Words that bug me

I’m not going to claim to be grammatically perfect, but there are a couple words that are often misused, and it’s one of my pet peeves.

Literally: People often use this word when they don’t actually mean “literally” – for example, “In politics, you literally have to sell your soul to the devil”. Well, actually, you don’t (or do you? maybe this was a bad example, but you get what I mean).

Modern: It doesn’t mean “new”! It refers to a specific movement in the arts that – by now – is no longer new. The word you’re looking for is “Contemporary”, not “Modern”.