Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Welcome to Cate’s Take, the first of my 2-minute Tuesdays, where I offer tools for all things writing—and what better place than in a wordshop, er, workshop! We’ll talk grammar, punctuation, word use, and style—and all under 2 minutes.

To kick off our QuickTakes, we’re going to take a look—or rather a squint—at squinting modifiers—a word or a phrase trapped midsentence. See if you can find the squinting modifier in this sentence.

The way the Cheshire Cat disappeared completely surprised Alice.

Did the cat disappear completely? Or was Alice completely surprised? The word “completely” is placed in such a way that we don’t know whether it modifies what comes before it or what comes after it—it’s squinting.

What about in this sentence—can you spot the squinting modifier?

Why the cat faded away altogether puzzled her.

Did the cat fade away altogether? Or was Alice altogether puzzled? In Alice in Wonderland, Alice tells the Cheshire Cat that she wishes he’d stop appearing and disappearing so suddenly. “All right,” the cat says and vanishes quite slowly, beginning with the tip of his tail and ending with his grin. But Alice was sure by noon he would reappear. Wait—is that “By noon, Alice was sure he would reappear”? Or is it, “Alice was sure that he would reappear by noon”?

It just gets curiouser and curiouser.

The Rest of the Story

Here are two ways we might rewrite the sentence to avoid ambiguity:

The way the Cheshire Cat completely disappeared surprised Alice.

OR

The way the Cheshire cat disappeared surprised Alice completely.

Now give these a try. Hint: the squinting modifier in the last sentence is a phrase.

1. A child who steals cookies often cannot be caught.
2. Playing the lottery frequently can become addicting.
3. The supervisor said, on May 10 and June 3, the committee reviewed his case recommended no disciplinary action.

The post QT 1 – Is Your Modifier Squinting? appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Welcome to my “wordshop” and another QuickTakes with Cate on all things writing in under two minutes. Today we look at word use: the words “home” and “hone.” You might remember that in the movie, E.T., a sad-eyed alien points a finger toward the sky and tells the children who found him, “E.T. home phone.” The children quickly realize that he means “E.T. phone home.”

With all the garbled phrases we often hear, we might wonder whether a few extra-terrestrials still roam the earth. One such phrase is “hone in” for “home in.”

The correct phrase, “home in,” means to move toward. In the 1800s the phrase referred to homing pigeons, trained to return home—as E.T. wants to do. In the early 1900s, the phrase came to refer to aircraft and missiles. Somewhere along the way, people started to use the verb “hone”—which means to sharpen—for the verb “home.”

But have you ever heard of a honing pigeon? If so, that bird had a very sharp beak! The confusion is so widespread that even top writers occasionally mistake the two. Even the editors of the New York Times didn’t catch this error in this sentence: “While Mr. Bradley honed in on healthcare….”

So many people make this mistake that an editor for the New Yorker suggested that “hone in” ought to be accepted. After all, if we do something wrong long enough, it becomes right, right? No! Let’s try to hone our skills.

Here’s a quick test for choosing the correct phrase: If you would say “zero in,” then you want “home in.” If you say “sharpen,” then you want “hone”—with NO “in.”

Pause the video to give these sentences a try:

1. E.T honed/homed his speaking skills by listening to the television.
2. Elliott worried that the government would home/hone in on them in the woods.

The Rest of the Story

Below are the answers to the practice sentences. How did you do?

1. E.T honed his speaking skills by listening to the television.
2. Elliott worried that the government would home in on them in the woods.

To further clarify meaning, Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogerty) takes a look at the origins of the word “hone.” She points out that it comes from an Old English word that meant “stone” or “rock,” explaining that we hone knives on a sharpening—or honing—stone. By rhyming hone” with “stone,” we can more easily remember the correct meaning.

