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Everything You Know About English Is Wrong
I don't know how else to tell you this...everything you know about English is wrong.
"If you love language and the unvarnished truth, you'll love Everything You Know About English Is Wrong. You'll have fun because his lively, comedic, skeptical voice will speak to you from the pages of his word-bethumped book."
-Richard Lederer, author of Anguished English, Get Thee to a Punnery, and Word Wizard
Now that you know, it's time to, well, bite the mother tongue. William Brohaugh, former editor of Writer's Digest, will be your tour guide on this delightful journey through the English language, pointing out all the misconceptions about our wonderful-and wonderfully confusing-native tongue. Tackling words, letters, grammar and rules, no sacred cow remains untipped as Brohaugh reveals such fascinating and irreverent shockers
- If you figuratively climb the walls, you are agitated/frustrated/crazy. If you literally climb the walls, you are Spiderman.
- "Biting the Mother Tongue": English does not come from England.
- The word "queue" is the poster child of an English spelling rule so dominant we'll call it a dominatrix "U must follow Q! Slave!"
- So much of our vocabulary comes from the classical languages-clearly, Greece, and not Grease, is the word, is the word, is the word.
- Unpleasant punctuational predictions
"Better plotted than a glossary, more riveting than a thesaurus, more filmable than a Harry Potter index-and that's just Brohaugh's footsnorts... Imean, feetsnotes...umfeetsneets?...good gravy I'mglad I'mjust a cartoonist."
-John Caldwell, one of Mad magazine's Usual Gang of Idiots
This book guarantees you'll never look at the English language the same way again-if you write, read or speak it, it just ain't possible to live without this tell-all guide. ("Ain't," incidentally, is not a bad word.)
"If you love language and the unvarnished truth, you'll love Everything You Know About English Is Wrong. You'll have fun because his lively, comedic, skeptical voice will speak to you from the pages of his word-bethumped book."
-Richard Lederer, author of Anguished English, Get Thee to a Punnery, and Word Wizard
Now that you know, it's time to, well, bite the mother tongue. William Brohaugh, former editor of Writer's Digest, will be your tour guide on this delightful journey through the English language, pointing out all the misconceptions about our wonderful-and wonderfully confusing-native tongue. Tackling words, letters, grammar and rules, no sacred cow remains untipped as Brohaugh reveals such fascinating and irreverent shockers
- If you figuratively climb the walls, you are agitated/frustrated/crazy. If you literally climb the walls, you are Spiderman.
- "Biting the Mother Tongue": English does not come from England.
- The word "queue" is the poster child of an English spelling rule so dominant we'll call it a dominatrix "U must follow Q! Slave!"
- So much of our vocabulary comes from the classical languages-clearly, Greece, and not Grease, is the word, is the word, is the word.
- Unpleasant punctuational predictions
"Better plotted than a glossary, more riveting than a thesaurus, more filmable than a Harry Potter index-and that's just Brohaugh's footsnorts... Imean, feetsnotes...umfeetsneets?...good gravy I'mglad I'mjust a cartoonist."
-John Caldwell, one of Mad magazine's Usual Gang of Idiots
This book guarantees you'll never look at the English language the same way again-if you write, read or speak it, it just ain't possible to live without this tell-all guide. ("Ain't," incidentally, is not a bad word.)
243 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 16, 2008
A sloppily written, profoundly irritating, book. Brohaugh obviously believes himself to be enormously witty; in fact, he's a crashing bore.
Nothing to see here folks. Trust me. Unless you'd care to witness the usual suspects* poked and prodded by someone who is neither particularly bright nor articulate, and whose writing style is strongly suggestive of ADD, do yourself a favor and give this dismal effort a miss. There is nothing in this book that hasn't already been discussed, with far greater wit and insight, by Bill Bryson and Richard Lederer, among others.
The only thing even remotely noteworthy about this book is Mr Brohaugh's stunning lack of any semblance of wit.
