To Lie or Not To Lie (Let sleeping dogs lie.)

Greetings, Friends,

Generally folks who grew up in literate households use correct grammar. However, lie and lay are different and confuse many people.

Interestingly, nearly every medical professional I have encountered (and there have been many) who has asked me
to recline—for examination or treatment—has requested me
to “Lay down.” Of course, it's no time for a grammar lesson,
but I do, in fact, flinch before the treatment has even begun.

So here's a quick review of the “three principal parts” of the verb to lie: lie, lay, lain:
To lie means to recline (for people, creatures, and things) and works for both the present and future tense:

I lie on the sofa to read. The cat lies near me. The book will lie on the table until I retrieve it.

Lay is the past tense of to lie. (Since it is also the present tense of to lay, it causes the most confusion.)

This afternoon, I lay on the sofa. The cat lay near me. The paper lay on the table.

Lain works with helping the verbs: have, has, and had:

I have lain there too long. The cat has lain in the same place. The book had lain there since noon.

And then there is lying: The book is still lying there.
The cat has been lying there.

Perhaps folks think using the verb to lay instead of to lie feels more “down home.” (Maybe the medical professionals just want to put me at ease?)

Below is a quick review of the three principal parts of the verb “to lay”: lay, laid, laid:
To lay means to put or place and requires an object. To lay is used for the present and future tense: Each day the dog lays the paper at my feet. I will lay the book on another surface.

Laid is the past tense. He laid the paper at my feet.

I laid the baby in his bed.

Laid also works with helping verbs: He has laid the paper down. They have laid the blame at his feet.

Laying completes the set: When he arrived, I was laying some papers on the desk.

Below is a little quiz, followed by some real errors:
1. Please (lay, lie) down.

2. You should (lay, lie) the infant on her back.

3. Earlier she (lay, laid) on her tummy.

4. Having (laid, lain) there for several hours, he finally got up.

5. He (lay, laid) the puppy beside its mother.

Here are a few representative samples from my treasure trove of wonderful, awful examples. 
A. Most people associate reading with laying lying on the beach.  (David Baldocci in Newsweek)

B. Rosie went and got her a cool wet compress ... and lay laid it on her forehead. (Faith Sullivan, The Cape Ann)

C. Never forget: You're still on the ride, and much further down the road lays lies the destination. (Anne Lamott, Crooked Little Heart) 

Answers to quiz: (1) lie, (2) lay, (3) lay, (4) lain, (5) laid

Who or Whom; Whoever or Whomever

Hello, Friends, 
Here is one of the most common errors I encounter: the confusion between who and whom or between whoever and whomever.
 This fun little “quiz.” will give you a sense of the challenge: Take the quiz first, review the discussion, and only then look at the answers. And with punctuation and grammar, remember: It is not enough to get the right answer, you need to know why!

Who or Whom? (Whom is on First?)

So, which is correct?
1. The man (who, whom) I saw walking up the lane has arrived.
2. The man (who, whom) I thought was coming has arrived.
3. She promised a copy to (whoever, whomever) wanted one.
4. She promised a copy to (whoever, whomever) he selected.

Choosing between who and whom or whoever and whomever seems to cause serious anxiety—and serious errors. And, practically speaking, I have noticed that the errors tilt in the whom, whomever direction. So, if in doubt, you are safer with the simpler who, whoever choice.

 
Back to Some Simple Grammar
Who and whoever are subject pronouns. Whom and whomever are object pronouns.

Subject Pronouns
Pronouns that serve as the subject of a sentence include these:
I, she, he, they, we, who, and whoever:
I did it. She did it. Who did it? I saw that she did it. I saw who did it. Whoever did it? 

Object Pronouns
Each object pronoun pairs up with a subject pronoun and serves as the object of a verb or a preposition: me, her, him, them, us, whom and whomever.
They saw me. They saw her. They saw him, them and us.
They saw whom? (Whom did they see?)

A Practical Tip
If he works in the sentence, use who or whoever. If him works in the sentence, use whom or whomever. (In fact, most errors occur with “stories within stories,” like in the sentences on the quiz.)

