Usage Goof: Laying/Lying--You Can't Have It Both Ways!

Not too long ago, I did a blog entry about correct use of lie (lying) and lay (laying).

In Monday's The Birmingham News, a cosmic ray scientist who was being quoted about new NASA space science projects apparently tried to sit on the fence on this one. It seemed as if this Marshall Space Flight Center scientist didn't want to (or didn't know how to) commit one way or the other.

Can you figure out which choice is the correct one for BOTH instances in the following sentence?

"Has that stuff been lying out there for the last billion years, or has it been laying out there for the last five million or 10 million years?"

Here is your hint (from my previous blog on this subject):

Lying means being in a reclining position. (The money was just lying around.)

Laying refers to the act of putting an object somewhere. (I am laying the groundwork for this project now.

CORRECT ANSWER:

Has that stuff been lying out there for the last billion years, or has it been lying out there for the last five million or 10 million years?"

Have a great day. I hope you do not spend it lying around with a flu bug or laying an egg with your grammar issues.

Apostrophe AFTER the "s" when the "s" is part of the plural.

Apparently I'm still on my crusade about apostrophes and plurals and possessives. This afternoon I opened an online survey form from Timberline Golf Course--one I needed to fill out in order to get a free round of golf, which sounded like a good idea to me. The survey gave a checklist of events at the course and asked that I check the ones I'd be interested in. One of them was worded this way:



Ladie's Clinics



If "lady" is made plural by changing the "y" to "i" and adding "es," the apostrophe should come AFTER the "s" to show possession by a plural noun.



After reading this, I began wondering who Ladie was and if she offered golf clinics. The choice should have read:



Ladies' Clinics



Happy apostrophe placement and happy golf!

Do NOT use an apostrophe to create a plural word!

I'm not sure where this bad habit started, but I seem to be crusading against it. I received a letter last week with this statement in it:

On behalf of the planning committee and the attendee's we thank you for your help with this conference.

An apostrophe is used to show possession or contraction (the attendee's embarrassment...the attendees' registration forms). It is NOT used before an "s" when making a word plural.

The above sentence should have read as follows:

On behalf of the planning committee and the attendees, we thank you for your help with this conference.

NOTE: I also placed a comma after "attendees" because the introductory phrase (coming before the subject "we") is nine words long.

Have a great week, everybody, and may all your apostrophes land in the right places!

Who Did What? Pronoun Confusion

I read the following sentence several times before I figured out what the writer meant. It appeared in a letter to the editor in The Birmingham News this morning:

People will be forced to buy health insurance just as they force us to buy auto insurance.

This sentence boomerangs between two points of view--that of "the people" and that of the unseen power that is doing the forcing. It is impossible, as written, to tell who "they" and "us" refer to.

A much better version of what the writer means would be:

People will be forced to buy health insurance just as they (the people) are now forced to buy auto insurance.

Usage Goof--Amount vs. Number

This morning's USA Today "Money" section includes as article about the mortgage foreclosure mess. In it, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is quoted as saying,

A huge amount of borrowers are not getting in contact with their servicers.

Oops. Borrowers can be counted. "Amount" should be reserved for lump sum things like "laundry" and "salt," as in:

• The amount of laundry I have to do is overwhelming.
• He borrowed a large amount of money to finance his campaign.
• The amount of effort he exerted was amazing.

The correct word to use with items that can be counted is "number," as in:

• A large number of dogs have been roaming the neighborhood.
• The number of candidates is dwindling.
• We noticed a large number of cars blocking the intersection.

The sentence in this morning's article should have been:

A huge number of borrowers are not getting in contact with their servicers.

Agreement Again! (One Child + Their = Error)

While checking out a new website on alternative health practices recently, I came across the following sentence:

What she realized was that even though the classroom can serve as a wonderful learning environment, the true source of a child's behavior and conditioning comes from their environment and mainly their home.

Oops! If you refer to one child, then you must use a singular pronoun (his or her) to refer back to that child. You may only use their if you are referring to children (plural).

Because you don't know or care whether this is a male or female child, the solution for this one becomes a little awkward. Do you really want to say "his or "her" twice in the same sentence, as in:

...the true source of a child's behavior and conditioning comes from his or her environment and mainly his or her home.

Probably not, but a closer look at this sentence brings up another point: The home is part of the environment, so eliminating the word "and" clarifies the meaning and also solves the wordiness problem.

I'm not comfortable saying that the source "comes from" something, so I would probably reword that part of the sentence as follows:

...the true source of a child's behavior and conditioning is his or her environment--mainly the home.

I'm also not overly fond of "his or her," and I'm not sure the designation is necessary here. In the end, I would probably rewrite the sentence this way:

What she realized was that even though the classroom can serve as a wonderful learning environment, the true source of a child's behavior and conditioning is the environment outside the classroom--mainly the home.

My guess is that this is probably what the writer meant to say in the first place.

Usage Goof! Is it "laying" or "lying"?

John Archibald's column in The Birmingham News this morning compares Mayor Larry Langford's visions for the city to Peter Pan and Never Never Land. Time will tell about all that.

In one paragraph, Archibald quotes Council President Carole Smitherman as saying that Langford had "put together all that money that's just laying there" and was able to tap into "what people really, really want."

It's certainly more difficult to get the grammar right when speaking out loud, but she should have said that Mayor Langford had "put together all that money that's just lying there."

Here's the reason: Remember those principal parts of verbs you learned back in elementary school? It turns out they have a purpose:

lie (is lying), which means to be in a reclining position

The book is lying on the desk. I don't leave money lying around.


lay (is laying), which means to put down somewhere

That hen is laying an egg. I am laying your book on the desk.

Have a great day. Gather up all that money you have lying around and do something good with it!

Usage Goofs! It's Grammar, not "grammer."

I cannot give you a good reason why English pronunciation is often so far off from what it looks as if it ought to be. All I can do is remind you of the correct spelling.

I heard from two people this week (I'll leave you both anonymous for now.) who told me they really liked the new "grammer" blog. I know, "er" sounds right, but unfortunately, sound and logic do not apply here.

For future reference, the word that refers to proper parts of speech, verb tenses, and other writing and speaking choices is grammar.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and keep your grammAR straight!