* You know: those fake etymologies for 'posh', 'golf', and 'f**k'; the usual defense of split infinitives, singular data and criteria; several amazingly banal observations along the lines that a peanut is not a nut, there is no toe in mistletoe, no cow in coward, and so on at tedious length. All delivered in smirkingly dreadful prose.
Updated review on November 2nd
I generally enjoy books on English word origins and usage - this book was a notable exception. The author covers generally familiar terrain - the kind of material that one might reasonably expect in a book of this kind. This means, of course, that it has also been covered by several other authors already.
Roughly speaking, the material in Brohaugh's poorly organized book falls into two categories - discussion of word origins and advise on usage. Virtually all the etymological material has been discussed, more clearly and with far greater insight, in David Wilton's excellent "Word Myths : Debunking Linguistic Legends", and by Richard Lederer, as well as on a variety of word-related websites. As far as usage is concerned, one would do infinitely better to consult the excellent Garner's Modern American Usage, or Martha Brockenbraugh's hilarious "Things that make us Sic".
As a guide to usage, Brohaugh's book is completely unhelpful. For one thing, as a kind of extended, stream-of-consciousness rant, it lacks any kind of organization, structure, or discipline. Then, sentences like the following are regrettably common:
1. 'And a nother thing' is not necessarily bad grammar.
2. 'Giving someone a kudo' is not bad English.
3. 'I am here to defend the downtrodden, the outcast, the hopefullys and the ain'ts and the possessive it'ses and the banished double negative'.
To which I can only point out that
1. Yes it is. 2. Yes it is. 3. here the author is just being unhelpfully provocative, since he never offers any kind of coherent defense for it's as a legitimate possessive form.
Ironically, the results of Brohaugh's professed disregard for the rules of English usage are evident on every page of this rambling, poorly written, idiosyncratic rant. Whole sections are completely incomprehensible - for instance, the page and a half of text following the bizarre statement that Z is not the final letter of the alphabet, or the five rambling pages (188-193) about vowels.
Brohaugh's undisciplined prose is not improved by his insistence on scattering a variety of words of his own invention, along the lines of "bullshitternet", "babblisciousness", "catapostrophe", and "persnickitor", throughout the text. A kind of juvenile belligerence, aimed preemptively at anyone who might disagree with him* is the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and convinced me that this is not a book that deserves to be taken seriously.
*: He refers to them as "persnickitors" and offers the following defence against their "whining". "Stop your crying or I'll give you something to cry about. If you're going to play by those rules, let's follow them to their logical conclusion. In other words, we are here going to fully exercise to the fun game of Xtreme Etymological Stasis (sic)."
The preceding sentence could mean almost anything, of course, but in practice it appears to amount to nothing more than the tired old trick of ascribing (incorrectly) an exaggeratedly extreme position to anyone who dares to disagree with the author, then using that extreme position as a straw man to attack.
Nothing to see here folks. Trust me. Unless you'd care to witness the usual suspects* poked and prodded by someone who is neither particularly bright nor articulate, and whose writing style is strongly suggestive of ADD, do yourself a favor and give this dismal effort a miss. There is nothing in this book that hasn't already been discussed, with far greater wit and insight, by Bill Bryson and Richard Lederer, among others.
The only thing even remotely noteworthy about this book is Mr Brohaugh's stunning lack of any semblance of wit.
* You know: those fake etymologies for 'posh', 'golf', and 'f**k'; the usual defense of split infinitives, singular data and criteria; several amazingly banal observations along the lines that a peanut is not a nut, there is no toe in mistletoe, no cow in coward, and so on at tedious length. All delivered in smirkingly dreadful prose.
Updated review on November 2nd
I generally enjoy books on English word origins and usage - this book was a notable exception. The author covers generally familiar terrain - the kind of material that one might reasonably expect in a book of this kind. This means, of course, that it has also been covered by several other authors already.
