Did they go to the zoo?

[rjoubert]

Did they go to the zoo? Supposably...

Joey said that line to himself after being corrected by Chandler on the use of supposedly vs. supposably.

Now I always though that supposedly was the correct usage and that supposably wasn't even a real word. A couple of nights ago, while eating at a local restaurant, I overheard part of a conversation at the next table, where an older woman used the word supposably. I chuckled to myself, thinking of that scene from Friends. The next day I decided to look up both words online, and saw that both are valid words, according to Merriam-Webster.com.

Are these two words interchangeable? Was Chandler wrong for correcting Joey?

 

[dgillz]

Interchangeable. They are both used as adverbs with the word "suppose".

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[flapeyre]

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/supposably.html

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--Sleipinir214

 

[rjoubert]

Thanks for the link.

...and then only in the U.S.

It seems the use of "supposably" is just a US thing.

 

[robmazco]

hee hee of course the source has nothing to do with it - 'Quote (Joey from Friends)'

 

[AnotherHiggins]

This American has never thought that 'supposebly' was a word, since long before the Friends episode.


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[SantaMufasa]

Irregardless of what Merriam-Webster says, there are many incidences in common usage that are different than good and proper English, supposably. <grin>

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”

 

[dgillz]

I have never heard of supposably until this thread. If you had asked me, I would have thought the same as the start of this thread, it is not proper English.

BTW my spell checker doesn't think supposably is a word either!

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