Is Irregardless a Word?

• Irregardless means the same thing as “regardless.”
• Yes, it’s a word. But major dictionaries label it nonstandard.

Language is a living thing. No matter how many times we say it, it never gets any less true—language does resemble a living thing. It grows and changes, adapting to new circumstances, new words, new ways to use old words, and new combinations of letters and meaning. It’s a beautiful thing, the fact that language is alive. And you can use that fact to console yourself every time you hear someone say the word irregardless.

Definition of Irregardless

Irregardless is used in the same way you would use the word “regardless.” “Regardless” means “without regard,” because that’s what happens when you add the suffix -less to a word.

You might notice here that irregardless also has “regard” as its root word, and that it also contains the suffix -less. So, if there were any logic about irregardless, the prefix ir-, which has also been added to the root word, would have to bear no meaning. But it does, and that’s the problem with irregardless—it has two negations. The ir- prefix means “not,” and if you add it to a word that already means “without regard,” you get “not without regard.” This double negative is what makes irregardless a mess of a word, and an insult to the army of people who are passionate about English vocabulary. Many of them go so far as to assert that irregardless is not a real word.

Is Irregardless a Real Word?

However, there is a problem with the assertion that irregardless is not a real word. For one, it has a meaning. When someone uses it, you know what they are saying, even though you don’t like how they are doing it. Regardless of your dislike, it carries a meaning.

And people are using it. It might make you cringe, but irregardless is in use. It’s been in use for a whole century. You won’t find too many examples of it in respectable publications that employ editors, but you will hear people say it. In fact, it’s used often enough to catch the eye of lexicographers, and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.

So yes, irregardless is a word you can find in most dictionaries. And it’s not because the lexicographers working on these dictionaries have betrayed the English language by allowing such a mongrel of a word into them.

Nonstandard Words and Descriptive Dictionaries

Dictionaries today are descriptive. They don’t tell you how to use the language or which words you should and shouldn’t use. Descriptive dictionaries simply note the ways language is being used by people. That’s how words like emoji, clickbait, and meme can get in there, and that’s how irregardless got in there as well.

Granted, lexicographers have a way of noting that some of those, let’s call them unusual words, are not words an educated language user would use in formal discussions. Dictionaries add a “nonstandard” tag to such words, and they stay nonstandard until they gain enough traction to be included among the “standard” words. In case you’re wondering, irregardless is a nonstandard word.

Can I Use Irregardless in a Sentence?

If you want to, no one in this world can stop you from adopting irregardless into your speech and using it as much as you’d like. However, you should expect that when someone is grading or editing your work, it will be marked as a mistake. And you should also be aware that it might not be good to use a word a lot of people rightfully see as very problematic. So it might be best to steer clear of it, at least until it makes a run for standard status. Which could happen. Language is a living thing, you know.

Here’s How to Get out of Meetings with Grace

I once worked remotely for a company that had a regular content editor meeting every Friday. That meeting was the bane of my working existence. We’d all gather on a conference call line starting at 10 a.m. We’d arrive with good intentions, but inevitably no one had an agenda and we’d walk away (sometimes hours later) without having reached any actionable conclusions. The only thing anyone would act on would be to take a few minutes at the start of next week’s meeting to bemoan the lack of things we accomplished with the previous one.

I was required to be at those meetings, although often I didn’t have anything to contribute other than a few futile requests that we get back on track. Any track. I would find excuses to bail whenever I could. (Oops! My cat is trapped in the dryer vent. Okay, bye-eee!) The number of times I was inexplicably “sick” on Fridays was growing suspicious. I’m ashamed to admit that, because I had a headset I could mute, occasionally I’d fall asleep and wake to find myself softly snoring.

According to Inc., ninety-nine percent of meetings are a complete waste of money. And yet, even though everyone hates them, they’re a staple of corporate culture. Knowing how to get out of non-essential meetings gracefully is a job skill that can save you hours of torment and help you get more done.

Just say no to (unnecessary) meetings

Many of us persevere when it comes to meetings because we don’t want to be that person—the slacker who skips the meetings everyone else dutifully attends. But while yawning your way through every meeting might make you feel super committed to your work, it might also make you less productive.

The key to saying no to meetings lies in figuring out whether the meeting is essential for you and, if it’s not, making it known that there are better ways you could be spending your time. Here’s how to wiggle out without damaging your status as a team player.

1Take a “fewer meetings” stance.

