Interesting Article: Lie Vs Lay

Lay vs. Lie

Considering how short these words are, lie and lay give us a lot of
trouble. Confusing the two is one of the most common usage errors we
make, says Bryan Garner, author of some wonderful books on
language for Oxford University Press.

It's certainly a big problem in the music scene. The Bob Dylan song
"Lay Lady Lay" is a lovely tune, but it's a real cheese grater on the
knuckles of grammarians.

The lyrics, which say, "Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed,"
would only be correct if he were serenading a chicken. The rhymed a
sounds are perhaps more poetic than "lie, lady, lie," but once we have
the image of a nesting chicken in our head, all thoughts of romance
fly the proverbial coop. What's the point of poetry when poultry are
in motion?

Eric Clapton made a similar goof with "Lay Down Sally." It should be
"Lie Down, Sally," unless, of course, Sally has been drugged and must
be laid down on the bed. Again, this is a real mood killer.
The Decemberists are in the minority of musicians who have gotten this
one right. Their song "We Both Go Down Together" contains this lyric:
"I laid you down in the grass of a clearing." Ah, sweet grammar.

Back to the real world, though.

Botching lie and lay is so common that some people have decided it no
longer counts as an error -- if it ever was one to begin with.

The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar objects! This is not a
white-shoes-after-Labor-Day issue. Lie and lay work differently, and
once you understand the distinction, you can be confident you'll
impress even the most particular of people -- and you'll also be less
likely to make similar errors, like confusing I with me.

Here's how they work.

Lie is what they call an intransitive verb. This means it can't take
an object. Lay is transitive and it needs an object.

Even if you can't remember these technical terms, there's a really
easy way to keep the two words straight. Think about Bob Dylan's
chicken.

Chickens lay eggs. The eggs here are the object. Chickens do not lie
eggs -- you know that already. Everyone does, if the Internet is any
proof. "Chicken lies eggs" turns up exactly zero results on Live
Search, while "chickens lie eggs" turns up only one result. That's
amazing, considering the language debris strewn all over the
Internet.

On the other hand, whenever you're talking about reclining, you are
lying. There is no object here. Without an egg or other object in your
sentence, use lie. Therefore, unless you are a chicken, you do not
"lay out in the sun," you "lie out in the sun."

There. That covers the present tense. Wasn't that easy?
Things get a little trickier in past tense, because the past tense of
lie is lay. It's darned confusing to have the word swap meanings when
it changes tenses.

The solution? Memorize it. Or if you just can't, print out this cheat
*** and tuck it in your wallet:




This article reminds me of "coob" and "ntau" and "lub" and "raab" as
Zhen and I talked before about it.....and the same thing occurs
everyday yog peb tsi saib zoo zoo...

Lub p8, rab q6...and not lub q6, rab p8...these are easy to
understand, but Zhen made me think about a certain "word" last
time...is it "lub peevxwm" or "rab peevxwm".....i thought and
thought...and wasn't sure even though i told her its "rab
peevxwm"........

my answer (after many days of thinking):....neither lub or rab is
correct to use with "peevxwm"...lub and rab refers to things...and
"peevxwm" is an "idea"....so my conclusion is..."peevxwm is just
peevxwm"...and it is wrong to use "lub/rab" with it....NEED YOUR
COMMENT ON THIS...

THE other thing...coob and ntau...more and more younger kids now say
"tsheb coob heev" or "ntoo coob" heev... keep in mind that the mong
word "coob" could only be used for "living things (appearance wise)"
such as ntseg coob, tuabneeg coob, noog coob etc..." the word "ntau"
is used for both living and dead things..such as "ntoo ntau"..nyaj
ntau...ntseg ntau...we dont' say "nyaj coob coob le, noj tsi tag..."

if anyone knows anything about peevxwm...let me know..

thoughts for today...

yaweh
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