Roughly speaking, the material in Brohaugh's poorly organized book falls into two categories - discussion of word origins and advise on usage. Virtually all the etymological material has been discussed, more clearly and with far greater insight, in David Wilton's excellent "Word Myths : Debunking Linguistic Legends", and by Richard Lederer, as well as on a variety of word-related websites. As far as usage is concerned, one would do infinitely better to consult the excellent Garner's Modern American Usage, or Martha Brockenbraugh's hilarious "Things that make us Sic".
As a guide to usage, Brohaugh's book is completely unhelpful. For one thing, as a kind of extended, stream-of-consciousness rant, it lacks any kind of organization, structure, or discipline. Then, sentences like the following are regrettably common:
1. 'And a nother thing' is not necessarily bad grammar.
2. 'Giving someone a kudo' is not bad English.
3. 'I am here to defend the downtrodden, the outcast, the hopefullys and the ain'ts and the possessive it'ses and the banished double negative'.
To which I can only point out that
1. Yes it is. 2. Yes it is. 3. here the author is just being unhelpfully provocative, since he never offers any kind of coherent defense for it's as a legitimate possessive form.
Ironically, the results of Brohaugh's professed disregard for the rules of English usage are evident on every page of this rambling, poorly written, idiosyncratic rant. Whole sections are completely incomprehensible - for instance, the page and a half of text following the bizarre statement that Z is not the final letter of the alphabet, or the five rambling pages (188-193) about vowels.
Brohaugh's undisciplined prose is not improved by his insistence on scattering a variety of words of his own invention, along the lines of "bullshitternet", "babblisciousness", "catapostrophe", and "persnickitor", throughout the text. A kind of juvenile belligerence, aimed preemptively at anyone who might disagree with him* is the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and convinced me that this is not a book that deserves to be taken seriously.
*: He refers to them as "persnickitors" and offers the following defence against their "whining". "Stop your crying or I'll give you something to cry about. If you're going to play by those rules, let's follow them to their logical conclusion. In other words, we are here going to fully exercise to the fun game of Xtreme Etymological Stasis (sic)."
The preceding sentence could mean almost anything, of course, but in practice it appears to amount to nothing more than the tired old trick of ascribing (incorrectly) an exaggeratedly extreme position to anyone who dares to disagree with the author, then using that extreme position as a straw man to attack.
November 16, 2018
Popular language is a difficult genre to get right. Brohaugh doesn't.
September 8, 2019
Reminds me of Wolke's book. Fun to read.
July 14, 2013
Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but most of the information mentioned therein were a big duh! This book is funny alright. The writer doesn't hold back from using insinuations, world play, humor, crudity, wits and attitude. I won't say that the writer is an erudite genius because his style reflects another image. I will neither use this book as a reference nor as a reliable source. All the etymologies and words were mixed up together in a hodgepodge of chaotic patterns.
I would like also to draw attention to the fact that he was nagging about using the net as a source ( he called those info drawn from the net as Bullshitternet) , yet he mentions a couple of stories and words he found in the net. Paradoxes happen I guess :)
I would like also to draw attention to the fact that he was nagging about using the net as a source ( he called those info drawn from the net as Bullshitternet) , yet he mentions a couple of stories and words he found in the net. Paradoxes happen I guess :)
May 9, 2015
Hilarious
I read etymology. I realize I'm part of a small niche market defined by "nerds who read words about words written by other nerds who study words". Therefore, I will address only the author's style and not the information in the book, which only word nerds would care about.
The author is hilarious. Seriously, literally, and enormously hilarious. I laughed aloud and tried to share gems with my family. I say tried, because they aren't word nerds and didn't care.
I read etymology. I realize I'm part of a small niche market defined by "nerds who read words about words written by other nerds who study words". Therefore, I will address only the author's style and not the information in the book, which only word nerds would care about.
The author is hilarious. Seriously, literally, and enormously hilarious. I laughed aloud and tried to share gems with my family. I say tried, because they aren't word nerds and didn't care.
January 14, 2021
Meh. I've read a number of books about writing. I know this is meant to be humorous but it's a little too smart-alecky for my taste.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews