Lederer on Language: Why don’t we say what we really mean to say?
Let’s look at a number of familiar English words and phrases that turn out to mean something very different from what we think they mean
All Stories
Lederer on Language: There are times when it’s best to stop the presses!
The typographical error Is a slippery thing and sly. You can hunt till you are dizzy, But somehow it will get by, Till the forms are off the presses,...
Lederer on Language: A timely tribute to the teachers who change our lives
Teachers change the world one child at a time, yet they are sorely unappreciated.
Lederer on Language: Questions about punctuation, pickleball, and pennies
Ben Duke, of Philadelphia, has sent me a photograph of the front of a store in Brierly Hall, England. The sign reads: Goodwyns Furniture Ltd. SOFA’S CHAIR’S RECLINER’S BED’S Ben...
Lederer on Language: There are so many creative ways to say, ‘You’re fired!’
What we need are softer, more clever verbs with which to ister the final blow to defenseless jobholders.
Lederer on Language: Words of a feather flock together in our fowl language
DEAR RICHARD: Thank you for giving me the bird in your recent column about our feathered friends. I just wish I could be your wing man, but I suppose that...
Lederer on Language: At the San Diego Bird Festival, the bird is the word
The 2025 San Diego Bird Festival took wing on Feb. 25 and will return to earth tomorrow, March 2. The annual festival includes 150 programs and activities. I’m not only...
Lederer on Language: Exploring the fascinating patterns of our U.S. presidents
This coming Monday we celebrate Presidents’ Day, which honors the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both born in February. On Presidents’ Day we reflect on the lives and...
Lederer on Language: What’s in a president’s name? More than you might think
Try your hand and mind at a short quiz about presidential names
Lederer on Language: Student bloopers win a lot of Pullet Surprises
I offer my favorite student howlers, each skewed and skewered sentence a certifiably pure and priceless gem of fractured English and worthy of a Pullet Surprise
Lederer on Language: Happy New Year! It’s nice to have You Near!
Calendars were first made so that people could predict recurring events, such as planting and harvest times. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar ordered that the new year be celebrated on...
Lederer on Language: Let’s all celebrate the true meanings of Christmas
How Christmas-related words and phrases came about and changed over the years
Lederer on Language: True Confessions of a dyed-in-the-wool verbivore
Carnivores eat meat. Herbivores consume plants. Verbivores devour words. I am such a creature. My whole life I have feasted on words — ogled their appetizing shapes, colors, and textures;...
Lederer on Language: Thanksgiving draws nigh, so it’s time to talk turkey
Centuries ago, the Pilgrims found in America a wild fowl somewhat similar in appearance to a guinea fowl they had known back in England — a fowl that acquired its...
Lederer on Language: Serial commas are helpful, clear, rhythmic, and standard
DEAR RICHARD: The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the comma used before the conjunction in a list of three or more items. For example: “I like...
Lederer on Language: Here’s my Halloween poem, which goes from bat to verse
’Twas Halloween Night (Thanks to Clement Clark Moore, who wrote “The Night Before Christmas.”) ’Twas Halloween night, and all through the house, All the creatures were stirring and eating a...
Lederer on Language: Enjoy reading my fishy tails jest for the halibut
Some punsters are so dedicated to their craft that they throw their hats into the ring at pun contests, which are currently held in multiple U.S. cities, as well as...
Lederer On Language: Stop the presses!: A galley of newspaper goofs and gaffes
When you think about it, the existence of a daily newspaper is a miracle. After all, a newspaper is an enormous product that must be manufactured almost from scratch every...
Lederer on Language: Now is a good time to stamp out the pandemic of Fadspeak!
Some people lament that speaking and writing these days are simply a collection of faddish clichés patched together like the sections of prefabricated houses made of ticky-tacky. They see modern...
Lederer on Language: Harris and Walz could cause an apostrophe catastrophe
Hoo boy. Now that Kamala (emphasis on the first syllable of her first name, please) Harris and Tim Walz are running for president and vice president of the US of...