Unless you’re clear on the reasons for a meeting from the get-go, question its purpose. Adopt the stance that every meeting should have to justify its existence. Although you shouldn’t insult meeting organizers by suggesting their meetings are superfluous, don’t be afraid to voice alternatives like “Is this something we could handle in email or Slack?” Ultimately, you’ll be a hero if you’re able to reduce the number of meetings your team holds.

Here’s a tip: Some offices are jumping on the trend for having a meeting-free day each week. If yours isn’t one of them, consider it an initiative to work toward. Make sure you frame your meeting-free idea as a push for more productivity and not a whiny rant against the tyranny of meetings. The Harvard Business Review has some advice for making it happen.

2Determine whether your presence at the meeting is essential.

Not all meetings are created equal. Just because you’ve been invited to one doesn’t mean that you’re a key player. And who needs meetings that involve sitting around listening to everyone else talk?

When you get a meeting invite, ask for more details or an agenda. It’s perfectly okay to ask what your role will be. This lets your colleagues know that you value your time and want to spend it wisely.

3Ask for help establishing your priorities

I’m going to share a little secret with you. In fact, this tactic works so well for getting out of meetings that it should be in every worker’s bag of tricks. Simply ask the meeting holder to help you prioritize. Should you put the meeting first, or the project you’re working on? It looks something like this:

“I’m scheduled for the 10 a.m. content team meeting tomorrow morning. I’m working on finishing the [insert big project here]. Would you rather I prioritize the meeting or the project?”

Odds are good that the meeting holder is going to insist you prioritize the project. And, if he or she doesn’t, then you’ll know the meeting really is one you shouldn’t miss. This simple technique has helped me step out of many a meeting so I could focus on getting work done over listening to people talk about the work I should be getting done. Give it a try!

4Push for meeting notes.

Many companies have staff meetings for information sharing. For most players, they involve listening and learning about current plans and happenings affecting the team. You may not have a crucial role in the meeting, but that doesn’t mean the information you might glean from it isn’t important.

A simple change in meeting strategy could make staff meetings something people can bow out of when they have higher priority tasks to work on. Bring up the idea of having someone keep meeting notes at each session so that everyone who’s unable to attend will have access to the information that was shared and any action items that were determined. To keep things fair, the note taking task can fall to a different person each session. (Be sure you volunteer to be the note taker, too.)

If notes aren’t a possibility, show your commitment by briefly following-up with the meeting leader so you can get up-to-date.

5Ask to step out when the meeting no longer pertains to you.

Sometimes, you’ll attend a meeting where only part of the agenda is relevant to you. If you’re particularly busy, it’s okay to request that the team address those pertinent agenda items first so you can bow out when the meeting shifts to topics that aren’t in your purview. Chat with the meeting organizer a few minutes before the meeting to explain that you’re trying to manage your time and prioritize, and you’d be grateful if he or she could tackle your items first.

Here’s a tip: Take a seat by the door. That way it’ll be easier for you to bow out when the meeting is no longer relevant to you. Avert your eyes from the envious gazes of your less meeting-savvy colleagues who didn’t make an escape plan like you did.

There’s no reason to whine or make excuses to get out of meetings. All that’s required if you want to skip the talk and get to the action is to show your team that the company will be better served if you don’t attend. If you want your superiors and teammates to value your time, it’s important to show that you value it, too.

In Between or In-between–What’s the Difference?

In between should always appear as two words. Although inbetween is common, it is a misspelling and does not appear in any English dictionary. Unnecessarily adding in to between is also a common grammatical mistake. As a compound adjective, in-between should be hyphenated.

Between, On Its Own, Is Often the Correct Choice

When we speak, we often add in before between when it isn’t needed. It’s not the worst thing in the world to do, but be careful not to let it creep into your writing. Between can be used several ways as a preposition or an adverb, but the confusion of between vs. in between tends to arise when we use between as a preposition that means “in the time, space, or interval that separates.”

Please have the movers place the bed in between the two nightstands.

Because between already means “in the space that separates” in this sentence, an extra in is redundant. There is no other kind of between than the “in that space” sort; there is no on between, no at between, no through between, and so on. There is no need for a preposition in addition to between.

Please have the movers place the bed between the two nightstands.

Here the preposition between has an object, the two nightstands, and together they form the prepositional phrase between the two nightstands. In cases when between is used a preposition but does not have an object, it will feel more natural to use in between.

I go to the gym on Mondays, on Saturdays, and sometimes in between.

The dog ran off with his prize, while the boy was left with two hot dog buns and nothing in between.

