Jonathan Ross on the incorrect use of "literally" - Room 101: Series 4 Episode 5 Preview - BBC One 

I literally told my father off. I said to him, "Off".

His sympathy for Britney has aged well. 👏🏽👏🏽

"Machines at the gym literally killed me the other day" "If only they had"

The word 'LITERALLY' would be unnecessary if we would simply say what we meant, and didn't try to fluff our language up with a lot of pointless hyperbole.

the word 'literally' literally doesn't mean literally anymore. I'm sorry but that is figuratively insane.

I have a new one as the "literally"/"figuratively" annoyance is SO 'yesterday': "Antisocial" vs "Unsociable" eg. "Hey Dave, don't be antisocial, come to the pub!" Unsociable=not going to the pub/Antisocial=setting fire to the pub.

I kind of agree with Jonathan. A lot of times I don't mind when words change their meaning, but I can't think of another good word to say what 'literally' means (I mean what it's 'supposed' to mean) and it's a really useful word to have. If literally stops meaning literally, then how do we express the idea? Do we invent a new word? I suppose we could say 'non-metaphorically' or 'non-figuratively' but those seem long and awkward compared to 'literally'. Plus I'm so used to using literally when I mean literally, so it would be annoying to have to stop and try to think of a different word, or to have to explain what I mean every time.

Oh thank you, this is one of my pet peeves in language and i'll go on the attack if i hear some half wit using it. "OMG I'm literally dying here!" "Quick dial 911, maybe we can save you."

I remember someone telling me about a horror film they'd seen which included the sentence "I literally shat myself".

I'm with Jonathan on Ross!!

My sides were LITERALLY splitting with laughter at the Jamie Redknapp bit!

The thing about the word 'literally' is that it now has no meaning. In the example of Michael Owen literally being a greyhound, you could take out the word 'literally', and the meaning of the sentence would be exactly the same. So idiots have taken a very useful word, and by misusing it, have turned it into a completely useless word.

Someone asked what literally means and how to use it 'right', well, if you say something is 'literally' something, it means it's word for word exactly what you're saying, you're not exaggerating, you're not using a figure of speech, you're not saying something imaginative (literally is the opposite of 'figuratively'). Like if someone is 'literally dying' it means they are about to die, not that they're feeling bad or laughing hard or something, it means they're about to die, like they have terminal cancer or something. If someone weighs 'literally' 1000 lbs it means they actually do weigh as much as a car, i.e., literally means you're specifically saying that it's NOT that they just weigh a lot or that you're trying to say they're fat in a funny way. So it gets really weird if someone says 'literally' in a situation where it's obvious they mean the exact OPPOSITE of literally. Then why use that word when you mean exactly the opposite? (It's like if I said 'that piece of wood was so cold that I was afraid it would catch fire' - it's confusing, and then the next time you hear 'cold' when it isn't as obvious they mean 'hot', then you don't know which way they mean it). Of course some people say we should just accept that now it's sometimes used to just mean 'very' and maybe it isn't that important, and maybe they're even right, but if you want to understand what the word exactly means and what people are talking about, well that's what.

People who misuse the word literal literally makes my brain somersault, turn green, explode, and ooze out of my ears.

Johnathan Ross is such an intelligent person plays around on camera and I think a lot of people don’t realise just how clever he is.

Also, it's weird to say "humbling" when you mean honored. Which is the opposite of humbling. *actor wins an Oscar* "This is so humbling"!

'Shabby equipment [not tools] always deteriorating' is from TS Eliot not Ezra Pound.

If your daughter describes her boyfriend as "spicy" then maybe they should get themselves checked at the clinic

I can't remember ever using the term 'literally'. If I were to say "something killed him", I could not say it better by saying "something literally killed him", because the word 'literally' would confuse the listener into thinking I was not being serious.

The dictionary definition if "literally" niw includes a secobdary definition which is literally "Not literally, figuratively"

THANK YOU!

I literally (lol) lived round the corner from him for a year in Hampstead Garden Suburb, and I saw him once and he said ello. I said hello back. Totally boring story but there you go. Seemed quite a nice bloke, easy going. Edit-he sort of looks like Nic Cage which is weird.

Just this morning on The Andrew Marr Show, Mairead McGuiness (Irish Vice President of European Commission) said that this last year “the world has literally stopped turning”.

" He was literally holding the crowd in his hands." .... said by a candidate Obama supporter after a campaign speech 2008.

When I hear someone say, “That’s the most unique act in show business” I want to scream, and beat them about the head and shoulders. There are no degrees of uniqueness as it is an absolute. This error appears most frequently in news reports . . .

The second Jamie Redknapp comment was brilliant

Good points everyone here....Along with LITERALLY ,the contradictory : AT THE END OF THE DAY... not every morning brings you sunshine...or BASICALLY , there's no answer to that.....

