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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: The Most Common Grammatical Error Made By Educated People Today? It used to be using the tautological, unacceptable, non-existent adjective "irregardless" in place of the correct word "regardless". But one hardly ever hears that mistake any more. This is good. Today many fairly-well educated politicians, bureaucrats, teachers at all level, media celebrities etc. mispronounce the word "forte" (one's strong point) as "fortay" which is a musical term meaning strong or loud. The musical term is spelled the same way, "forte", but must, according to our good dictionaries, be pronounced "fortay", not "fort". If one is referring to a person's strength in some area the word "forte" must be pronounced "fort". So whenever you hear a person say "fortay" when he/she is describing a person's "strong point, correct him He will silently thank you for it, but not for the embarrassment. Today by far the most common and annoying grammatical mistake, however, is made by people who should know better. They confuse the transitive verb "lay" (meaning "to place"), with the intransitive verb "lie" (meaning "to recline"). How often to you hear on TV, the radio, movies or in real life some person say "I found the body laying in the alleyway". It should be of course, " I found the body lying (i.e. reclining) in the alleyway" . The correct form is "I was lying down" when the phone rang, not I was "laying down". It is "I lay the book on the table", not "I lie the book on the table". Here are the infinitives, first person present tense, first person past tense and the present and past participles of the verbs "lie" and "lay". Transitive: i) to lie down, ii) I lie down, iii) yesterday I lay down, iii) I am lying down iv) I had been lying down Intransitive: ii) to lay ii) I lay the down iii) yesterday I laid the book down iii) I am laying the book down iv) I have laid the book down Get this straight. As George Orwell wrote: "Sloppy language leads to sloppy thinking, and sloppy thinking leads to sloppy politics"-- or words to that effect. Over the years I have made many errors in spelling and grammar myself. But I am not being pretentious in writing that the confusion between the two different verbs "to lie" (i.e. recline) and "to lay" (i.e. to place something") is inexcusable. It annoys me. After all, this basic grammar is not rocket science. Over the years I have made many errors in spelling and grammar myself. But I am not being pretentious in writing that the confusion between the two different verbs "to lie" (i.e. recline) and "to lay" (i.e. to place something") is inexcusable. It annoys me. After all, this basic grammar is not rocket science. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 21.
#15. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
These are the ones I hear that I always comment about. Where is my wallet at? Where are you going to? These are ungrammatical because the preposition in the sentence has no object.
These are ungrammatical because the preposition in the sentence has no object. Yes, it do. This sentence, or maybe more properly the preposition, has an object. Where are you going to? I'm going to the store. "Where is it at?" is real colloquial Southern. I have kind of gotten used to it and I find myself using it in speech. What I really find quaint on down here is triple prepositions. "Put it up on in there." I have to remind myself to take note of these gems when I hear them. I love this dialect shit. It adds color to the language.
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