The most important thing to remember is that when used together, in between is never spelled as one word.

A Phrasal Verb Makes Neighbors of In and Between As a Part of a Phrasal Verb

When in is part of a phrasal verb—that is, idiomatically connected to a verb in an indispensable way—it might fall naturally before between even if between has an object. Two examples of phrasal verbs containing in are pull in and drop in.

The Hummer’s owner inconsiderately pulled in between two “No Parking” signs.

Feel free to drop in between the hours of nine and ten o’clock.

In both of these sentences, in functions as part of a phrasal verb and not with the preposition between.

In-Between Should Be Hyphenated as an Adjective

Occasionally,in and between join forces as a compound adjective before a noun in the sense of “intermediate,” and when they do, spell them with a hyphen for readability.

I would grow my hair longer, but I dread that awful in-between stage.

The Rise of the Helping Verb

You hire a fashion consultant to help you redesign your wardrobe. He tells you to get rid of your most recently acquired shoes. You gasp in surprise because you bought the shoes only a couple of days ago. All the celebrities are wearing them. How can they not be fashionable? You may ask the same thing about helping verbs. Aren’t they always in fashion? The short answer is no. New words are always emerging. All types of words, not just verbs, shift in meaning or become obsolete. For example, consider the case of thee and thou. These words were standard a few generations ago. Today, the pronoun whom is in danger of falling completely out of use. Dictionaries eliminate dozens of words every year to make room for new additions. Language is like a living thing, growing and adjusting to changing circumstances. In particular, the use of helping verbs is changing at a remarkable pace. What are some of the major trends and why are they occurring? Here is the story of the helping verb.

Auxiliary means “giving support or serving as an aid.” An auxiliary verb, then, is another name for a helping verb. So, these verbs help, or support, the main verb in the sentence. The three most common auxiliary verbs, to be, to do, and to have, are not experiencing much change. They are called the primary helping verbs. All three of them can serve as main verbs, but they perform special duties when used as helping verbs. Briefly, here is an overview of these popular verbs and their function.

Forms of to be often help the main verb express tense. Forms of to do appear in negative statements, questions, and emphatic statements. To do also helps speakers and writers avoid repetition by standing in for the main verb. The last of the primary helping verbs is to have. When you want to say that a particular action occurred at some earlier time, you use the past perfect tense with the aid of a form of to have: She had already eaten all the pizza when the movers arrived.

Let’s look at the rest of the auxiliary verbs. The modal verbs express ideas such as ability, uncertainty, necessity, and permission. In fact, the term modal means “noting or pertaining to mood.” Some of the modal verbs perform extra duty; they have more than one meaning. Let’s briefly look at how modals function.

Could and can express ability: Jim can bench press 150 pounds. Lina could run faster if she trained with a marathon coach. You can use may and might to represent possibilities: It looks like it might rain today. It may rain tomorrow. Modals such as must express necessity: I must listen more closely next time. Finally, may is also used for permission: You may go outside after you put your toys away.

Did the last example sound a little formal to you? Years ago, using may was the most common way to request or grant permission to do something. Nowadays, people are more likely to use can: Can I go outside after I put my toys away? One case study compared the use of can and may in personal letters. In letters from the seventeenth and eighteenth century, can mostly expressed “personal ability,” or what people were able to do. Because may could convey both personal ability and permission, some phrases were rather ambiguous, as in one historical example: “I begg [sic] of you to let Mrs. Warren send me word when I may attend you.” By the twentieth century, may hadn’t just become scarcer—its definition had narrowed, too. In the letters examined in the case study, it nearly always referred to possibility: “I may come over…”

To be clear, need to and going to are semi-modal verbs. True modal verbs don’t have an infinitive form or a past tense form. They never end in -ed or -ing. Semi-modal verbs sometimes act like main verbs and other times they function like modal verbs. Other modals that seem to be in flux are “might,” and “have to.” In the past, the verb must usually expressed necessity: I must run faster if I want to catch the train. Presently, people are more likely to talk about necessity with going to, have to, or need to: I am going to have to run faster if I want to catch the train. Ann needs to order some mealworms for her lizard.

In the old letters and in new documents, must hasn’t varied much in frequency, but it has expanded in meaning. In the earliest of the letters, must communicated personal obligation and not much else. Over time, writers began to use must to talk about other things. You can view seven definitions on Dictionary.com that show its broadened nuances. Which term replaced must? In the letters, it was “have to.” In everyday speech, “have got to” may be used. Must might have gone out of style as a way to convey necessity, but it is still completely in vogue in modern vocabulary.

