It isn’t easy to hold my attention on a long airplane flight. But last month, on my way to the Great North to hold a week-long Granny Day Camp for my school-age grandkids, linguist Anne Curzan had me spellbound with her new book, “Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words.”
For several hours, it was just me, a kindly University of Michigan linguist and a way of thinking about grammar that’s funner than ever.
I learned a lot about the English language from Curzan, but more important, I learned how to tame my “inner grammando” and give my love of words — my “inner wordie” — some space.
When I opened Curzan’s book, I expected to be presented with some definitive answers to the big grammar questions of the day. Like:
1. Is irregardless a word?
2. Is fun an adjective?
3. Can some things be more unique than others?
4. Is it OK to say “I’m good?” Or do I have to say, “I am well?”
Curzan’s Kindly Answers:
1. Irregardless? Sure. Why not? Irregardless seems to be a smashing together for emphasis of irrespective and regardless — just like breakfast and lunch got smushed together to make brunch.
Sticklers might choose to avoid irregardless. Despite their best efforts, however, the word is making its way into common usage, says Curzan, and it is probably here to stay.
2. Adjectival fun? Yep. But maybe not if you were born before 1950. Up till then fun was pretty much a verb as in “I’m just funnin’ you.” Over time it became a noun as well: “We had fun.” But it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century, Curzan notes, that “having a fun time” came into common adjectival usage.
Me, I’m all for it. Let the fun times roll!
As for “funner,” Curzan has this to say: Most of us still think of the word fun as a noun — “We had fun.” As a result, the word funner doesn’t sound right to the English speaker’s ear even though, now that fun is an adjective, funner is grammatically quite correct.
Curzon reminds us that word use changes, and she predicts that within a generation or two funner will be a totally fun and acceptable addition to the language. (And my spell checker will quit underlining it in red.)
3. Very unique? Yes — if you insist. For me and lots of other grammar sticklers, unique is unique. It means one of a kind. There’s no such thing as more unique, or sorta unique. Something is unique or it is not.
But Curzan cautions that unique is a word in transition. Advertisers like to promote their “unique” offerings. And perfectly respectable folks like Martin Luther King, Jr. have used the word to stress a point as in, “I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of preachers.”
4. I’m good? Yes, lucky for me. When people ask me how I am, I am wont to live dangerously and declare, “I’m good.”
I know lots of folks who make a point of saying, “I’m well.” But it feels like an affectation to me, like someone trying to be super grammatical, which it would be if the responder intended to make a statement about her health.
“I’m well” is not grammatical technically, says Curzan, if the responder intends to say that things are hunky-dory with her right now.
She explains that the verb to be (e.g. I am) is a linking verb and it therefore calls for an adjective as in “I am tall” or “I am young.” So, if you are talking about your general state of mind, it’s “I’m good.” If you are talking about your health, it’s “I’m well.”
But I say, if you are good with well, go for it and be well.
Linguist Anne Curzan Makes Grammar Funner Than Ever
I had a good time on that airplane in Curzan’s company. She is an open-minded linguist not given to laying down the law grammar-wise. Language, usage and words are in constant flux, she believes. Who is she to judge when one man’s bugaboo is another man’s mot juste?
Curzan loves words and their potential for precision. But she keeps a kindly attitude toward the creative, rule-breaking human tongue and its tendency to take an nice old word like fun and make it into something funner.
More books with a Michigan connection: “A Book of Essays From Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite.” And, “Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and the Indian I Wanted to Be.” And, don’t forget, “Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith!”
Says Who? A Kinder, Funner, Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words, by Anne Curzan, PhD., Crown, $17.00 paperback, 2025.
Hmm. I wrote “grammatically quite correct.” Should it be “grammatically correct?” Is correct a kissing cousin of unique? Is something either correct or not correct?