Punsters have many ways of singing, ‘That’s Amore!’
For many years now, there has been circulating a continuously expanding poem. Its leaping-off place is the first verse of “That’s Amore,” the song by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks...
Lederer on Language: What in the world is up with the uppity word ‘up’?
DEAR RICHARD: In your recent column, you showcased 10 words that featured a huge number of different meanings. Another word with many uses is up. My family tried one day...
The Olympic games spotlight our sporty English language
Sometimes it seems that almost all Americans either play sports or watch them. Because competition occupies such a central place in American life and imagination, we hear a kind of...
Our national pastime hits a homer in our everyday speech
The major-league baseball All-Star game in Arlington, Texas, will be played on Tuesday July 16. So I’m starting today’s column with this letter: DEAR RICHARD: We were at the ball...
Richard Lederer: The Declaration of Independence is our nation’s birth certificate
The Fourth of July is the most prominent all-American holiday — the birthday of our country — even though celebrating the Fourth didn’t become common until after 1815, and Independence...
The power of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Almost eight decades after the end of the Revolutionary War (1776-1783), there erupted another war (1861-1865). Mostly known today as the Civil War, the conflict seared our national consciousness and...
Silver spoonerisms are tough and rumble tips of the slung
Dear Richard Lederer: Have you ever done a column on spoonerisms? My husband and I find them amusing and entertaining, yet we are a little amazed that so many of...
Horsing around with the English language
This past Saturday, May 4, marked the 150 th (sesquicentennial) anniversary of the running of the Kentucky Derby. The premier event took place at Churchill Downs, in Louisville. In a...
One word sparks forth many meanings
DEAR RICHARD: The word buck has nine different definitions as presented in dictionary.com. This set me to wondering “Is there a definition of words with many definitions? What words in...
It’s time to brush up your Shakespeare
Little information about William Shakespeare’s personal life is available, but from municipal records we can deduce that he was born in the English village of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of...
The Wisdom of the Easter Bunny
Everything I need to know about life I learned from the Easter Bunny:Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.There’s no such thing as too much candy.All work and no...
The enduring legacy of Robert Frost
A Sesquicentennial Celebration of poet Robert Frost’s birth is coming to San Diego on Wednesday, March 20, through Sunday, March 24 at our San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd.,...
Pun-up girls and pun gents are pun for all and all for pun!
In America, we celebrate just about everything, so it may come as no surprise to you that, in two days, March 4 (March Forth!), my pun pals will observe National...
What you may not know about the Father of Our Country
Presidents’ Day (please note my placement of the apostrophe) began life as a celebration of George Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1732, But Washington was really born on Feb. 11, 1731,...
Sharing my favorite stories about our American presidents
The word history descends from the Latin historia, meaning “narrative, take, story,” and the saga of our American presidents is festooned with fascinating stories. Here are a few of my...
It’s OK to boldly go and purposely split an infinitive
DEAR RICHARD: Now retired from 50 years of college teaching and having no more student papers to grade and critique, I address your recent U-T column. I so enjoy, appreciate,...
Kids will say the darnedest things about Christmas
Child film star Shirley Temple wrote, “I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for...
Serving up a Frosty treat for the coming of winter
Frosty the Snowman and his wife live in an icicle built for two in the Snow Belt on the snowbanks of Lake Snowbegone. Where they live, it’s so cold that...
Like air pollution, grammar violations affect our health
For a goodly number of my readers, defective spelling, punctuation, and pronunciation screech like chalk on a blackboard. It is not my gray hair or my wrinkles that give away...
A thanks-giving for our miraculous human adventure
Thanksgiving Day is mainly a celebration of the harvest, giving thanks for bountiful crops. Traditionally, a particular meal in 1621 is thought to be the first Thanksgiving. Plymouth colonists and...
A monster mash of Halloween rhyme, jokes, and riddles
Here’s a little poem I’ve conjured up about Halloween monsters: Don’t ever play pingpong with King Kong.Don’t ever take blood tests with Dracula.Don’t you dare give a wedgie to Frankenstein.Your ending...
