7.29.2006

Real frustrating

Do you know what drives me nuts? Makes me want to just grab people and smack'm with a Funk & Wagnalls? The use of the word 'real' as an adverb. You know....
  • "It was real far...."
  • "It's real late...."
  • "He's a real cool guy...".

The word you are grasping for is very or extremely or something OTHER than REAL!
  • Very far.
  • Extremely late.
  • Pretty freakin' cool.

There are a million ways to say this, people, so can we just stick "real" in the can for a while?!!:!:!:! Particularly in written form, folks. AAAAK! And don't bother sending me a link to dictionary.com that allows for using it as an adverb in an informal style. Succombing to this sort of dumbing down of the language has got us where we are today...with our children completely convinced that a majority of the males that they do not know are really named "Dude".

It drives me nuts, but I am aware that it may just be me. I'm real sorry.

9 comments:

Scott Hodge said...

Man, that's a real good post right there!

Esther Irwin said...

you could start calling the males blokes. works down here. for real. just don't start calling the women sheila's. that makes me, like, real mad. oops, sorry, it makes me tremendously mad.

Randy Bohlender said...

MML - I think part of the problem is that I haven't had a cup in six days....

Sarah said...

So, do you hold the word "really" in the same derision as "real"? As in "You are really annoyed" or "This coffee is really good". They're only slightly different, but the use of "really" seems just a tiny bit more correct than "real". Thoughts?

P said...

Well Randy, I think it might be just you, or a select handful of really intense literati.

But that is one of the reasons you are so darned lovable. Really.

From one of the great unwashed illiterati (you know who we are rght? We are the ones praying "God give us real encounter").

LOL.

Randy Bohlender said...

Sarah -

Good question, and 'really' is really different than 'real'. For real.

R

Randy Bohlender said...

Sean - don't bait me into a rant about 'encounter'. I'm not falling for it.

P said...

LOL LOL Too bad for us. I was hoping to hear a diatribe on that one! Wheeeee

Tom Mills said...

"...has got us where we are today..." As "real" is to "really" so is "got" as to "gotten." Yes? No?