You can read her discussion at this link:

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/hone-in-or-home-in

You can also read editor Mary Norris’s response to readers who flagged the mistaken use in a New Yorker piece. Norris argues for accepting “hone in” since it’s so widely misused and then suggests that confounding the problem is the expression “horn in.” She serves up a dollop of humor as she tackles these commonly confused terms.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/dont-try-to-hone-in-on-a-copy-editor

The post QT 2 – E.T. Phone . . . Hone? appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Welcome to 2-Minute Tuesday and another QuickTakes with Cate. Today’s segment is titled the 100-Meter Hyphen—NOT! C’mon now, we all know it’s the 100-Meter DASH. So what’s up with that? Is the hyphen the same as a dash and a dash the same as a hyphen? A lot of folks think so.

But I’m here to tell you, NOT!

• The hyphen is a short mark with its own key on the keyboard. A dash is a longer mark and does NOT have its own key. So when do we use a hyphen, and when do we use a dash? A hyphen is used for compound words, such as “water-repellent” and “cross-examine.” A dictionary will tell you whether a compound word should be hyphenated (runner-up), joined as one word (newsletter), or left as two words (fruit fly). A hyphen is also used to connect two or more words in a compound adjective before a noun, such as “six-inch lizard” and “used-clothing store.” If the adjectives come after the noun, we don’t hyphenate them: “The lizard was six inches” and “The store sold used clothing.”

There are two kinds of dashes—the em-dash and the en-dash. To insert a dash, go to the “Symbols” chart in Word, where you will find both types as well as the keyboard shortcuts.

• An em-dash marks an interruption in a sentence and replaces the comma, the semicolon, the colon, or parentheses. It is called an em-dash because it has the same width as a capital M in typesetting.
  
• An en-dash is used to join pairs or groups of words to show a range or between numbers, for example, “the nature–nurture debate” and “1914–1918 war.” It is called an en-dash because it is half the width of a capital M.

Whew—that really was a 100-meter dash!

The Rest of the Story

A compound adjective consists of two or more words (top-notch) that act as a single adjective before a noun (fly-by-night operation, first-rate show). If an adverb ending in -ly is joined to an adjective, do not hyphenate: slowly moving truck, rapidly running water. But “a slow-moving truck” would be hyphenated. Be sure to check a dictionary for other hyphenated words. How does Merriam-Webster treat these words?

• word processor
• empty handed
• flower pot

See answers below.

About the em-dash: If you have Word, you will need to go into the “Insert” tab, open “Symbols,” and go to “Special Characters.” There you’ll find the em-dash and the en-dash. You can also find shortcuts to inserting these marks in your document. A little research online will help you with programs other than Word, and if you’re really in a hurry, just copy and paste straight from the results of your Google search.

Bryan Garner calls the em-dash “perhaps the most underused punctuation mark in American writing.” We can often use dashes to clarify messy sentences containing elements joined with commas. Consider the confusion in this sentence:

“The basic needs of people, food, shelter, and clothing, are more expensive in San Francisco than in
my hometown.”

Where could we put the em-dashes to clarify the relation of the sentence elements? Look at the difference now:

“The basic needs of people—food, shelter, and clothing—are more expensive
in San Francisco than in my hometown.”

Notice that the em-dash has no spaces around it, running right into the words on either side. The same is true of the en-dash.

Now here are the answers to the question:

• “Word processor” is two words.
• “Empty-handed” is hyphenated.
• “Flowerpot” is one word.

The post QT 3 – The 100-Meter Hyphen—NOT appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Hey, everyone! Welcome back to QuickTakes with Cate on all things writing in under two minutes. Here’s a question I often hear from my students: Can you start a sentence with “and”?

“And why not?” I reply.

Somewhere along the way, it seems, an English teacher has added an 11th commandment: Thou shalt start no sentence with “and.”

But what do the language authorities say? Charles Allen Lloyd calls such a notion “groundless” and a “monstrous doctrine.” Bryan A. Garner calls it “rank superstition.” Ernest Gowers even appeals to God, no less, writing, “The Bible is full of them.”

