956 "2000-08-11T13:21:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/61 "2000-08-13T20:52:55Z")
The word “alls” pisses me off. I don’t know if it is a word or not, but it sure as heck bugs me. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/62 "2000-08-14T06:07:51Z")
Any estimates on how long it’ll take “hella” to make its way into the dictionary? ('Cause that’d be hella cool. :)) ---
**Author:** ![okatym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/76d3ee/32.png) [@okatym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/okatym)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/63 "2000-08-14T14:25:45Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by pldennison \* \*\* > [@](#): > > You know, I work with words, and I love language, but I hate all this misplaced emphasis on “double negatives.” Language isn’t a math problem. Does anyone really think that when Mick Jagger sings, “I can’t get no satisfaction,” he means “I can get some satisfaction”? I didn’t think so. \*\* Oh yea, Phil. Great example… I forgot we always look to rock & roll songs as our source for correct grammar and diction. :rolleyes: Is this the new education standard? You can throw around all the examples of bad grammar you want. You’re right: We _do_ understand it and usually overlook it. But when we say the opposite of what we mean by using a double negative, we appear less prepared, less educated, and perhaps less intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![FarrisGoldstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@FarrisGoldstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FarrisGoldstein)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/64 "2000-08-14T14:53:33Z")
I met a guy at a party once and I said, “Hey, where are you from?” He said, “I’m from a place where one does not end ones sentences with a preposition.” I said, “Oh… Ok… Hi, where are you from, bitch?” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/65 "2000-08-14T15:03:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FarrisGoldstein \* > \*\*I met a guy at a party once and I said, “Hey, where are you from?” > He said, “I’m from a place where one does not end ones sentences with a preposition.” > I said, “Oh… Ok… Hi, where are you from, bitch?” > \*\* Oh so you’re the blonde girl they were talking about in that email I got describing this very same incident? ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/66 "2000-08-14T15:14:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BratMan007 \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by FarrisGoldstein \* > > \*\*I met a guy at a party once and I said, “Hey, where are you from?” > > He said, “I’m from a place where one does not end ones sentences with a preposition.” > > I said, “Oh… Ok… Hi, where are you from, bitch?” > > \*\* > > Oh so you’re the blonde girl they were talking about in that email I got describing this very same incident? > > \*\* Hey, I think I got that too! ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/67 "2000-08-14T15:14:48Z")
**okatym** : > [@](#): > > Oh yea, Phil. Great example… I forgot we always look to rock & roll songs as our source for correct grammar and diction. > Is this the new education standard? Well, I stole the argument from Dr. Steven Pinker. He’s a noted linguist and theorist, and the author of several books on language and use including _The Language Instinct_, _How the Mind Works_ and _Words and Rules_. Perhaps you can take your criticism up with him. > [@](#): > > You can throw around all the examples of bad grammar you want. You’re right: We do understand it and usually overlook it. But when we say the opposite of what we mean by using a double negative, we appear less prepared, less educated, and perhaps less intelligent. Perhaps. Perhaps not. I reiterate: Language is not mathematical in nature. And a double negative is not, in all instances, “saying the opposite of what we mean.” Quick–what do you mean when you say, “I didn’t see hardly anybody there”? Or do you actually say, “I saw hardly anybody there”? When someone asks you, “Don’t you hate beets?” and you answer “Not at all,” what are you telling them? ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/68 "2000-08-14T15:58:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > \*\*what do you mean when you say, “I didn’t see hardly anybody there”? Or do you actually say, “I saw hardly anybody there”? > > When someone asks you, “Don’t you hate beets?” and you answer “Not at all,” what are you telling them? > \*\* Your first example is not a double negative. Hardly implies a minimal amount, not an absolute negative. A better example of a double negative is “I didn’t see nobody.” Now do you speak like that, or do you say, “I didn’t see anybody.” And if someone says “Don’t you hate beets” and I answer “Not at all.” I’m saying I don’t hate beets, but this is not the best example as my answer isn’t a complete sentence. Even still, the negative in my answer is cancelling the negative in the question and giving the meaning that I like beets. