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u/No_Fee_8997

▲ 4 r/words

"Meraki"

Doing something with all your heart and soul, putting everything you've got into it.

"She put so much meraki into her painting that it seemed to have a soul of its own."

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u/No_Fee_8997 — 23 hours ago
▲ 0 r/words

"breaking bad" vs "breaking badly," "feeling badly" vs "feeling bad," "acting bad" vs "acting badly"

This can get a little confusing. 

It makes me wonder if there is a term for when an incorrect form of a word is actually better (or a better choice) than a technically correct form, because it sounds better. 

Breaking bad is a good example. 

Here's a slightly different example that doesn't sound quite right from a certain point of view, but looked at from another angle it does sound right:

Just after 17:32 here (it should automatically start at 17:30),

https://youtu.be/nBt4iySzoZo?t=1051&si=DAboCKEoCk6A8uQs

"Feeling badly" is something I've heard over and over again, even by the President, and I think it has probably become widely accepted at this point. I wonder if he is having effects on the language.

u/No_Fee_8997 — 1 day ago
▲ 9 r/words

What are some words and phrases for watered-down words that are so watered down that they are almost meaningless?

"Good" or "fine" in response to "how are you" for example.

Some utterances are so routine that they are just routines.

What are some other examples of this, and what are such utterances called?

It's tempting to rate these on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 means a high level of meaninglessness, or perfect meaninglessness.

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u/No_Fee_8997 — 2 days ago
▲ 3 r/words

"which" vs "that"

Does it matter to you which one is used?

Or is it basically the same when someone uses "which" when technically they should use "that" (or vice versa)?

Example:

"That's one of the things which I think is kind of holding the chess world back a bit."

At the end (last five seconds or so) here:

https://youtube.com/shorts/xFE76-6j1xc?si=IWAtuOp7ozLY2xxB

u/No_Fee_8997 — 3 days ago