Answers

1. The man whom I saw walking has arrived.
    (The man has arrived. I saw him/whom walking.)

2. The man who I thought was coming has arrived.
     (I thought he/who was coming.)

3. She promised a copy to whoever wanted one.
    (He/whoever wanted one.)

4. She promised a copy to whomever he chose.
    (He chose him/whomever.)

Below are some interesting errors I have encountered in my reading and listening:
1. There will be time later to litigate whom who the true fools and fooled are (from a judge in the Los Angeles Superior Court).
2. Elizabeth, recalling this now, heard it as a prayer and repeated it to whomever whoever or whatever might be listening. (Anne Lamott, Crooked Little Heart, p. 261)
3. He never wanted to have children whom he said he found terrifying and boring in equal measure except for Leo, whom who he said didn't count as a child. (Anna Quindlin, Rise and Shine)
4. I played it for whomever whoever was around. (Senator Lamar Alexander on NPR)
 
I'd be happy to receive and share any “wonderful, awful” examples you encounter.

Punctuation Traps and Tips

Hello, Friends,

It's an addiction: I notice grammar and punctuation errors! Of course, not all errors are created equal, and some get more attention than they deserve. Here are suggestions to manage some of the most noticed issues:

1. With a greeting, like mine above, put a comma before and after the recipient's name.

2. In the US and Canada, place periods and commas inside the quotation marks—always!

3. Use semicolons only between complete statements that form a sentence (think of them as soft periods): "I like coffee; she prefers tea." Here is one other use: to separate sets in a list: name, age, rank; name, age, rank; name, age, rank. Of course this information might work better in a table.

4. Do not use apostrophes with family names on mailboxes or holiday greetings. It's the Smith Family or the Smiths, but never the Smith's. The apostrophe makes it look possessive when it is not. It could also be the Smiths' home or John and Mary Smith's home.

5. Unless you are writing for publication, use the serial comma. More often than you would think, leaving it out leads to confusion—and all the grammar books advise its use. Here's an example from The Gregg Reference Manual: "The job involves restocking shelves, cleaning and serving customers." Even the Associated Press Stylebook acknowledges that there are occasions where the serial comma avoids ambiguity—like in the example above.

6. A Shocker: Use only one space between sentences or after colons. Why? Of necessity, the traditional typewriter used the Courier font, allotting equal space to each letter so we could correct our mistakes, like replacing an i with a w. This spacing resulted in so much space between some letters that two spaces seemed necessary between sentences. Now, with proportional spacing, more than one space between sentences looks excessive:

Courier 12: www iii.  Here, I'd use two spaces between sentences.  You can see why!

Times 12: www iii.   Here, I'd use one space between sentences. You can see why.

Finally, don't believe anything I said just because I said so. Look it up in any contemporary style book, examine any printed item, or, for the last one, ask a grade school child.

I hope some of these tips are useful. I plan to continue sharing grammar and punctuation issues that intrigue and distract me.

Thanks for reading, and keep on punctuating!

Neita

Introducing WordSense: Grammar, Punctuation, and Writing Tips and Traps

Hi, my first post!

I plan to create blogs about grammar, punctuation, word use, and a variety of aspects of plain English and writing. Although
I am not a writer, I greatly enjoy shaping other folks' documents and maintaining a sharp watch for any errors that I notice—in documents, on signs, in PowerPoint presentations, and in books I read for pleasure. Here's what I mean: Just yesterday, I received an email acknowledging, “Your right!” It would have been fun to reply, “Oh, not my left?” but apart from feeling clever, what would be the point?

Wouldn't I just love to collar someone and correct such use of language! However, I don't want to lose friends and annoy people. Happily, I have found that when folks pay me, they welcome feedback. And from the safety and distance of a blog, I believe I can offer insights and even correct public errors!

For my dissertation, my interest in errors and perceived errors led me to survey 400 individuals in five professional groups on their responses to 100 sentences—whether they saw anything in each sentence that bothered them, from “Bothers me a lot” to “Does not bother me at all.” That was 1984, and the responses ran the gamut. In 2010, I find that essentially all the issues of grammar, usage, and punctuation that bothered folks then still do. Here is my conclusion: “Not all errors are created equal,” an insight that will inform my comments about the issues I address in my blogs.