Hello and welcome to the English Language Clinic. This week?s question concerns a word which I feel is over used and its use annoys me greatly. The question is, ?What does the word ?literally? mean? I heard someone say: ?This chilli is so hot; my mouth is literally on fire!? Was it??

If something is ?literally? true, it is true. If I say that I ?waited for a bus for literally hours?, I did, in fact, wait for a period of time in excess of one hundred and twenty minutes. When used in this way, the word is meaningful and useful. If, however, I had only waited for five minutes but wanted to express the fact that I felt as though I had waited for a long time, I could justifiably claim to have waited ?for hours? (metaphorically), or more correctly, although missing the point of the statement, ?for figuratively hours?.

It is becoming more and more common for ?literally? to be used as an ?intensifier? (words like ?really? and ?extremely?). There are two problems with this. The first is that, when it is used with metaphorical statements (?my mouth is on fire?), it means ?this is not a metaphor or exaggeration? this is fact, I mean and believe this to be real?, which at best is just confusing. The second problem is that, when used correctly (when something is real), it is unnecessary. What is the difference between ?this chilli is hot? and ?this chilli is literally hot?? None.

?Literally? is not the only word in the English language, which has two completely opposite meanings, known as ?Janus words?; they will be the subject of next week?s article? literally!

Please send your comments, queries and questions to ?Dr Danny? by emailing the following address [email protected]

On behalf of the British Council, I would like to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas.