[Magdalen] To Lay and To Lie.

[Jay Weigel]

Grammar is fluid. It does not, and should not be mate to, con form to the
rules of Latin. And the more people there are who speak English as a
second, although a second *official* language (think Indian English) the
more fluid it will become.

The one thing that still drives me absolutely nuts, though, and I freely
admit it, is "between you and I". Fingernails on a chalkboard!!

On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 5:04 PM cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
> 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.
>