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

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 noire for you from either end.

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Hmm	Mmm
	—
Part of Grammar:
Exclamation Alternate spelling: h’m	Exclamation; Noun Plural for the noun: MMM
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.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Hmm versus Mmm

Apple Dictionary.com

Speechink: <http://www.speechink.com/transcribers/insurance_quickstart#Um_Uh>

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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.

Revised as of 13 Apr 2024
By: Kathy Davie