I disagree with Jonathan and Frank on this. I think the usage of 'literally', as in 'I literally died laughing' is grammatically correct and appropriate usage. The same applies to the usage of 'like'. In the typical situation of young people in their group, joking and conversing informally, what is inferred and clearly understood is: 'it was AS IF I literally died laughing'. So why omit the 'as if'? Because it is understood in the social situation. The speaker is talking to an intended audience who will clearly understand the 'as if' meaning. What is understood is that the speaker was so amused that it was, say, difficult to breathe and thus akin to almost dying. The speaker is not expecting the words, delivered orally, to be written down and subsequently read literally by old fogeys like Johnathan and Frank, for a laugh, completely out of context. Johnathan and Frank are not part of the speaker's 'in-group', they are effectively eavesdropping. It's like they are gate-crashing a conversation, interrupting the fun of the anecdote and saying: you can't be happy like that, leaving out words, because that is not the way I speak with my own 'in-group' in other conversations. So, why use 'literally' at all? It is used for emphasis, to exaggerate for effect. As Frank should know, many comedians use this technique in their story-telling and acting out. Yes, the speaker may have mis-judged the audience and spoken with an inappropriate level of informality. But if these words annoy you, ask yourself the question: should you be listening to this conversation at all?

I hate the misuse of like and literally. They just won’t be told or corrected. It sounds uneducated, ridiculous and lazy. Let them go on sounding thick. I always think of Henry Higgins why can’t the English. I am trying to rewrite for like and literally.

Same as the idiots who say "im dead" or "crying". One thing that bugs me is when youtubers beg for likes at the start of videos! Its there as a tool if you LIKED it, not to generate virtual ego points

I laughed so hard at this I literally shit myself.

I think people make an error about the meaning of literally because they associate it with literature i.e. fiction, when in fact it's referring to fact.

This dude's my hero!

In order to use literally as a joke, you need to understand what it literally means.

Spicy is a new word for controversial. e.g. Spicy tweet = controversial tweet.

Tbh, one of the most annoying words in the whole English language, especially since how overused it is nowadays.

Literally, like and obvious.

The informal usage of 'Bad' literally means 'Good'. The informal usage of 'literally' literally means 'figuratively'. There is presently, in the English vernacular, no emphatic way of referring to reality, other than to omit all modifiers, and pray the listener is not an idiot.

Just use "almost like..." instead of taking another word hostage.

There are two forms of speach, literal or figurative. Literal does mean actually. Its means not figuratively. The meaning of this word has been lost.

Isn't it ironic?

I saw a YT comment recently "I literally died when......."

Wight on, Wossie!

What about "really"?

Completely agree with this one.

it has become a filler word. for people who have a poor knowledge of their own English language . "like", is another one . just filler words like um, uhhh, err. . it is used as a pause in sentence while the person searches a word to say . very poor English skills and horrible to listen to.

Literally is the new "like".

I'm Nigerian too 🇳🇬

Add basically to the list.

watch a Jessy James interview. this guy says the word "LIKE," 82 times in 3 minutes . yes I counted .

Im literally in room 101 rn this is so cool

im with ya wossy

He`s right, that`s very irritating.

He was literally right about this

Also, nobody says other words in America the same way British ppl do, but there's a trend of ppl in America using literally incorrectly, and on top of that they're pronouncing it as litchraly. We sat parental, not parentch. I don't get it.

Litewally

@You Are Spicy means bean burger

for me it has to be when I hear someone pronounce a word with an 's' at the end....for example, yous (you) . Annoyingly its getting more and more frequent. ....

Mark Twain had used 'literally' in-place of 'figuratively' in his work

they destroyed it

or as he says 'literwally'

Literally has been used for a long long time in both ways. So Ross is literally wrong.

The meaning of literally though has evolved from its origin.. it originally meant that something was to be taken as it was written down, like a contract, or a law, or scripture. The current meaning of something happening in reality could easily be given back to ‘in reality’ like: ‘in reality Smeichel Sr. is Smeichels Jr father’ Given how much bullshit has been written down, literal sources are not as authentic as they have been, and “in reality”, there should be a difference between what’s written down and what’s real

So he has a problem with hyperbolic language.

Horrible Histories. Viking Song. Literally.

Spicy is not new

anyone watching this for school, no just me (huh)

She's figuratively on a roller coaster to hell doesn't have the same punch, but yeah I do agree with this one. I'm sure it's Americans trying to sound intelligent and misunderstanding how to go about it. Irregardless is another one that gets my goat.

A man who puts a W in front of every single word complaining about people not speaking correctly , that's funny .

It was literally Michael Vaughan? I have been away too long. Real lovers of Cricket and not "crickets"! My over-used and misused word is still "basically". Guilty in the 1st degree. Ross Frozen Foods? Yes. All Is True and yet poker players throughout the world did not fold? Texas Hold 'em? My 'em bring them joy. When I said eyes front the long distance joggers were running toward a F Inland Revenue Officer sort of. F Inland. No skin off my..........never mind. If the fall the only thing left - I chose to find out if yesterday was the day is all. Only connect and I did. Victoria Coren Mitchell. Isn't the world small? My new book title Fool Metal Jacket. Anyone for "T"? wouldn't it be iced. Long title. I will think on.

It's exaggeration.

I'm tired of hearing grammar nazis saying I'm using literally yet they never take the time to explain how to use it properly.

People who use the word “obviously” wrong gets my goat. For example: “My mum’s obviously in a wheelchair” When you don’t know the persons mum it’s not obvious

am i the only one who’s english teacher made me watch this

😂😂😂

i couldnt care less

Spicey has been around for literally centuries to mean good or attractive. Far from new.6

kinda bad video ngl Never driven off road??!! Typical city boy. Get out and live life. Top gear is freakin epic.!!

I wud put in room101 1 people who smoke in buss stops , 2 the royal family . 3 eny one who votes tory. 4 all mps

Johnathan Ross needs to read a dictionary.

This literally had me in stitches! It's so true!

there's literally no literal use of literally being literal