Back to grammar school; yes, there will be a test!
I am a member of the Grammar Police force, and our motto is “To Serve and Correct!” How strong is your grasp of English grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation? To...
Readers call on the homophone with puns and punctuation
DEAR RICHARD: Contemplating the spread of laboratory-grown, humane meat, I began to imagine a menu for such delectables: Faux-let Mignon, Fakin’, Top Sir-lyin’, Paté Faux Gras, Not Roast, Cloned Beef...
The dazzling success of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’
Having opened on July 21, “Barbie” has become the highest grossing film of this year and the first billion-dollar film directed by a woman (Greta Gerwig). The “Pink Fever” that...
Here’s my invitation to make beautiful music together
William Shakespeare began his comedy Twelfth Night with the line “If music be the food of love, play on!” About a century later, the playwright William Congreve opened his comedy...
The English language is ‘the treasure of our tongue’
I’m button-burstingly proud to announce that you’re reading my 500th column in the Union-Tribune. Inspired by this milestone (never a millstone), I celebrate our glorious, uproarious, victorious, stupendous, tremendous, end-over-endous...
Here’s a game to attract you to The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Festival of Books
The San Diego Union-Tribune’s 7th Festival of Books will return to the University of San Diego's gorgeous campus on Saturday, Aug. 19, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Festival is our city’s...
Can you spot the patterns in each of these strange sentences?
Savor this unusual column, which contains this paragraph you now look upon. How quickly can you find out what is so uncommon about it? It looks so ordinary that you...
Answering the telephone can turn out to be a slippery slope
DEAR RICHARD: When I answer the phone and the caller says they would like to speak to Selena, what is my proper response? — “This is I.” “This is she.”...
A compact dictionary of stuff-and-nonsense words
DEAR RICHARD LEDERER: I was gobsmacked (a fun word too) to hear for the first time the word bafflegab, which means exactly what it sounds like. Unfortunately, there’s so much...
Brand new letter play that makes the alphabet dance
Brand names spring from the practice of branding animals — and human beings — to indicate ownership. A product that is “brand new” is as fresh as a newly branded...
How to solve the mystifying case of English pronouns
First, they came for the adverbs, and I said nothing, even though I knew that this action did not bode good for our language.Then they came for the verbs, and...
Trust me: I, Richard Lederer, wrote this column
I’m button-burstingly proud to announce that today marks the 11th anniversary of my sharing “Lederer on Language” with you word-loving, verbivorous readers. So I’m giving you all an air hug.When...
From punrise to punset, San Diego is a very punny city
Peter Fitzgerald, of Imperial Beach, shares his take on punning with a Shakespearean twist: “All the world’s a pun and all the men and women merely players with words.” How...
Golden opportunities to brush up your Shakespeare
Brush up your Shakespeare.Start quoting him now.Brush up your Shakespeare,And the women you will wow.—Cole Porter, “Kiss Me, Kate”Name a play written by Bartley Campbell. Of course you can’t, nor...
Get thee to a punnery by accepting my wordplay challenge
It’s time to face up the fact that you have been hearing, reading, and, almost certainly, telling puns from a young age.When you were a child, you chanted songs like:Fuzzy...
The art of creating puns is a rewording experience
A good pun is like a good steak — a rare medium well done. In such a prey on words, rare, medium, and well done are double entendres, so that...
Enjoy this beastly celebration of National Pun Day
In America, we celebrate just about everything, so it may come as no surprise to you that today, March 4 (March Forth!), pun-up girls and pun gents observe National Pun...
I wish you luck in taking this Presidents’ Day quiz
In today’s headline, note my punctuation of the federal holiday Presidents’ Day, not President’s Day. Why? Because the day salutes all the men who have served as our presidents. I...
As time goes by, many words wander wondrously
DEAR RICHARD: While doing Civil War research, I often read affidavits regarding pension applications made in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A soldier ing another soldier’s application might say...
