Hello Fairy Godwriter fans!

Today, we are going to focus on those Mensa members who love to interject the word “literally” into every sentence.

How many times have you been at a social event, listening to someone tell a story, and they ruin it by saying some preposterous statement, such as: “I had such a bad migraine, I felt like my head literally exploded.”

No, dolls and lads. Your head didn’t feel like it was literally exploding. It figuratively did.

Literally vs. Figuratively

You see, when something happens literally, it means it actually occurred. No exaggerations, no hyperbole. It happened exactly as you described. Period. Nobody knows what it feels like to have their head explode, because if that were to happen to someone, they’d be dead, darling.

Now, let’s go back a bit and talk about metaphors. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which you use a comparison in order to describe something else. For example, if you have a really bad headache (say, after hearing someone repeatedly use the word “literally” incorrectly), you would probably figuratively feel like your head is exploding (i.e. not really happening; but it’s a good comparison).

See? It’s as simple as singing do-re-mi.

Now that we’ve covered this, I’m hopeful that all of those beautiful shooting stars flying high above the sky will grant me this one simple wish: That every native English speaker in the universe will remember this lesson, and live happily ever after.

That is all for today, my beloved little lambs. May you have a wonderful and enjoyable weekend. Literally.

Much love,

The Fairy Godwriter