To whom it may concern

[gnomi]

In regards the use and misuse of certain words:

To lie: intransitive verb. Does not take an object.

Today I lie.

Yesterday I lay.

I have lain.


To lay: transitive verb. Takes an object.

Today the chicken lays an egg.

Yesterday the chicken laid an egg.

The chicken has laid many eggs.


Please make a note of it.

Comments

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

If that damn chicken would just lay off, I'd be done cleaning yolk out of my carpet, thank you very much.

Why are you cranky? Don Rumsfeld just stepped down. Why don't you and Mabfan jump in the car and drive on up to see me? I'll make cake.

And you should see the yarn I picked up in Lake Placid. Hand painted, very sexy. We could go get more.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

The yolk's on you, eh? :-)

I'm thrilled about the news. I'm cranky about verb abuse. That should teach me not to read fiction on my lunch break (not that it will...I'm just saying).

Alas, mabfan has a meeting tonight he cannot miss. Otherwise, a 5-hour drive for cake? Sure!

Sexy yarn? You're being an enabler. I'm still on the yarn diet (except for the stuff earmarked for mabfan's sweater (http://www.patternworks.com/PWShopping/partsvyarn.asp?action=lookup&partno=421&subject=U43.L237&catpos=18)).

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Hee, was it mine? The Rockhound's Riddle has got at least a handful of errors in it, I'm sure, just to keep you enthralled...

If it's five hours, it'll be cake AND ice cream. And maybe sugar-tossed oven-roasted walnuts.

It's not that i'm being a yarn enabler. It's that I don't want you to miss out on the fiber glories that exist simply to run, in long, tactile, silken strands, through your fingers.

Can you tell I'm procrastinating? I've got 18,000 words of Dance for me to transcribe by Friday for Rob, and I'm not making very good progress.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Hey, I might drive five hours for cake and the walnuts...

Though I suppose I could make them in less time than that :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Nope. Not you. Fanfic. And not even one of my usual fandoms.

Just... I cringed at every "he lay" that wasn't followed by an object.

To lie, the partisan version

[magid.livejournal.com]

Today you lie.
Yesterday you lied.
You have lied.

Re: To lie, the partisan version

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Though a different "lie" from the one I intended. :-)

Re: To lie, the partisan version

[magid.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, of course. It's just in the wake of reading all sorts of political stuff recently... that was what I thought was going to be the second line :-).

Re: To lie, the partisan version

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, indeedy.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

And...

You lay a book on the table, but you lie down in bed.

And you get laid. ;-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeedy. :-)

And "He laid his head down on the pillow."

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

Yes, that, too.

Look at me with the comma abuse. ;-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heee! I probably would've gone with a semicolon after the "Yes," just for kicks: "Yes; that, too."

Oy, I'm such a punctuation geek.

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

Or a Period? "Yes. That, too."

But the comma abuse was deliberate, just to give you hives. ;-)

[oldblackbird.livejournal.com]

Lorna and I have decided that, no matter which way we do it, we're wrong and P changes them all for us. ;-)

(and what about laying down on the bed?)

don't hit me.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heh. Good for P. :-)

It's lying down on the bed, unless the protagonist is carrying a pile of goose feathers. In that case:

She walked in as he was laying down on the bed. "Bob!" she yelled. "Don't do that! I'll be picking feathers out of the afghan for days! I wanted those feathers for stuffing the new pillow!"

Why would I hit you?

[byrne.livejournal.com]

I let P take care of mine, too.

Or Nomi.

*hides*

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heh. I take care of all your wacky language tics.

It's part of the fun.

[sharonaf.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Laying down on the bed! Yay!
What's embarassing is that it took me a while to catch that...

I've noticed that problem more in spoken than in written English. Sorry to hear you're finding it in written, too!
And then there's one that's only appearing in written English, and shockingly often in the few fanfics I've seen: He sat in the chair, pouring over the newspaper... I always wonder what precisely he's pouring. I'm thinking maybe maple syrup. Or maybe it's flour and water, and he's making papier mache...
Another one that's REALLY getting to me: Me and my friends went shopping...
I CAN'T STAND that one, and I can't seem to persuade anyone except for one beloved teenage cousin to CARE about it!
I is a Subject.
The Object is Me.
*growls*

[zsero.livejournal.com]

pouring over the newspaper

I understand that to mean that it's very hot, and he's sweating so much that he's figuratively pouring out, as if he were melting.

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

But "if I lay here ... if I just lay here ... would you lie with me?"

*headdesk*

I had to explain to someone recently just what is wrong with Snow Patrol's verbs. Hate that song, just for the verb trainwreck! And to get only one of the two wrong almost makes it worse.

(Of course, it's perfectly fine if "here" is an egg, or if he's ... "sleeping with" "here". Which, ew, dude, that's not sanitary!)

[epj.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine taught me the difference in college using this memorable example:

"You lie someone down on the bed, and then you lay them". :)