If I banned "definitely" from the language, could you find a substitute word that could be easily spelled?

Most certainly.

Without question or plainly are good substitutes when you’ve not had much sleep and a spell checker isn’t to hand. “She definitely attended the meeting,” would become “without question she attended the meeting,” and so on.

Absolutely?

@all; Thank you. May we add the banishment to the Guidelines?

(Assuredly you are all the cat’s meow.)

For sure!

Can we also ban ‘awesome’? There are much more interesting words, such as fantastic, wonderful and crackerjack.

Indubitably. Surely. Decidedly. Unequivocally.

@Marina: I thought we were looking for words that were unequivocally easy to spell? :)

@rh. You left out spiffy.

Surely

Undoubtedly we might start to use “awesome” as it was defined; inspiring or showing awe.

of course

@richardhenry Why be limited?

@Marina: true.

Probably. :D

@chaosrob and Gail: while you’re at it, I’d like to nominate “prolly”?!

It is on my s&*t list! That “word” has no place in the language-neither in writing nor speech.

Well, now that you ask (finally), I hate “my bad,” and any mention of beaks,

How could I forget the word that I truly and definitely loathe – suck.

And to think, this was turning into a rather nice “suck” wall!

@sndfreQ (And even though it was a different thread, I got your name.) You are giving me shudders. “Prolly” sets my teeth on edge. The Fluther convention of language curmudgeons has convened.

positively, absolutely, for sure

Uh oh, did I spark this question? Haha just kidding. I hate it when people say “no probs”, out loud too…

without a doubt or fo’ sho’.

“fo sho” is fun to say!!! okay. that’s PROLLY just me. (just kidding, please don’t shoot me!)

haha, funny how this thread randomly turned into a complaint-fest.

and to clear things up: I like “Fo’ Sho’!!!”

fo’ sho’ ‘nuff sed

now that’s too much for my heart… I just like fo’ sho’ when I’m joking with my friends. Sed? Haha I’ve never heard of that one. Guess it’s your thing Astro.

What, if any, allowances are made for those people who hear their 3 and 5 year olds approaching and want to chime in but only have a second to type their thought? I was just wondering. All joking aside, I would hope I never use crude language. I know I have used “my bad” because I have trouble spelling “mistake”. I will make a lot of decisions on words I use based on what I can and can not spell.

Here is a question for this thread, when do we decide to allow language to evolve and when do we stop it in favor of the established rules, and when, if ever, should technology or circumstances be considered?

By the way, I don’t know what

@Bri: It’s all based on preference. If enough people prefer a new method, like “my bad” (which I don’t think is all that terrible, it makes grammatical sense and simply extends the meaning of the word ‘bad’) then it will prevail, but if enough people prefer a traditional method, then it will remain.

Language evolution happens over a long period of time, as a phrase grows in informal popularity, and then gradually formal acceptance occurs. Who knows, perhaps some time from now, “my bad” will be something that the younger members of society find to be pretentious and ‘old’.

Brian; you are right, of course. Language is fluid and constantly evolving. I sense that the new media techniques of lightning retorts allow people to simply make up whatever they feel like. For example, on Fluther, I have noticed that ”“good answer” has become a verb;
viz: “Should I good answer that question?” etc.

Play with your kids; Fluther can wait. And if you have trouble w. “mistake,” simply say, “Sorry.”

@ richardhenry – that, for some reason, reminds me of “disrespect”. For the longest time I had no idea where that came from until I reverse engineered it. While I understand it now, I am not used to how it is used. It still stops me.

@ Gail – Boffo suggestion on the “mistake” replacement! May I ask what “viz:” in “viz: “should I good answer that question?” means?

From Wickipedia. It means “namely” and is always pronounced as “namely.”

’ Viz, (also rendered viz without a period) and videlicet are adverbs used as synonyms of “namely, that is to say, as follows.”

Viz. is an abbreviation of videlicet, which is Latin for “it is permitted to see.” Both forms introduce a specification or description of something stated earlier; this is often a list preceded by a colon (:). Although both forms survive in English, viz. is far more common than videlicet. ’

Once again gail, you solved another problem. I have trouble with namely or my version “namly” (I am sure that seems obvious to most” I now just have to type “viz”.

Thanks!

I hate to say it but I am really getting into this. Wow, a growing grammar student at 39. I feel like I am taking WAY more than I am giving on this site lately.

We will make an even more elegant writer out of you yet, Brian. Sadly, you will never be able to teach me how to draw.

At least not right now gail.

Here’s a new and creative version;
“most defently will”.

It’s got its own URL. http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/

I will make it my home page!!!

How did you ever find that?

Googled “definitely” and found it on first hit. Apparently, lots of exasperated spellers out there; I am not alone.