Revised as of 5 April 2021
What with Thanksgiving coming up, I thought some of those yummy words would be good to handle all that delicious food we’re lookin’ forward to.
And, of course, it’s Thanksgiving…we all need some of those negatives to work with as well, LOL.
Word Confusions…
…started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.
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Hmm | Mmm |
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Credit to: Apple.com; Speechink: <http://www.speechink.com/transcribers/insurance_quickstart#Um_Uh> | |
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Part of Grammar: | |
Exclamation
Alternate spelling: h’m |
Exclamation; Noun |
Expresses hesitation
When you are thinking about something, being thoughtful When you don’t know exactly what to say Combinations can express a negative or an affirmative |
Exclamation: Expresses contentment or pleasure Shows thought or reflection Combinations can express a negative or an affirmative Noun: Roman numeral representing the Arabic figure, three thousand (3,000) |
Rule: When combining hmm + mmm, use dashes without spaces and only use one combination pair per sentence.
CAUTION: Combining hmm + mmm creates an affirmative or a negative depending upon how the words are combined. |
|
Affirmative | Negative |
Mm-hmm – sly agreement, yes, okay
Mmm-kay – okay |
Hmm-mm – no
Mm-mm – no |
Examples: | |
You can always stretch those “m”s out to convey more of a mood. | |
Hmm, I don’t know the answer to that.
Hmmmmm, I’ll have to think about that some more. Hmm-mm, sure, I believe you. |
Exclamation: Mmm, that’s good. Mmmmmmm, that feels so good… Oh yeah , mmm-hmmm, you would say that! Oh man, this turkey is incredible, mmm-mmmmmm. Mm-hmm, that’s just what I was thinking. Noun: |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves?
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Freedom From Want [one of the Four Freedoms set by Norman Rockwell] is courtesy of Gary Halvorson and the Oregon State Archives, and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
I love these posts such great fun and grammar can be such fun. I share them on FB for a friend in Switzerland. I have a fun blog you may wish to visit. http://thebridgeofdeaths.tumblr.com/