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Do you use regardless or irregardless?
| (1)Irregardless | 2 | |
| (2)regardless | 23 | |
| Irregardless is not a word so lame question. | 40 | |
| I thought irregardless was a real word. | 3 | |
| .I have heard people use (1) before but did not say anything. | 4 | |
| I hear people saying (1) and corrected them. | 8 |
In reply to your amazingly complex comment...
Yes.... Yes it does........ (If you do not understand this reply, I wrote it in a joking manner.) Sorry I tried to use as much grammar and vocabulary as I could, because I kind of consider myself as a "Grammar Nazi." But I do make grammar mistakes.... Don't judge!!! (Another joke.) Sorry for this long and boring, useless comment... Just trying to clarify. :p
Irregardless is apparently an Americanisation of regardless from about 100 years ago (I didn't know that, I just looked it up) but I use it whenever it makes the sentence flow better.
According to the American and Oxford dictionary it does not count as a real word. It is a nonstandard word. It is also in the Urban dictionary. I never heard anyone actually use the word Irregardless though.
I don't know whether my OED is allowing it or not. It's certainly got an entry:
irreˈgardless, adj. and adv.
Etymology: Probably blend of irrespective and regardless. Chiefly North American.
In non-standard or humorous use: regardless.
1912 in H. Wentworth Amer. Dial. Dict.
1923 Lit. Digest 17 Feb. 76 Is there such a word as irregardless in the English language?
1934 in Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. (labelled Erron. or Humorous, U.S.).
1938 I. Kuhn Assigned to Adventure xxx. 310, I made a grand entrance and suffered immediate and complete obliteration, except on the pay-roll, which functioned automatically to present me with a three-figure cheque every week, ‘irregardless’, as Hollywood says.
1939 C. Morley Kitty Foyle xxvii. 267 But she can take things in her stride, irregardless what's happened.
1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 19, I don't think like other people do and irregardless of how much or how little dope would cost me [etc.].
1970 Current Trends in Linguistics X. 590 She tells the pastor that he should please quit using the word ‘irregardless’ in his sermons as there is no such word.
1971 M. McShane Man who left Well Enough iv. 96 The sun poured down on Purity irregardless of the fact that it received no welcome.
"Non-standard or humorous use" sounds like a very English way of saying it shouldn't be used. The OED is normally quite blunt about these things so I'm a bit surprised about this. Either way, it looks like regardless is the preferred choice.
P.S. I've just realised I use it a lot because my mum does. I bet I've even used it on this site.
I liked listening to your voice on the speaker thing by the way. You sound just as I imagined.
If it's any comfort, if I saw you saying "irregardless" on this site, I'd probably assume you were being snarky.
It is normal to say "irregardless", people are dumb and they don't know their own language, so yes, it's very normal.
PS: the spell-check on Firefox didn't even mark it as a mistake. Try it on your browser!