Quote Originally Posted by mimitabby
literally: Since I am in the forever process of learning a second language, I also spend some time on a language forum. It was really fun trying to explain to Italians why we say "he literally blew up" when in fact, he didn't blow up at all.

Pet peeves? if we're on the subject of language, it's irregardless.THIS IS NOT A WORD.
a very wise senior engineer here says that often... and he likes to sound smart and important but whenever he says THAT, I just GULP and don't say a word. LITERALLY!
I don't want to be a smart a**, but I had this same conversation with my husband one night (long before reading this forum), which has left me confused.

I worked with a lady who constantly said, "irregardless", which I found very annoying. Being the English expert, my husband said it wasn't a word. The Historian in me, who tends to look things up before making a comment, I found the word in the dictionary. It quotes: "[prob. blend of irrespective and regardless] nonstand: REGARDLESS."

Can someone explain to me why it isn't a word?