The time of the signs reveals the signs of our times
DEAR RICHARD: Whatever happened to grammar teachers? I hope the editors of the Union-Tribune (are there still such animals?) are alert for mistakes like these in signs around the world:“Toilet...
True confessions of an unrepentant English major
I’m 84½ years of age, which means that over the course of my life, I have taken more than a billion breaths and have lived more than one-third the number...
The punderful story of Santa Claus and his reindeer
Christmas is the time of year when people exchange hellos and good buys with each other and when mothers have to separate the men from the toys. Christmas is a...
Our moonstruck language flies us to the moon
The Artemis 1 rocket, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, is scheduled to splash down Sunday after its 25-day mission. NASA’s ultimate goal is to land the first...
San Diego contestant puts plurals in Jeopardy
On a recent episode of the popular quiz show “Jeopardy!”, contestants were challenged to identify plural nouns that don’t end with the letter “s.” When asked to provide the plural...
Food for thought: Every day we truly eat our words
Thanksgiving is a delicious time of year to nibble on a spicy, meaty, juicy honey of a topic that I know you’ll savor and relish. As a devout Foodist, I’m...
U-T readers go from bat to verse for a spooky Halloween
I’m button-burstingly proud to share with you a sampling from the billowy bag of Halloween treats y’all submitted for my poetry contest. Victorious versifiers will receive a signed copy of...
PBS series illuminates the inspiring story of Anne Frank
Recently, KPBS has been sharing Ken Burns’ three-part series “The U.S. and the Holocaust.” Among the victims of the Nazi atrocities was Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who grew up...
Language columnist solicits your Halloween poetry
I invite you to email me ([email protected]; don’t forget the h) your original verse(s) about Halloween, the spookiest night of the year. You may choose any form of poetry —...
Your resident verbivore reporting from Word Land
Recently, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a resignation speech in which he said, “I’m sad to be giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks.”You...
Readers seek herd immunity against faulty grammar
My tolerance for incorrect pronunciation, grammar, punctuation, and spelling is extremely low these days. I used to have some immunity built up, but obviously there are new variants out there....
All I really need to know I learned from my dog
Friday, Aug. 26 will mark National Dog Day. We give dogs what time we can spare, what space we can spare, what food we can spare, and what love we...
The U-T’s Festival of Books is back live and online
Books live. Books endure and prevail. Books are humanity in print. Books are the diary of the human race. As we grow older, we become all the ages we once...
Here’s a like-ly story: Avoid cliches like the plague
Do you know someone who drinks like a fish and sweats like a pig? Actually, fish don’t drink very much, although they appear to, and pigs don’t have sweat glands....
How America’s fastest-growing sport got its name
Recent articles in the U-T and Sports Illustrated detail how pickleball has become the rage in San Diego and across our fair land. A quarter-size version of tennis, greatly influenced...
You’ll get a rise out of this inflationary humor
My hairline is in recession, my waistline shows signs of inflation, and these conditions are plunging me into a deep depression.The other day, I called to get the Blue Book...
Inside the entrance to this column will entrance you
DEAR RICHARD: “Lead lives that integrate love and power, too.” I saw this headline in a recent U-T and wondered about the first two words. They have multiple pronunciations and...
A monumental time to honor Lincoln’s literary genius
On May 30, 1922, a century ago, a great crowd, including Abraham Lincoln’s only surviving son, 78-year-old Robert Todd Lincoln, gathered for the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. To celebrate...
A decade of writing about humanness of language
For 10 years now, I’ve had the luminous privilege of sharing “Lederer on Language” with you, my verbivorous readers. I am unstintingly grateful to the Union-Tribune for expanding my life-long...
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of our Safari Park
If you reconfigure the word safari by moving the i to the front, the new words you form are is afar. Our world-famous Safari Park takes us afar, where we...
Our renowned Safari Park is ‘big as all outdoors’
Fifty years ago, on May 10, 1972, our world-famous Safari Park opened its gates to the public. A half century later, 2 million people annually visit the park, which exhibits...
