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Playlist Common Grammar Mistakes 30 videos
This video explains what dangling modifiers are and, more importantly, how to avoid them. It provides a useful formula for using a modifying phrase...
Want even more deets on Different From vs. Different Than? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
This video covers how to use either/or, neither/nor, and both/and. How do these word pairs change the meaning of a sentence? Do we use singular or...
Literally 611 Views
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Description:
Want even more deets on "literally"? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Transcript
- 00:01
Literally, a la Shmoop. Lots of people like to have fun with the word
- 00:09
“literally”. They throw it around like a baseball or a frisbee...
- 00:12
...never realizing that the word doesn't mean what they think it means.
- 00:15
“Literally” is defined as “in a literal sense”.
- 00:19
Need a shorter definition? “Literally” means “actually”...
Full Transcript
- 00:23
…“exactly”...
- 00:24
…“for realz”. Here are some examples. The car literally
- 00:28
exploded when Toby turned the key in the ignition.
- 00:32
The fuzz literally showed up two minutes later...
- 00:35
...but there was literally nothing they could do.
- 00:37
Um, yeah, because you can't unscramble an egg.
- 00:42
Here's how not to use the word “literally” in everyday conversation...
- 00:46
...or against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
- 00:50
You might want to say, “Cindy's head literally exploded when she found out Bob was cheating
- 00:55
on her.”
- 00:56
But you don't mean that Cindy's head actually blew up.
- 00:59
You just mean that she was really, really angry at Bob, the two-timing twit.
- 01:03
We understand the temptation to use the word “literally” to spice up a sentence. All
- 01:08
the other kids are doing it, after all.
- 01:10
However, using “literally” as conversational cayenne is a big grammar no-no.
- 01:16
Just ask Vizzini. <<vuh-zee-nee>>
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