Misuse of the word Literally

People go through life criticizing people's misuse of the word literally, but most of the time they stop there. This video is meant to enlighten others of the proper use of the word 'Literally' and theorizes why people misuse it in the first place.

[hunnieluv]

5 years later and "litetally" is misused more than ever by young people. I heard a girl say "I literally killed 2 birds with one stone" the other day. She didn't kill any birds and she didn't get 2 things done in one either...

[ariyaanabrar]

I literally learned how to use literally

[robinholbrook]

THIS particular error Is one with thigh I can live! (Phew!) HOWEVER, the one that is running rampant on radio, tv, and in print in such places as the WASHINGTON POST is this: There is more than one way out. Or: There is many to choose from. This is BASIC 2nd grade grammar! My granddaughter tells me errors some of her teachers make and I cringe! I find it inexcusable that a TV commercial (written by several, produced by many!) is NOT CORRECTED BY ANYONE! It literally makes me see red...oe Red Sea...or whatever!!!🌹

[BenDavies]

You don't really need to use the word 'literally' in your example of running five miles because it is a reasonable and normal activity to undertake. If your friends don't believe that you ran for five miles without using 'literally' then they must be used to you lying or exaggerating your stories. The only way it'd be acceptable to say "I literally ran five miles" is if you had measured the distance exactly and ran no more/less than that measurement. Even then it would be a bit of a crap story :-)

[patstevo]

This is great and I want to share it with friends who misuse the word 'literally' so much, unfortunately their attention span doesn't last 11 minutes so they'd skip out of this video very quickly. you need a 90 second version of this video

[Void-gnzm]

“ I laughed so hard I literally shit my pants.” Is a phrase someone has told me.... Yea I thought they had misused the word... They didn’t.

[goonigoogoo]

"literally" and "like" are the two word millennial use all the two words fill the vocabulary of the millennial . it is so annoying to hear...I hd to get up from my train seat ( in Berlin Germany) to berate these two millennial Americans saying the word, LIKE every 3rd word. like like like like like. I wanted to pull my hair out . It was worse than fingernails on the chalkboard

[m.k.]

To specifically people under 30, "Literally. Is. Not. A. Hyperbole".
Stop using it as a means to emphasize a sentence if there is no context provided that could lead someone to believing the event is It makes you sound histrionic.

[HeatherMunky]

THANK YOU!
I will be sharing this to, hopefully, help fight the madness. lol

[xBloodxFangx]

this guy sounds like Gus from Rooster Teeth... that's all Im picturing is Gus just correcting everyone on the podcast lol


Also I hate it when people use literally at the end of a sentence like "I was stuck in class all day, literally." or "Omg Im so excited like literally!"

[lilnye]

Everyone needs to stop getting angry about it. Its been a hyperbolic exaggerator since forever. Its even in some of the english language's greatest peices.

[PANCAKEMINEZZ]

The worst thing in the world is when you live in blissful ignorance, and then that bubble of bliss is popped. Ever since finding out that the word "literally" was misused, and especially to the degree it is, I have been living in my own metaphorical hell. In class, my professor uses it in every other sentence when it's not needed (when it's technically not wrong, but it's also no needed) or using it flat out incorrectly. For example, in my art history class he will say "this artist LITERALLY painted this picture." He isn't technically wrong, I mean the artist did paint the picture. However, there was no pretense of a metaphor or double meaning there to begin with. It would be like saying "the burning fire" or "the not solid liquid". It's the equivalent of using a word to define itself: not wrong but you gained no knowledge from it by adding it.

But then there's the worst offenders. "I literally died laughing..." Need I say more? And the staggering amount of people who use this word improperly just figuratively kills me inside, and you can't correct them because then you look like a jerk (which honestly, if you do to people in public, then you sort of are...)

[drx]

“Literally” used to emphasize things has been in use for a long time (literally over 100 years). Languages evolve and a word can mean two things at once. You have to literally figure it out but it must be hard if you’re literally dense as a brick. Mark Twain wrote that
Tom Sawyer was “literally rolling in wealth”.

So instead of criticizing just teach each other that words meanings change over time and using “figuratively” literally has the opposite effect of “literally”.

[wcsxwcsx]

You could correct them, but it will just piss them off.

[brianshepherd]

Why is literally used constantly?
The word has been wrongly used.

[updownleftrightasdw]

The word literally is really hard to use properly, and it sure as hell doesn't modify other words.

[updownleftrightasdw]

"Literally" cannot simply modify a sentence, it must make clear that some thing is not figurative. No one has or will literally run 5 miles. This sentence is more appropriate: robert literally beat a dead horse.

[bittertea]

8:29 "I literally took this picture from your textbook and put it on the slide." I would say she didn't have to say that if the class wasn't an art or photography class.

If it was art/photography might be a reason for it. Image quality is slightly more important and the audience is sensitive to small differences in color or image quality but that is a rare case. Some people google images and it's not that same.

[thunorwodenson]

This video literally bored me to death. Im literally now dead of boredom at this very moment.

[jaardpeer]

Casey LI, if you say ''I littarlly ran two football fields''... you are not referring to the distance or the fact that you moved at all. If i'd interpret it correctly just based on that scentence, you are saying that you governed of supervised two football fields, sorry ;) You would have to say: ''I litterally ran the distance of two football fields'' to be entirely correct. nice video