Saturday, April 28, 2007

THAT SNEAKY WORD "AND"

Let's take up the troublesome use of the pronouns "he and I" or "him" and "me." It's not so hard when you say, "He gave me two tickets to the ballgame" -- knowing that the verb "gave" has to be followed by the objective case --"me;" but what happens when the word "and" sneaks in? You go all wobbly at the knees and panic sets in. DON'T PANIC!

Just ask yourself, "Do I say, 'He gave it to I?'" Of course not, because "I" is nominative (i.e., the subject of the sentence or phrase). And you wouldn't say "He gave it to he and I" or "him and I." Remember the sneaky "and" cannot change parts of speech! It can try, Lord knows, but if you are vigilant, you won't let it.

Examples:

He gave the tickets to my brother and me -- not my brother and I.
My uncle gave the tickets to him and me -- not he and I.
He and I had tickets to the ballgame.

Remember, after a verb or a verb and a preposition ("He gave the tickets to...") you must use the objective case.

By the way, if you don't like the sound of "him and me," just say "us."

We get so used to saying it wrong that the right way may sound wrong at first!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

When do you say "lay" or "lie"?

It's amazing how many people don't know that "lie" is a verb as well as a noun meaning falsehood. Here's how you can tell the verbs "lie" and "lay" apart: "Lay" is a transitive verb that must have an object, e.g., "Lay the book on the table." "Lie" does not take an object; it means to lie down (on your back, front or side, whichever is most comfortable!).

The parts of the two words are lay, laid, laying; and lie, lain, lying.

Examples:

"I lay my keys in the basket every time so I won't forget them. I have laid them there every day since I don't know when. I got used to laying them there when I got my first car."

"I lie down every day for a nap. I have lain down every day since I turned 60. I like lying there because it refreshes me."

I have seen a caption in the newspaper that described an accident victim "laying" in the gutter. If a pupil said something like that, my 5th grade teacher would say "Oh, you were laying an egg?" Everyone laughed and I'll wager kids that grew up with me knew the difference between "lay" and "lie."

And now so do you.