[Magdalen] To Lay and To Lie.

[cantor03 at aol.com]

The people I interact with each day seem totally unable to handlethe "to lay" and "to lie" differentiation.  The same is true with written materialthat I read regularly.  I realize there is overlapping of these verb forms.I suppose that there is little hope this situation will change because 90%
of English speakers in this area confuse the verbs and the majority of thepopulation never hears them used in the traditional grammatical way.
I suppose, since users/confusers of these verbs seem to communicatequite well despite the grammar "problem," we will find that this mattergoes down the path of the "who/whom" confusion, where grammarians havegiven up completely.
And another verb irregularity:
In this region, there is a situation in which a majority of the population rarelyemploys the third person singular of the verb, "to do."  "Does/doesn't" isalmost absent. Does turns up in such as "He does play the piano,"  But the
in negative usage, it reverts back to "He don't play the piano."
I guess I should chalk it up to the evolving English language.

David Strang.