A quick look at the book of Genesis, chapter 1, shows that 33 of the 35 sentences begin with “and.” You know what that means, don’t you? That means that the word “and” has been around since creation!

So where does this nonrule come from? Perhaps schoolteachers themselves believe there is a commandment. Or perhaps they are trying to curb children’s tendencies to begin every sentence with “and.” Or maybe it’s just a quick fix for a fragment error.

Whatever the reason, too many people believe starting a sentence with “and” (or “but”) is wrong. What might be wrong—at least for everyday writing—is beginning every sentence with “and” or even every other sentence. Benjamin Dryer, copy chief of Random House says, “Two sentences in a single paragraph beginning with the same introductory term…are usually one sentence too many.”

So the problem—if there is one—isn’t with starting a sentence with “and,” but with poor style.

In the next article, op-ed, or essay you read, count the number of sentences that begin with “and.” Better yet, open the Bible to the book of Genesis, where chapter 1 tells us, not just once, but many times, “And—God saw that it was good.”

And that’s a wrap!

The Rest of the Story

Some teachers tell students not to start sentences with “and,” doing so as a quick fix for fragment errors. Consider this sentence written by a first grader.

I went to the zoo. And to the park.

The second sentence is a fragment—it is missing a subject and verb. While a sentence fragment need not be an error—skilled writers often use them to good effect—in first grade, there are no skilled writers. But rather than explain to a child that to be complete, a sentence must contain a subject and its verb, the teacher simply gives a quick fix: “Don’t start your sentences with ‘and.’”

In his Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner quotes Philip Boswood Ballard, who writes:

“Taking down my Bible and opening it at random, I find that the eighth chapter of Exodus contains thirty-two sentences, twenty-five of which begin with ‘and.’” (Philip Boswood Ballard)

Ballard might have turned at random to a chapter in the Bible, but I did even better than that. I went to the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis. In the King James Version, there are thirty-five sentences. And of those thirty-five, all but two sentences begin with “and.”

The Chicago Manual of Style says “a substantial percentage (often as many as 10 percent) of the sentences in first-rate writing begin with conjunctions,” and that “it has been so for centuries.”

Beginning a sentence with “and” can be an effective technique—if not overused. The key is not whether a writer can begin a sentence with “and,” but rather whether doing so will serve the writer’s purpose. That decision rests on many factors, including intended emphasis, context, logic, and overall style.

The post QT 4 – And In the Beginning appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Welcome to 2-Minute Tuesday and Cate’s take on all things writing.

Time today to settle a grammar dispute between a husband and wife. Not long ago, a friend sent me a text saying, “Hey, quick grammar question. I’m creating a website and my husband says it should read one way, and I think it should read the other. Which of us is right?”

Here’s the sentence:

“Typically, a series of 3 to 6 treatments, spaced between 2 to 4 weeks apart, are/is recommended
for best results.“

Who determines the form of the verb anyway?

Is this marriage on the rocks?

Are they going to file?

Before we choose the right verb, we need to find the subject. If you picked “are,” then your subject would need to be either “treatments” or “weeks.” If you picked “is,” then your subject would have to be “[a] series.”

How do we know what the subject is? Let’s start with what it isn’t—or rather where it isn’t. A subject can never be in a prepositional phrase. That means we need to mentally delete any prepositional phrases, like this:

“Typically, a series (of 3) (to 6 treatments), spaced (between 2) (to 4 weeks apart), are/is
recommended (for best results).”

The only noun left is “series,” so it is the subject of the sentence. As a singular subject, it requires a singular verb. “A series is recommended….”

So who do you think was correct, the husband or the wife? That is not the same question, of course, as who was right. After all, as all smart husbands know, a happy wife is a happy life.

The Rest of the Story

First, are you wondering what the word “spaced” is in the sentence analysis we did during the video? It is a verb acting as an adjective modifying “series.” As such, it is called a participle.

