The science of the plot twist. Irregardless. Spug.

954.  Uh-oh, "irregardless" isn’t going away anytime soon. Take a deep breath while we dig into this hated word’s history, from its first appearance in 1795 to today. And then, do you love a good plot twist? In honor of National Novel Writing Month, we look at the psychology of surprises in fiction.

The "irregardless" segment was written by Susan Herman, a retired U.S. government multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and instructor.

The "plot twist" segment was written by Vera Tobin, an associate professor of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University. It originally appeared on The Conversation and appears here through a Creative Commons license.

| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/irregardless/transcript

| Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates.

| Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.

| Peeve Wars card game. 

| Grammar Girl books. 

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

• Audio Engineer: Nathan Semes
• Director of Podcast: Brannan Goetschius
• Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
• Marketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina Tomlin
• Digital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media Links: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.