[Magdalen] To Lay and To Lie.

Judy Fleener fleenerj at gmail.com
Sun Apr 21 12:08:24 UTC 2019


My father used to correct my grammar aphorisms like "only hens lay"  or
"only cakes are done."

On Sun, Apr 21, 2019 at 5:06 AM Judy Fleener <fleenerj at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am feeling at home here in this conversation.
>
> On Sun, Apr 21, 2019 at 4:25 AM Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> All of the aforementioned usages drive me mad.  I’m not the grammar
>> police, but without rules all is chaos, never mind if the language is in
>> flux. Change is inevitable, but not on all fronts and all at once!
>>
>> Marion, a pilgrim, luxuriating in The Day of Resurrection
>>
>> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
>>
>> From: Grace Cangialosi
>> Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2019 10:58 PM
>> To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
>> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] To Lay and To Lie.
>>
>> Oh gosh, I hadn’t thought about that for a long time! I may have been
>> spelling them the same way...
>>
>> > On Apr 20, 2019, at 10:47 PM, Christopher Hart <cervus51 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > I’m sorry, but I refuse to give up on the distinction between who and
>> whom.
>> > I also bemoan the other justified complaints in this thread. One of my
>> pet
>> > peeves lately is people who don’t know that discreet and discrete are
>> two
>> > entirely different words that merely sound alike. This, of course, is
>> > mainly a problem in written English.
>> >
>> > 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.
>> >>
>> > --
>> >
>> > Christopher Hart
>> >
>> > List Mail Address: cervus51 at gmail.com
>> > Personal Mail: cervus at veritasliberat.net
>> > Twitter: @cervus51
>>
>>
>
> --
> Judy Fleener, ObJN,SSH
> Western Michigan
>


-- 
Judy Fleener, ObJN,SSH
Western Michigan


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