Second, the trick to ensuring that subjects and verbs agree in number is to first find and mentally delete prepositional phrases. As we are typing, we often slap down the verb that matches the nearest noun. Yet very often that noun is not the subject of the sentence but rather the object of the preposition. The key to avoiding being tripped up by prepositional phrases is to know your prepositions!

I’ll discuss prepositions in a future QuickTake, but for now, here is a short definition from Merriam-Webster. Prepositions are words that “show direction, location, or time, or introduce an object. They are usually followed by an object—a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun. The most common prepositions are little and very common: at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, with.“

Do you see the error in this news caption?

“Team of retired U.S. Navy Seals are saving teenagers from human trafficking.”

Is the verb “are” correct? Why or why not?

The post QT 5 – Is/Are the Husband/Wife Right? appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Welcome to 2-Minute Tuesday and QuickTakes with Cate.

Today we look at a pair of commonly confused words, the words while and wile—two words I almost stumbled over as I wrote about my novel’s main character. Eden is sitting on an upturned bucket on the pier, whiling away the hours fishing. But wait, is it “whiling away,” spelled w-h-i-l-e? Or is it “wiling away,” spelled without an “h”?

The answer lies in the history of these two words: The phrase “while away” with an “h” dates from the early 1600s and remains current today. It means to “spend time idly.”

“Wile away” began as a corrupt form two hundred years later. You’ll find that spelling in the writings of Charles Dickens. Even though dictionaries often allow both spellings, Garner’s Modern American Usage says “wile away” is the inferior form for this meaning. Charles Dickens might have settled for the inferior form, but you shouldn’t!

The noun “wile” means “a stratagem of deceit” or “trickery.” As a verb, “wile” means “to lure or entice.”

These two words are homophones, words that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning. If you have trouble keeping them straight, just think about Wile E. Coyote. How do you think he got his name? That old rascal is full of deadly schemes as he chases the Road Runner.

So while both spellings are acceptable and while my character Eden can be wily, in that particular sentence, she is “whiling away the hours—w-h-i-l-e—” while fishing on the pier.

For the rest of the story, go to catetouryan.com/quicktakes. Check back next Tuesday for another QuickTake with Cate. Like, comment, and share!

The Rest of the Story

Homophones may be spelled alike, such as “bark” (on a tree trunk) and “bark” (a dog’s voice) or differently, such as palate, pallet, and palette and lay (to place) and lei (a garland of flowers).

Merriam-Webster includes this note about the difference between homonyms, homophones, and homographs:

“Homonym can be troublesome because it may refer to three distinct classes of words. Homonyms may be words with identical pronunciations but different spellings and meanings, such as to, too, and two. Or they may be words with both identical pronunciations and identical spellings but different meanings, such as quail (the bird) and quail (to cringe). Finally, they may be words that are spelled alike but are different in pronunciation and meaning, such as the bow of a ship and bow that shoots arrows. The first and second types are sometimes called homophones, and the second and third types are sometimes called homographs—which makes naming the second type a bit confusing. Some language scholars prefer to limit homonym to the third type.”

We can’t even talk about confusing words without using confusing words!

Other QuickTake episodes will examine other troublesome words, but if their are any you’d like me to cover, your invited to let me know in the comments. Its quite common to struggle with the write word, even happening to me to.

Wait, I think I see five words that need double checking! Can you find them? Leave your answers in the comments!

The post QT 6 – On the Trail of Wile E. Coyote appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Hey everyone, it’s 2-Minute Tuesday and another QuickTake with Cate on all things writing in under two minutes.

You know how it is: There you are writing happily away, minding your own business, when suddenly something pops into your head, something intriguing, something that’s got to be said NOW, something that makes you—midsentence—interrupt yourself.

