Month: October 2008

“Lie” vs. “Lie” vs. “Lay”

Common English Blunders, Verbs, Versus

I often hear mistakes with these three verbs.

Problem:
These verbs have basic forms that intersect one another.

Explanation:
The three verbs of interest in this blog post are “lie”, as in to make a false statement, “lie”, as in to recline, and “lay”, as in to put in a horizontal position.

It is a common English blunder — at least in American English — to use a basic form for one of these verbs as if it were a basic form for another of these verbs.

The false-statement-related verb “lie” has these basic forms:

  • Lie — present simple, as in “When you lie, you hurt others.”
  • Lied — preterite, as in “He lied about his income.”
  • Lied — past participle, as in “She has lied to the jury.”
  • Lying — present continuous, as in “I am not lying.”

The reclining-related verb “lie” has these basic forms:

  • Lie — present simple, as in “You lie in bed when watching TV?”
  • Lay — preterite, as in “He lay there until the ambulance arrived.”
  • Lain — past participle, as in “She has lain in the hospital for five days.”
  • Lying — present continuous, as in “I am not lying on that bed.”

The verb “lay” has these basic forms:

  • Lay — present simple, as in “You lay your keys on the counter whenever entering your home?”
  • Laid — preterite, as in “He laid the napkin on the table.”
  • Laid — past participle, as in “She has laid it here every day.”
  • Laying — present continuous, as in “I am not laying that on the bed!”

Solution:
Memorize the basic forms for each verb.

“It was a lot of work on everybody’s behalf.”

Hypercorrection, Nouns

I heard this two days ago on a TV program.

Problem:
The speaker said one thing but meant another.

Explanation:
When talking about a home-renovation project and the work performed by many people, the host of the HGTV program “Hammer Heads” said “It was a lot of work on everybody’s behalf.”

Doing something on somebody’s behalf means that one does something for that person.

So “everybody’s behalf” implies that several people benefited from the home-renovation work that the TV program documented.

However, only the two home owners benefited, and these two home owners certainly were not the “everybody” involved with the renovation.

The correct replacement in the sentence for the noun “behalf” is the noun “part”, given that everybody played a part in the renovation.

I believe that the TV host’s use of “behalf” where “part” was required is an example of a type of hypercorrection — choosing a longer, incorrect word in place of the shorter, correct word.

Solution:
“It was a lot of work on everybody’s part.”

Fun with Numbers

Adjectives, Adverbs, Nouns, Number, Verbs

I realized recently that I did not know well how to express different types of numbers in Italian.

I started thinking about examples in English and realized that there are several types of numbers and number-related words.

It became a game to list examples of these different types in English.

The game became more interesting when I determined that there was very little coverage about this topic on the Web.

For example, Wikipedia has an article about the names of numbers in English, but this article does not cover every type of number and number-related word that I could identify.

Because my list kept growing, I decided to wait a bit before trying to create the same list for Italian.

Here is my list for English:

  • One, two, three, … :
    • Name: These are called “cardinal numbers”, or “cardinals” for short.
    • Use: Cardinal numbers are for counting things. Two sets of objects (e.g., automobiles and flowers) have the same “cardinality” if the two sets have the same number of objects.
    • Form: These words can act as nouns or adjectives.
  • First, second, third, … :
    • Name: These are called “ordinal numbers”, or “ordinals” for short.
    • Use: Ordinal numbers are for ordering things (that is, placing things in a certain order).
    • Form: These words can act as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. The word “second” can also act as a verb.
  • Once, twice, thrice, … :
    • Name: I do not know the name for this type of number-related word.
    • Use: These words are for referring to the number of times, occasions, or instances or for referring to an n-fold quantity or degree.
    • Form: These words act only as adverbs.
  • Single, double, triple, … :
    • Name: I do not know the name for this type of number-related word.
    • Use: These words are for referring to the number of parts, kinds, or degrees or for referring to a group, set, or series.
    • Form: These words can act as nouns, adjectives, or verbs.
  • Twin, triplet, quadruplet, … :
    • Name: As with “one”, “two”, “three”, etc., these words also are defined as “cardinal numbers”.
    • Use: These words can be used to refer to items as a collection. These words can also be used to refer to any item in such a collection.
    • Form: These words act as nouns. The word “twin” can also act as an adjective or a verb.
  • Singular, plural, trial … :
    • Name: These are called “grammatical number” in linguistics.
    • Use: Among their many uses, these words are for expressing count distinctions in grammar.
    • Form: These words can act as adjectives or nouns.

I am sure that I missed some number-related words, but that is part of the fun of this exercise!