18. The Irregardless Imposter

Hey Y'all! I hope all of you are doing well and practicing becoming Grammar Stars.

Today's lesson will be nice and short! Some of the earlier ones I've done have been pretty lengthy but couldn't be helped, so I'm going to try to focus on some other rules that aren't so long. (Hey, I want you to come back!) We'll cover some of the ones needing more explanation eventually, but now for something brief... :-)

Have you ever heard anyone say something like this:

"Grace takes her orange pocketbook with her everywhere, IRREGARDLESS of the color of her clothes" ?

Whoa! This sentence is using a word that is not in our language--IRREGARDLESS.

The prefix IR and the suffix LESS are both negatives, so to use both of them in one word is to make the word a double negative. Remember when an earlier lesson discussed double negatives? At that time, you learned that using double negatives in a sentence is incorrect. We discussed the error in writing or saying such things as, "I don't have no reason to go outside when it's 105 degrees in the shade." In this sentence, using both DON'T and NO in the same sentence constitutes using double negatives, so, of course, this is an incorrect usage.

Now, while it's true that in the example sentence, IRREGARDLESS is not a SENTENCE with double negatives, but a WORD with double negatives, the rule still stands. Double negatives just aren't acceptable unless you mean to make the sentence or word positive, and I don't believe the first sentence means that Grace takes her orange pocketbook with her everywhere because she DOES care whether her clothes match her orange pocketbook. Likewise, the speaker in the second sentence surely doesn't actually mean that he DOES have a good reason to go outside when it's 105 degrees in the shade! Just think about what makes sense and you'll be fine.

Therefore, NEVER use the word IRREGARDLESS! There's just no such word in English!

Your sentences should sound (and look) like this:

REGARDLESS of the rain, Bobby jogs from the courthouse to the depot every morning... or...

Mrs. White sang louder and more off-key than anyone else in the church choir, REGARDLESS of the pained expressions on the faces of the congregation... or ...

REGARDLESS of being hungry enough to eat the south end of a north bound skunk, Henry waited on his sister to come to the table.


So, there you have it. Just never say or use IRREGARDLESS. Today's lesson is a shorty. How great it would be if all of our English rules could be this easy!
Have a great week and be happy. Peace, GG