It happens to the best of us, the need to insert supplemental or parenthetical information, to interject details, to add an aside. But how do we interrupt ourselves—and the reader—politely? We have three punctuation marks designed for just that purpose: commas, dashes, and parentheses.

For example, we can write this sentence all three ways:

1. Westley, the man in black, had not the least idea that he was racing dead into the Fire Swamp.
2. Westley—the man in black—had not the least idea that he was racing dead into the Fire Swamp.
3. Westley (the man in black) had not the least idea that he was racing dead into the Fire Swamp.

(Poor Westley! We’d better not leave this story for long!)

Let’s look at dashes first. These are em-dashes. They are much longer than the hyphen and take no spaces around them. Dashes are like a shout. They draw attention to the supplemental information. No one likes to be shouted at, so don’t overuse them.

Parentheses do the opposite. They are like a whisper. Imagine them as your hands cupping your mouth to whisper to a friend. Just as constant whispers begin to distract and annoy your friend, so also do too many parentheses.

The most natural punctuation mark for enclosing supplemental information is the pair of commas. Think of a pair of commas as parentheses that have been turned in the same direction and cut in half. Again, though, too many of them can create a choppy effect.

But what of poor Westley? We’ve left him racing into the Fire Swamp!

Remember, never let an interruption, no matter how polite, take you away from the story!

The Rest of the Story

Since both em-dashes* and parentheses interrupt the flow of the sentence, be careful not to overuse them. To avoid a choppy effect, consider removing the supplemental information altogether or placing it in a separate sentence.

Use punctuation according to the placement of the supplemental information. If the supplemental information interrupts a sentence, use a pair of commas, a pair of em-dashes, or a pair of parentheses. If the supplemental information comes at the end of the sentence, the end punctuation mark—usually a period—will close it out.

*Em-dashes take no spaces before or after them.

Examples:

• The horse’s name was “Horse” (Buttercup was never long on imagination) and it came when she called it, went where she steered it, did what she told it.
• He lived in a hovel out near the animals and, according to Buttercup’s mother, he kept it clean.
• This was their thirty-third spat of the day—this was long after spats—and he was behind.
• Buttercup rolled around in bed. And there simply was no other way of explaining that look—she was interested.

Your turn: What punctuation marks work best in these sentences, and where should the go? (Answers below.)

1. Mary Poppins takes charge of the Banks children Jane, Michael, and the twins and changes their lives forever.
2. “Why is he called Mr. Wigg does he wear one?” asked Michael.
3. Suddenly his elbow knocking against the inkpot upset it.
4. The Red Cow that’s the name she went by. And very important and prosperous she was, too so my Mother said.

Answers:

1. Mary Poppins takes charge of the Banks children—Jane, Michael, and the twins—and changes their lives forever.
2. “Why is he called Mr. Wigg—does he wear one?” asked Michael.
3. Suddenly his elbow, knocking against the inkpot, upset it.
4. The Red Cow—that’s the name she went by. And very important and prosperous she was, too (so my Mother said).

The post QT 7 – Excuse Me—I Need to Interrupt Myself! appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Hey, everyone, welcome back to QuickTakes with Cate and an episode of the reality show, Keeping Up with the Klausashians!

Today’s topic features my very own relatives! You can spot an Armenian name by the endings “ian” or “yan.” And what better time to peek into the Clause-ashian household than at Christmas, when thoughts turn to Santa Claus?

So what makes a Claus a clause?

In the world of grammar, we have three forms—or building blocks—by which we build sentences: the word, the phrase, and the clause. A clause is a group of words that tells a story—that is, it has a character and a plot.

There’s a story unfolding in Santa’s kitchen right now. Seems Mrs. Claus is taking the cookie tray away from her husband.

Santa grumbles.

Santa—our character—is called the subject. Grumbles—our plot—is called the verb. This clause is an independent clause because it conveys a complete thought with a subject and its verb.

What happens when we add the word “after” in front of our independent clause?

