Verbs

“I’m actually going to lie them down.”

Common English Blunders, Hypercorrection, Verbs

I heard this yesterday on HGTV’s “Design on a Dime” television program.

Problem:
The verb “lie” is incorrect for this sentence.

Explanation:
The verb “lie” — when it means to be in a horizontal position — is an intransitive verb.

So one cannot “lie them down”.

“Lay” is the correct verb for this sentence.

I believe that the use of “lie” in this sentence is an example of hypercorrection. The speaker of the sentence probably knew that “lay” is used too often as an incorrect substitute for “lie”, so she chose “lie” when “lay” actually was the correct verb.

Solution:
“I’m actually going to lay them down.”

“… Comcast will wave its early termination fee …”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Hyphens, Misspellings, Nouns, Verbs

I saw this in an April-23 article on the RCR Wireless News website.

Problems:
1. The verb is wrong.
2. A hyphen is missing.

Explanation:
The missing hyphen is a common English blunder, but a simple rule tells us that the hyphen is required in a particular part of this expression.

Here is the rule: When an adjective (e.g., “early”) and a noun (e.g., “termination”) together modify another noun (“fee”), there should be a hyphen to join the adjective to the first noun — to create a “compound” modifier, if you will, of the second noun.

I am not sure how common the other English blunder is: writing “wave” where “waive” — which means to forgo or give up — is required.

However, I believe that both problems are consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to write “wave” than to write “waive”; it is simpler to omit a hyphen than to include one.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following phrases (with the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “waive the fee” — 106,000 matches
  • “wave the fee” — 1,790 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the phrase correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 59.2:1, which is heartening.

Solution:
“… Comcast will waive its early-termination fee …”

“Disconcerning”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Verbs

My wife heard this yesterday.

Problem:
“Disconcerning” is a nonsense word.

Explanation:
Nearly everyone who says “disconcerning” actually is trying to say an adjective whose meaning is causing an emotional disturbance.

“Disconcerting” (notice the ‘t’ before the ‘ing’) — not “disconcerning” — is the adjectival form of the verb “disconcert”.

I believe that the use of “disconcerning” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It’s simpler to say “disconcerning” than to say “disconcerting” (which requires the speaker to emphasize the ‘t’).

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • disconcerning — 22,600 matches
  • disconcerting — 2,260,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the word correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 100:1, which is very encouraging.

Solution:
“Disconcerting”