# Would you vote for someone irregardless of there grammer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 24, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916 "2010-09-24T18:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/1 "2010-09-24T18:41:41Z")
[Well](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSqRK7sRFJA)? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/2 "2010-09-24T19:02:59Z")
Indisdubitably. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/3 "2010-09-24T19:34:21Z")
What was the grammar error? ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/4 "2010-09-24T20:06:17Z")
Would you vote for someone who used the word “irregardless”, regardless of the fact that the appropriate word is “regardless”, and not “irregardless”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/5 "2010-09-24T20:12:47Z")
This is one of my dad’s biggest pet peeves. For me, it’s something I might consider when voting, but it would hardly be a litmus test. It’s way down on my list of priorities for a candidate (this word alone, I mean. If they constantly talk like an ignoramus or use a lot of non-words, I would refudiate them). ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/6 "2010-09-24T20:15:57Z")
Maybe she’s a vocabulary maverick and we should want to have a beer with her. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/7 "2010-09-24T21:34:38Z")
She’d probably go all nucular on you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/8 "2010-09-24T21:38:04Z")
Why is “regardless” more appropriate than its synonym “irregardless” here? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/9 "2010-09-24T21:54:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Why is “regardless” more appropriate than its synonym “irregardless” here? Why is “reducible” more appropriate than “irreducible” when referring to something that can be reduced? Yes, some folks think that “regardless” and “irregardless” are synonyms, despite the clear contradiction. Some folks don’t. Who is to say who is right? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/10 "2010-09-24T22:07:41Z")
If you corrected her , she would probably refutiate you. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/11 "2010-09-24T23:25:33Z")
witch won is write: regardless or irregardless? ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/12 "2010-09-24T23:49:02Z")
Plenty of people voted for Bush, didn’t they? ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/13 "2010-09-25T10:28:42Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > If you corrected her , she would probably refutiate you. Dude. The word is refudiate. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/14 "2010-09-25T10:32:16Z")
“…and the challenges is…” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/15 "2010-09-25T19:55:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, some folks think that “regardless” and “irregardless” are synonyms, despite the clear contradiction. Some folks don’t. Who is to say who is right? What’s the contradiction? “Regardless” means “without regard to”, and “irregardless” means “without regard to”. Which folks say that one of those means something different? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/16 "2010-09-25T20:02:09Z")
Do people ever (non-jokingly) use “irregardless” to mean “with regard [to whatever]”? No. Do people often use “irregardless” to mean “without regard [to whatever]”? Yes. **Chronos** is right. “irregardless” means “without regard [to whatever]”, just as “regardless” does. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/17 "2010-09-25T21:35:33Z")
I don’t vote for people who have their parents endorse them, like Carol Shay Porter and Bill Binnie, and I sure as heck won’t vote for someone because their Grammer says I should. 😉 As for their gramm **a** r, the gramatical sin would have to be worse than regardless/irregardless to lose my vote, like a tendency to screw up subject-verb agreement. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/18 "2010-09-25T21:37:04Z")
The misspelling “grammer” in the thread title was done on purpose, as was the use of “there” in place of “their”. This was meant to tie jokingly with the OP’s view that the use of “irregardless” (as in the thread title) is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/19 "2010-09-25T22:00:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Yes, some folks think that “regardless” and “irregardless” are synonyms, despite the clear contradiction. Some folks don’t. Who is to say who is right? > > What’s the contradiction? “Regardless” means “without regard to”, and “irregardless” means “without regard to”. Which folks say that one of those means something different? The prefix “ir” means “not.” So to say that a word means the same whether or not the prefix “ir” is attached is a contradiction. Does “reducible” mean the same as “irreducible?” Really? [QUOTE=indistinguishable] Chronos is right. “irregardless” means “without regard [to whatever]”, just as “regardless” does. [/QUOTE] Except when it doesn’t. Unless you are the arbiter of the English language. Are you? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916/20 "2010-09-25T22:02:09Z")
As a liberal who occasionally visits less-than-elite web discussions like those at Democratic Underground, I’m all but convinced that my fellow liberals - even the less educated ones, whose English may be far from perfect - make fewer and less serious errors with written communication than conservatives. In particular, they put out fewer unsupported assumptions; they misspell fewer common words; and they don’t engage in capitalization for emphasis. My hypothesis is that they care more about being understood, however angry they are. Flame to taste. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-vote-for-someone-irregardless-of-there-grammer/554916.md?page=2)