Can You Wait or Not?

rogersgeorge on February 18th, 2021

When people feel eagerness when they look forward to an event, I often hear them say “I can’t wait!” when they really mean that they can hardly wait. The curmudgeon in me wants to quote a friend from high school (Hi, Dick!) who always responded to that remark by saying, “you’ll have to.”

I finally ran into an instance of a guy who actually couldn’t wait—he was doing something about bringing the desired event closer. Fourth panel:

https://www.comicskingdom.com/blondie/2020-11-29

So don’t say “I can’t wait” when you mean “I can hardly wait.”

Harrumpf.

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Rogers George has been a technical writer for more than 20 years. He has written on subjects as diverse as outhouse assembly, restaurant reviews, software, information security, and scientific equipment. He has his own writing consultancy and is always happy to discuss writing and grammar. Drop him a line at curmudgeon@writing-rag.com.

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