[Magdalen] Fwd: Whither to lie and to lay?

[Jay Weigel]

The lack of proofreading in modern fiction (not to mention newspapers,
internet, and just about any other written material) drives me up a wall! I
have been known to throw books, slam my desk, and slap my laptop shut in
frustration.

She-who-should-have-been-an-editor

On Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 10:09 PM, Sibyl Smirl <polycarpa3 at ckt.net> wrote:

> lie, lay, lain
>
> lay, laid, laid
>
> Often misused in modern fiction, in which the art of proofreading seems to
> be neglected.
>
> Then the usages of "to lie" as in "to tell an untruth" seem to confuse the
> matter further in many minds.
>
>
> On 7/27/16 10:27 AM, Scott Knitter wrote:
>
>> I used to think I knew the difference but recently heard a contrary
>> explanation (especially of the past tense, such as "I lay down and
>> then fell asleep."
>>
>> So now I feel I'm on thin ice with my own understanding. Is it this?
>>
>> Lay implies motion; lie implies a stationary state - Lay down over
>> there, and then lie there for a few minutes.
>>
>> Past: I lay there for an hour and then woke up.
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 9:42 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen
>> <magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>>
>>> It's interesting to reflect that my parents (a farm boy from Minnesota
>>> and
>>> a daughter of Norwegian immigrants) never misused who/whom and  never
>>> confused to lie and to lay.  The result of that is that I do not  misuse
>>> them
>>> either.
>>>
>>
> The mother of a friend of mine never spoke anything but Swedish until she
> entered the First Grade of one of the one-room rural schools in my county,
> and she learned her English well enough to pass the County Rural Teachers'
> Examination when she'd graduated from High School.  She was renowned as one
> of the best, too.
>
>
> --
> Sibyl Smirl
> I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
> mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net
>