Literally speaking

Literally is one of many words that are widely misused nowadays. Nevertheless, unlike most of its contemporaries it can bring a smile to the faces of even the most pedantic.

That’s because its use usually evokes ridiculous or impossible situations: I literally died when I heard the news. Really? Then how are you still here?

An accurate version of the sentence would be: When I heard the news I died, figuratively speaking. However, if you want to retain a sense of the dramatic, just drop the word ‘literally’, as in I nearly died.

Perhaps I shouldn’t say this but if at times you still lapse, take comfort from the fact that Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald were apparently occasionally just as fallible.