Second-hand suffixes sprinkle our language with fun
DEAR RICHARD: Have you ever explored the phenomenon I call “parasitic suffixes”? I can bring just two to mind: -athon and -aholic, taken, of course, from marathon and alcoholic. From...
Many familiar phrases turn out to be trite as a cliche
When we describe someone as smart as a whip, we are likely to make them feel pleased as punch. But what is so smart about a whip, and why should...
A buffet of tidbits to tickle a language lover’s palate
Having written more than 60 books and thousands of articles and columns, I, your fly-by-the-roof-of-the mouth, -friendly language columnist, confess to be afflicted with graphomania. Derived from the Greek roots...
Tackling more grammar questions from the readers
The other day, I got pulled over by the Grammar Police. They ticketed me for Reckless Punctuation, Faulty Subject-Verb Agreement, Splitting My Infinitives, Terminal Prepositions, Verb Tense Disorder, Misplacement of...
Grow your vocabulary by digging down to the roots
Words and people have a lot in common. Like people, words are born, grow up, get married, have children and even die. And, like people, words come in families —...
You can read your way to a more powerful vocabulary
When you were a child learning to speak, you seized each word as if it were a shiny toy. This is how you learned your language, and this is how...
Our abounding English language brims with synonyms
I’m kicking off 2022 with a three-part series on enriching your vocabulary and, as a result, your ability to communicate. In the process of enhancing your word wealth, you will...
Yule love these Christmas limericks by the readers
How could there be anything bettererFor an avid word-junkie competitor?No crossword or JumbleIs worth half the tumbleAs a limerick contest from Lederer.So wrote David Bouck, of Poway. Apparently, many of...
Doctor word guy invites you to go out on a limerick
Let us celebrate the limerick, a highly disciplined exercise in light verse that is the most popular fixed poetic form indigenous to the English language. While other basic forms of...
Be advised: Don’t dangle your participles in public
DEAR RICHARD: Plucked from a recent headline in the Union-Tribune: “Rare corpse flower is set to bloom again / Despite smelling like rotting flesh, thousands visited during last cycle in...
Commemorating the first Thanksgiving dinner
Four centuries ago, the roots of Thanksgiving first took hold in our American soil. We living today commemorate the solemn dinner, back in the fall of 1621, shared by the...
Let’s harvest a pumpkin patch of Halloween fun
The Irish tell a story about a notorious drunkard and trickster named Jack. He couldn’t enter heaven because he was a miser, and he was unable to enter hell because...
Today is a perfect time to think about dictionaries
Today is National Dictionary Day, traditionally celebrated on the birthday of Noah Webster (1758-1843), who, in 1806, gifted our young nation with his Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, the...
My proverbs column has inspired more proverbs
When I was a callow youth, my neighborhood buddies and I used to sing a learned lyric that played around with levels of diction:Perambulate, perambulate, perambulate your craftPlacidly down the...
Do you ever wonder how wise is proverbial wisdom?
DEAR RICHARD: I grew up on a steady diet of proverbs. They aren’t heard as often nowadays, but they bring back memories of simpler times. —Bill Collins, TierrasantaA proverb is...
On Labor Day, you may well ask, ‘What’s My Line’?
Most occupational titles are self-explanatory: A teacher teaches, a preacher preaches, a gardener gardens and a writer writes. But the origins of others are more obscure.The verb to vet means...
Where I stand on questions about correct English
On Monday of last week, I toted some books to my local post office. As I waited in line, I noticed a computer-printed sign taped onto the long table behind...
Here’s a game of Perfect Matches for book lovers
The fifth annual Festival of Books will take place virtually on Saturday, Aug. 21, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For information about this bibliophilic event, click sdfestivalofbooks.com.Honoring this great cultural event, I...
A column of U-T readers are now a galley of groupies
A thousand thanks to you verbivorous readers for your billowy mailbag of more than 200 entries responding to my call for innovative group nouns, such as “a brace or orthodontists”...