After Santa grumbles

Do we still have a clause? Are the subject and verb still there? Yes. We still have a clause. But do we have a complete thought, one that can stand alone—independently—as a sentence?

No. The word “after” has changed the independent clause into a dependent clause. For it to make sense, we have to add an independent clause, for example,

After Santa grumbles, Mrs. Claus frowns.

Now we have a complex sentence, one of the four sentence structures. And things are certainly becoming complex in this kitchen, heating up in fact.

Mrs. Claus pokes a spatula at Santa’s belly just as a button pops off.

Can you identify the independent clause in that sentence? The dependent clause? Let’s see how you did.

“Give me a cookie, witch!”

“I’m not a witch! I’m your wife.”

Wait! Wrong reality show!

Well, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Maybe it’s time we leave the Clauses to work out their differences in private.

The Rest of the Story

When a dependent clause, also called a subordinate clause, is attached to an independent clause, the resulting sentence is called a complex sentence. Put brackets around the dependent clauses in the following complex sentences. (Answers below.)

1. When the elves hear the scuffle in the kitchen, they crowd outside the window for a peek.
2. Santa scowls when he catches sight of them.
3. “Why aren’t you painting the toys?” he barks as he waves them toward the workshop.
4. “They’re not working because they’re hungry,” says Mrs. Claus, piling cookies on a plate.
5. “Since I’m hungry too, I ought to get a cookie.” Santa tries to grab one off the plate.
6. “Well, of course, dear,” Mrs. Claus replies. “You’ll get an entire plate once you finish dinner.”

A dependent clause punctuated as though it were a sentence is a fragment. In the hands of unskilled writers, such fragments are unintentional and thus errors. But skilled writers will sometimes use dependent clauses without attaching them to independent clauses, doing so for stylistic effect.

1. [When the elves hear the scuffle in the kitchen,] they crowd outside the window for a peek.
2. Santa scowls [after he catches sight of them].
3. “Why aren’t you painting the toys?” he barks [as he waves them toward the workshop].
4. “They’re not working [because they’re hungry],” says Mrs. Claus, piling cookies on a plate.
5. “[Since I’m hungry too,] I ought to get a cookie.” Santa tries to grab one off the plate.
6. “Well, of course, dear,” Mrs. Claus replies. “You’ll get an entire plate of cookies [once you finish your dinner].”

The post QT 8 – Keeping Up with the Klausashians appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Hey everyone, it’s 2-Minute Tuesday and another QuickTake with Cate on all things writing in under two minutes.

Today’s topic might be one of the most emotionally charged issues online, with the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Slate, and other sources joining the outcry—which is what you might expect with a period drama.

But as much as you might enjoy period dramas—shows such as Poldark, Outlander, and The Crown—we are not talking about a historical period, but about a sentence period. So what’s all the drama about? It’s about how many spaces should come after it. One? Or two?

Very simply, the answer is one. Or as a Slate article puts it, “Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.”

Who says? Typographers do, the people who study and design typewritten words. They have been using one space for publication since the early 1900s.

And then came the typewriter and with it monospace font, which created wide, loose spaces between characters. The extra space after the period made the text easier to read. But today nearly every font on our computer is proportional. So there is no need for an extra space after the period. If you use two spaces, typographers will have to delete them.

Although it took me a good year to break myself of the two spaces habit, the time I’ve saved by using only one space has added seconds to my life, and those seconds have turned into days and weeks and—why, I’ve gained a whole period of my life back!

So unless you are typing on an actual typewriter, you no longer have to put two spaces after a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point. The rule applies to all end punctuation.

The next time someone says, “Hey, what’s your favorite period drama?” just tell them “One Space.”

For the rest of the story, go to www.catetouryan.com/quicktakes. Check back next Tuesday for another QuickTake with Cate. Like, comment, and share!

The Rest of the Story

The longstanding convention of one space after a period is based on professional practice. All the major style guides, but one, require it—Chicago, MLA, AP, the Bluebook. The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used in the behavior and social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.

