Per say

Do you mean "per se"?

This is Latin and means "in itself" or "with reference to itself"; in other words you're talking specifically about the subject in question and not about things related to the subject.

"Guns aren't dangerous, per se, however some of the gun owners are."


Henry
www.free-esl.com

Henry,

Just saying thanks in recognition that another poor sap got some clarity at 5 am by reading your response to this question. Thanks!

I was just about to spell the term incorrectly in an email at work ( as "pur say"). Thanks for clarifying it.

0Ditto, I was about to use it as well and it doesn't really show up in dictionaries, so thanks again... first google per say and what do you know! There we go05002br
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00Thanks heaps guys, keep up the great work with forums such as these 02br
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00Gareth L from Auckland, New Zealand 010id5

0 Same here. I was just typing up a post for my guild and didn't know exactly what it meant, so I Google'd for "Per say" and this was the first thing I saw. 02br
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00Sad part is that I actually took three levels worth of Latin classes and I didn't know that. 00 Go figure. Hahahah 02br
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00Thanks a bunch!! 02br
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00-Adam

0 Is per say ever correct to use? If so, how do you know whether to use per say, or per se? 0-

0 Haha, and i googled it also. thank goodness for people with good grammer!! 02br
00and English teachers for that matter. 0-

GuestHaha, and i googled it also. thank goodness for people with good grammer!!
and English teachers for that matter.

The correct spelling is grammar.

If you are reading this because:

1. You don't know how to spell it.

2. You don't know what it means.

Then, do not use it. It will very likely sound out of place. I had a redneck boss that used this all of the time, and everyone in the meetings would snicker when he said it, because it never came out quite right, never came out smooth. There is more to using it than

The above is great advice for life. If you haven't used a word several hundred times, or can't spell it, then don't ever use it. This holds even if you have just read it's definition.

In general, Stick with what you know. If you think you have a truly penultimate vocabulary then you must have thought that if you use language to effectively communicate with others, that is good enou