Confusing English

English is a great language in many ways.

However, English isn’t always straightforward.

For instance, the word ‘biweekly’.

Do you think this word means twice a week or two times a week?

The answer is it can mean both.

Biweekly can mean twice a week or two times a week.

This means whenever you use the word ‘biweekly’, people aren’t sure which meaning you’re using, so then you have to explain what you mean, making the word useless.

How annoying!

Another example of confusing English are the phrases ‘I’m down for that’ and I’m up for that’.

You might think that these phrases mean opposite things as up and down are opposites, however, they mean the same thing.

They are both informal ways of saying that you are happy to do something.

If someone says:

‘Do you want to go to the party tomorrow?’

You can reply:

‘I’m down for that’ or ‘I’m up for that’

Both make sense and lets the other person know that you want to go to the party.

There is a slight difference though.

Saying ‘I’m up for that’ usually means you potentially want to do it, but you’re not 100% certain, while ‘I’m down for that’ shows that you’re more certain. Although this depends on the dialect.

Arguably the most confusing thing in English is how the word ‘literally’ has changed its meaning in informal speech.

In its original usage, ‘literally’ is used to indicate that something is actually true or accurate in a strict or precise sense, without exaggeration.

"She literally ran a marathon yesterday, completing all 26.2 miles without stopping"

Literally is used here to give a statement of fact, to say what actually happened.

However, recently in informal language, it has completely changed its meaning to the opposite of what it originally meant.

Informally, ‘literally’ is used to add emphasis to a statement, even when the statement isn't strictly true in a literal sense.

"I literally died laughing."

This sentence literally means that someone died while laughing, however, informally it’s used to say that someone laughed a lot.

I hope you found this helpful.

Please reply to this email and let us know what parts of English you find most confusing.

Have a good week :)