The one major exception to proportional fonts on a computer is Courier.

    A period drama Courier Font (monospace)

    A period drama Times New Roman (proportional font)

A proportional font can squeeze 12 letters into the same space that a monospace font can fit only 9.

If you have used two spaces throughout your document, you can change them all by using the “Find and Replace” feature in Microsoft Word (Ctrl+H). Type two spaces in the “Find” form and one space in the “Replace With” form. Then click “Replace All.”

For more on the topic, check out these online articles:

• “Are Two Spaces Better Than One? A Response to New Research,” Matthew Butterick, 2018: https://practicaltypography.com/are-two-spaces-better-than-one.html
• “Space Invaders: Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period,” Farhad Manjoo: https://slate.com/technology/2011/01/two-spaces-after-a-period-why-you-should-never-ever-do-it.html
• Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/two-spaces-after-a-period

The post QT 9 – A Period Drama appeared first on Cate Touryan.

Video Transcript and Bonus Info:

Hey everyone, it’s 2-Minute Tuesday and another QuickTake with Cate.

This episode is dedicated to my personal trainer, whose tortures include wall balls, sled pushes, and battle ropes. But there is no worse torture than her order to “lay down!” It’s not holding the plank for two minutes, folks. It’s holding the plank for two minutes before I can reply, “It’s not lay; it’s lie!” And what do I get for my trouble? A set of burpees.

Lay and lie are examples of irregular verbs. “Lay” means to place an object down. “Lie” means to recline. They are two separate verbs with separate meanings.

As irregular verbs, they change forms for past tense, past participle, and present participle like this:

Notice that the past tense form for “lie” is spelled the same way as that other word, “lay.” And here lies the confusion!

So how do we use these different verbs correctly? The verb “lay,” meaning “to place an object down,” must always be followed by an answer to the question, “lay what?” That answer is called the direct object. The verb “lie,” meaning to recline, can never be followed by a direct object.

• Today, I lay the bone down. Yesterday, I laid the bone down. Last week, I had laid the bone down. I was laying the bone down when it fell off the table.”
• Today, I lie (in the hammock).* Yesterday, I lay in the hammock. Last week, I had lain in the hammock when a helicopter flew by. I was lying in the hammock when a grapefruit fell from the tree.”

*in the hammock is a prepositional phrase

If you say, “Last week I laid in the hammock,” that means that when you got up, there should have been a golden egg!

The gym isn’t the only place you hear “lay down.” Think of all the people who tell their dogs to “lay down.” And you wonder why your dog doesn’t obey. Poor creature is wondering what it is you want him to lay down—his bone, your wallet, the dead mouse. Try telling your dog to “lie down” and see what happens!

The Rest of the Story

Both sentences have the action verb “sing.” But in the first sentence, there is no answer to the verb question “sings what?” Here, the verb “sing” is intransitive because it does not carry meaning over into another word (the direct object).

In the second sentence, we ask the same question, “sings what?” and the answer is “a song.” The verb “sing” is now transitive because it carries meaning over into another word, called the direct object.

Some verbs, like “sing,” can be both transitive and intransitive. Other verbs cannot. “Lay” and “lie” are examples. The verb “lay” is transitive. That is, it must always be followed by a direct object. The verb “lie” is intransitive. It can never take an object. Both the past participle and present participle forms must have helping verbs before them (had, have, is, was, were).

See if you can select the correct verb in the following sentences:

1. The toddler was so cranky that his mother lay/laid him down for a nap.
2. The mother decided to lie/lay down for a nap herself.
3. Magazines dating from 1940 were lying/laying on the coffee table.
4. She had just laid/lain the picnic blanket on the grass when it began to rain.
5. The possum was laying/lying on the road, playing dead.

Here are some hints: (1) place, (2) recline, (3) recline, (4) place (5) recline

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