In any case, it’s extremely difficult to detect grammatical trends within a few decades. Language is unpredictable. The article “Current change in the modal system of English” explains: “A change measured over a shorter period of thirty years or so, however, will not necessarily be completed in the time period, and it is impossible to know how, when, or even if a particular change will complete.” What’s more, the experts don’t agree on how each instance of the modals should be defined. The same article mentions studies by Jennifer Coates and Geoffrey Leech: “Coates (1983) states that have to and have got to are infrequent as epistemic modals and Leech (2003) claims that must is one of a few modals not becoming monosemous [limited to one meaning].”

So what’s the verdict? Should you throw out the declining helping verbs along with your faux-crocodile plaid loafers? Not so fast. While the data do conclude so far that the frequency of must declined between the 1960s and the 1990s, one of its freshest replacements, have got to, is going out of fashion as fast as it came into fashion. There may be a resurgence of must for expressing necessity, or some other way to express the idea of necessity may emerge. The point is, you can’t predict how fast or to what extent language will change over time. It is much easier to look back at the trends after several centuries have passed. If that’s the case, it will be the job of your great, great-grandchildren to figure out the fate of the helping verbs and fashion fads.

Fascinating New Languages

Despite all our smarts and scientific advancements, there is still a lot we don’t know about the phenomenon of human language. We don’t know what the first human language sounded like. We don’t know exactly where, how, or when it came to be. We may never be able to find out—there’s an overwhelming lack of data to work with. What we can say, however, is that once we figured out how to create language, we went ahead and created a bunch of them. And we’re still doing it today.

Where There’s a Need, There Is a Way

Two of the main senses for using language are speech, our ability to create sounds, and hearing, our ability to perceive sounds created by others. We can also give language a visual form by writing, but the visual element is important even in face-to-face communication. We send off and receive a number of non-verbal communication signs, such as facial expressions, postures, and gestures. A number of our fellow humans aren’t able to communicate with all three senses, but doesn’t stop them from finding effective ways of communication.

People who are deaf learn sign language—a language of hand gestures and signs that allows them to communicate with great fluency. But what happens in a community of deaf people who don’t have a sign language they can use to communicate? They come up with their own. When a group of deaf children in Nicaragua was taught to lip-read and use American Sign Language, they shunned lip-reading and quickly developed a sign language of their own—behind the backs of their teachers. The result was a completely new language, developed in the 1980s by Nicaraguan kids. And just like that, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua, or ISN, was born.

People who can’t hear or see have an even bigger challenge—they can’t rely on signs and gestures. In the United States, people who are deaf and blind have been developing a sign language that is based on American Sign Language but has a tactile twist to it. A person speaking in Pro-Tactile ASL, which is what the new language is called, uses her own hands and arms as well as the hands and arms of the person she’s talking to create gestures and signs. It’s a contact language that allows speakers to communicate nuances such as nodding and other gestures.

Other Reasons to Invent a Language

Constructed languages have been created with different agendas, apart from the basic human need to communicate. Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, the creator of arguably the best-known constructed language in the world, Esperanto, wanted to make a language that was easy to learn, could be used as an international second language, and could help overcome cultural misunderstandings. Robot Interaction Language, or ROILA, is a language currently under development at the Eindhoven University of Technology’s Department of Industrial Design. It is the first language created specially for use by talking robots. Loglan, created Dr. James Cooke Brown, is a language used by linguists to research linguistic relativity.

But new languages also pop up spontaneously when conditions are right. People living in Lajamanu, a small and isolated town in Australia, already had a heritage language they could speak, Walpiri. They also spoke both English and Kriol, an English-based creole. When parents spoke to their kids in a mixture of the three languages, the kids took the words they heard and married them with a syntax that wasn’t present in any of the three parent languages, creating a new native language for about 350 of Lajamanu’s residents. It’s spoken only by people who are around thirty-five years old.

Artistic Languages That Entertain

Fantasy settings invite us to create new languages. Alien cultures, alternative histories, dystopian futures, worlds of magic and swordplay—these settings are often very different from the world we live in. So, it only makes sense to, at least from time to time, populate these strange worlds with their own languages. Occasionally, you’ll get fantasy languages that really work (kind of). You might call them artistic languages, or artlangs.

