Two Things Most People Get Wrong

But he got them both right! Good for him. I’ll tell you what they are after the comic. See if you can tell what they are.

• First panel—Most people would say “…wish I was.” The rule is that when you state something contrary to fact, you should use the subjunctive, which he does.
• Second panel—He correctly used lying (progressive of “lie”) instead of the incorrect “laying.”

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Okay, teachers, post this on your classroom wall! In fact, if you have trouble with this word, post it on your own wall!

The only things missing here are pointing out that the simple past of “to lie” is “lay,” and the simple past of “to lay” is “laid.” And the simple past of telling a falsehood is “lied.”

English has a little problem with lie, as in “lie down.”

• For one thing, we have the verb “lie” as in not telling the truth. The past tense of that word is “lied” as in “he lied to me yesterday.”
• For another thing, lie as in “lie down” is irregular. Its past tense form is not “lied”! It’s “lay”! As in—well, see the bad example below.
• And for a third thing, we have another verb, lay, which is transitive and requires an object. As in “lay the book on the table.” Past tense of lay is “laid” as in “he laid the book on the table yesterday.”

So now I’m forced to embarrass a fellow professional writer. He got it wrong:

But it’s worth considering that while the base issue was a good-ol’ chip design error, the true problem lied in Intel’s handling of the saga. In short, Intel’s best users were feeling disrespected.

https://tedium.co/2020/09/04/intel-floating-point-glitch-history/

Sigh. I think Ernie needed a proofreader. Or he should have paid more attention in sixth-grade English.

The last post was about a comic with a grammar lesson. Today’s post is about a person in a comic who’s a grammarian.

I’m not sure what the punch line has to do with anything, but the family are responding correctly to the grammar corrections, even though the curmudgeon should not be correcting them. Unless they ask.

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.