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/69 "2000-08-14T16:14:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Your first example is not a double negative. Hardly implies a minimal amount, not an absolute negative. Nevertheless, if someone asks you, “Don’t you just love Pauly Shore movies?” and you answer “Not hardly,” what are you telling them? It **is** a double negative, of a sort (H.L. Mencken went into apopleptic fi . . . er, great detail over them). If we’re going to sit around parsing language as math, then “I didn’t see hardly anybody there” means “I saw a lot of people there” (I **didn’t** see {hardly anybody} there.) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/70 "2000-08-15T00:25:26Z")
I don’t let people insult me and just let it slide. Ebonics, jive, etc. is simply a symptom of a problem. The problem is undereducation, one of the most pervasive problems in the world. Giving official status to undereducated street slang is akin to teaching obscene words in an English class: We do not need any more people speaking like children than already exist. We need to crush the problem of slang becoming a person’s only language the most effective way possible. That means is funding English departments at all levels, especially the k-6 level. Glorifying slang spits on centuries of beautiful history, from Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_ to Shakespear’s collected works to more modern fare such as Hemingway and Clarke. Studying slang is a perfectly acceptable field. It opens insight into how people communicate in the streets, the classic _lingua vulga_, as it were. One should not confuse studying a slang with studying a seperate language. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/71 "2000-08-15T02:44:19Z")
yeah derleth!! hells yeah!! one problem, though. you cant fight ignorance. just cant do it. (cecil excepted, of course.) me, ive learned that the hard way. fight all you want, theyll just make more. only defense is to surround yerself with non-ignorant folk. and just smile and nod yer head when an ignorant person has the floor. good luck. yer gonna need it. ---
**Author:** ![Becky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@Becky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/72 "2000-08-16T02:45:37Z")
My first post, and on a beloved topic, too. TV personalities really irk me when they say " … is an historic event." They’re usually standing on Capitol Hill, too, which denies the plausibility of their statement from the beginning, in addition to it being grammatically incorrect. Why can’t they learn to speak properly?? Aaackk! ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/73 "2000-08-16T06:35:22Z")
My favorite (which is to say, most hated) misuse of a word is “literally.” Heard on the news (well, might’ve been MTV News) that somebody or other’s new CD “literally climbed up the charts.” I would’ve loved to see that… ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/74 "2000-08-16T07:14:37Z")
From a SDMB search on the word “irregardless”: > [@](#): > > [“Irregardless”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=34210) > > [Very simple grammar question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32412) > > [Orientate is Not a Word](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=31990) > > [Things people do that bug you](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=28296) > > [Words you dislike hearing…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=23154) > > [THE GRAMMAR POLICE HAVE ARRIVED](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=25081) > > [Look at you’re grammar! Its terrible!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=10477) > > [Commonly misused words/phrases](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=20770) > > [More on the decline of the English language](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=9768) > > [Alls I know…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=18451) > > [For the “Me Neithers”: Can’t Hardly](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=10921) > > [Mixed up words and people who don’t know the difference](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=16999) > > [Your alwrong](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=16944) > > [That makes you sound dumb.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=16500) > > [What is your Pet - Peeve?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14657) Does the word “obsessed” ring a bell? You guys make Edwin Newman sound like Jethro Bodine! ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956/75 "2000-08-16T07:28:02Z")
Welcome, Becky. I can see that you are a right-thinking individual. We must forgive our brothers and sisters in the American television news industry who use “an” before an aspirated “h”. After all, they work in the television news industry, which is punishment enough. No sense reminding them of the desolation in their souls. [sub]Disclaimer:[/sub] You will please note that I have placed the period outside of the quotation marks above. I tried to put it inside the quotation marks, but that looked dumb. I have the Brits on my side with this one, and it is, after all, the Queen’s English. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irregardless/28956.md?page=3)