If you’re a fan of the Star Trek franchise, you probably know there are Trekkers who can speak Klingon, a language created for a Star Trek movie by the American linguist Marc Okrand. If you’re familiar with the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, you’re probably aware of Quenya and Sindarin, two Elvish languages of Middle Earth. Na’vi, created by Dr. Paul Frommer, is what the big blue aliens speak in James Cameron’s movie Avatar. The Verdurian language was created by Mark Rosenfelder for a role-playing game, and it contains 400,000 words.

There’s no end to human inventiveness when it comes to language. What new languages do you speak?

“Dear Sir or Madam”—Learn When to Use It and Some Alternatives

How do you know when to use Dear Sir or Madam or something else? When writing a business letter or email, it can be a real challenge to get the salutation right—especially for someone you don’t know or an organization you’ve never worked with. In such situations, you should err on the side of formality, but even then there are good reasons to avoid Dear Sir or Madam. Luckily, there are a number of alternatives for Dear Sir or Madam that will help you remain professional.

Is Dear Sir or Madam Acceptable?

The short answer is yes but only rarely—though of course, not everyone agrees.

Here’s why:

• In today’s technologically connected world, there is (almost) no excuse for not knowing whom you are writing to.
• Dear Sir or Dear Madam may offend your recipient if you’re unsure of their gender or get it wrong.

If you want to write a better cover letter to a prospective employer or an outstanding business letter to a potential client, you want to stand out, right? Likely you want to show how you are already a great fit for the team. Knowing someone’s name, gender, and what they do is a fundamental way to show your investment.

Dear Sir/Madam Cover Letter vs. Dear Sir/Madam Email

You should avoid using Dear Sir/Madam in emails as well as in cover letters.

Cover letters are notably more formal than emails, but some of the same rules apply, especially if you are writing to someone for the first time. Regardless of format, use a formal tone, while—as stated earlier—investing time in researching whom you are writing to.

Dear Sir/Madam Alternatives

Because you should invest some time trying to find out exactly whom you are writing to, the best alternatives to the highly impersonal Dear Sir or Madam include, in order of preference:

• Dear [First Name Last Name],
• Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. [Last Name],
• Dear [First Name], or Hello, [First Name], (informal only. Good if you’ve worked together before or the environment is casual.)
• Dear [Name of group or department],
• Dear [Job Title],
• To Whom It May Concern,
• Dear Sir or Dear Madam,
• Dear Sir or Madam,

This business writing salutations flow chart will help you understand when to use Dear Sir or Madam and when to use something else.

Dear Sir/Madam vs. To Whom It May Concern

If, after diligent searching online and off, you are unable to learn the the name, role, or gender of your intended recipient, what should you do? In this (rare) situation, you should use Dear Sir or Madam and not To Whom It May Concern.

Though many people use Dear Sir or Madam interchangeably with To Whom It May Concern, there is a notable difference in meaning that employers or companies in certain formal sectors (academia, law, finance, etc.) will be sensitive to.

To Whom It May Concern implies that the information discussed in the letter can go to any relevant party within the organization.

This salutation should be used for general concerns like support requests or feedback.

Dear Sir or Madam implies that you have one specific person in mind for this letter, but do not know their name, title, or gender.

This salutation should be used for communication regarding specific projects, specific concerns, or employment.

How to Use Dear Sir or Madam Correctly

If you must use Dear Sir or Madam or a variant of it, traditionally this salutation is paired with Yours Faithfully, in the signature. Here is a template of a letter or email which uses Dear Sir or Madam correctly.

Dear Sir or Madam, (or Dear Sir, or Dear Madam,)

Letter text centered vertically on page.

Yours Faithfully,

[your signature when possible]

Your first name and last name Your designation

Dear Sir or Madam or Something Else? Take the Poll!

Which salutation do you use for cover letters and emails? How do you know which to use?

Commas in Dates

When writing a date, a comma is used to separate the day from the month, and the date from the year.

July 4, 1776, was an important day in American history.

I was born on Sunday, May 12, 1968.

But if you’re writing the date in day-month-year format, you don’t need a comma.

The project will commence on 1 June 2018.

Do use a comma if you’re including a day of the week with the date. Note the use of the comma after the date when it appears in the middle of a sentence.

On Friday, October 28th at four o’clock, we’ll have a small gathering in the office kitchen to celebrate Mark’s birthday.

Please come out on Saturday, April 15th, 2017, to show your support for the marathon runners.

When you’re giving only a month and a year, you don’t need a comma.

I haven’t seen this much snow since January 2002.