Word Confusion: Hmm-mmmm, That’s Good!

Posted November 18, 2012 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

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
Credit to: Apple.com; Speechink: <http://www.speechink.com/transcribers/insurance_quickstart#Um_Uh>

Black-and-white photo of a man thinking

Thinking by Andreas Ivarsson is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.


Close-up of a really thick reuben sub

Beef @ Smoked Meat Sandwich @ Schwartz’s Deli @ Le Plateau @ Montréal by Guilhem Vellut, Annecy, France, is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Oh, yeah…mmm, mmm, good!

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:
M represents the Arabic numeral, 1,000. Adding additional Ms doubles the value, so MM equals 2,000 and MMM equals 3,000.

C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves?

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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.

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