Mekita Rivas, SNR communications associate, publishes a biweekly feature called "Grammar Guru."
Every other week, the Grammar Guru will share writing tips to help make your work as polished as possible. Some of these tips may address common spelling errors, while others will examine the many nuances of the English language.
Grammar Guru Tip #28
Some words are so commonly used that it's easy to forget that they aren't actual words in the English language. Here's a quick sampling of such faux words – be sure to start omitting them from your vocabulary!
• Irregardless – As "regardless" is already a negative, adding "ir" makes it a meaningless double negative.
• Ain't – This contraction is a hodgepodge of the contractions of various sets of words (i.e. "is not," "am not," "have not.")
• Misunderestimated – This double negative essentially just means "estimated."
• Brung – This word is sometimes used (incorrectly) as the past participle of "bring" ("brought" is the appropriate term).
• Supposably/undoubtably – The correct forms of these words are "supposedly" and "undoubtedly." The suffix "ably" is often misused in place of "edly."
• Expresso – It's "espresso."
Need some grammar guidance? The UNL Style Guide (http://unlcms.unl.edu/ucomm/styleguide/) is a great resource for all university employees. If you have writing questions that the style guide doesn't answer, feel free to email the Grammar Guru at mrivas@unl.edu.