Good Use of “Lie,” Bad Use of “Like”

Top of the cartoon, he’s quoting, but that use of “lie” is correct. You don’t lay down, you lie down.

But we curmudgeons consider using “[be] like” to mean “say” is bad English. Say “say.”

Harrumpf.

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I think I mentioned this before, and I’ll probably mention it again. In fact, I have a Powerpoint on the subject. I’ll have to see whether I can put that into this blog.

Anyway, here’s the rule: when you use “if” you don’t have to do anything if the “if” doesn’t happen. When you use “whether,” you have to do something, um, whether or not the condition happens. Let this comic illustrate. Last panel:

Since she said “if,” Agnes doesn’t have to report anything if no fast cars and money are involved. If she had said “whether,” Agnes would have had to eventually tell her friend something.

As usual on this site, ignore the political politics. My politics are strictly linguistic. And what’s disconcerting to me is that we have so many synonyms for “sycophant.” I counted 22.

English has a long history of verbing nouns, meaning using a noun as a verb. (Look up “verbing” in the search box) but in at least some cases, we curmudgeons take a while to get used to the construction. “Office,” for example, is a pretty tough verb for us to swallow. First panel:

Do you have a pet grammar peeve? Share in the comments. Maybe I’ll post about it.

PS—The next day’s comic. First panel again.

—in person anyway. On this site I do it all the time.

I don’t do it when you write to me, either. Unless you ask. Aren’t you glad?