English speakers frequently mangle the language by using words that sound similar as if they were interchangeable. And let’s face it, English is tough enough to master without having to suffer the gaffs of grammatical butchers who chop it up even more (notice how we stuck with the metaphor!). An example we find particularly irksome (we are easily irked) is with the words “supposedly” and “supposably.”

If you listen carefully, you’ll find that a surprising number of people say “supposably” instead of “supposedly.” Lean in close. You’ll see we’re right.

This is by no means an original observation – it was made years ago by the character Chandler in an episode of Friends. But it’s just as weird and baffling now as its always been.

For most people who say “supposably,” it’s no doubt just a pronunciation mistake, and much to our consternation, they really do think they’re saying “supposedly.” I guess we can make the argument that “supposably” is a word – it means “conceivably.” But they probably don’t know that. It is by no means interchangeable with the very similar sounding “supposedly” (meaning “assumed to be true”). So, we can wrap up this diatribe with the observation that supposably people using this word supposedly think they are using it correctly. Poor misguided butchers!