memo

[fox]

dear everyone:

this is not a fox-at-the-end-of-her-tether memo. i say this with the calm patience of a preschool teacher supervising a four-year-old's efforts to tie his shoelaces.

the verb lie (not in its sense of "tell untruths," of course) is intransitive. that is, it does not take a direct object; you cannot lie something down. its principle parts are lie, lay, lain.

the verb lay is transitive -- it takes a direct object; you must lay something down. its principle parts are lay, laid, laid.

please stop using "lay" as the past tense of "lay" as soon as you conveniently can. thank you.

Comments

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

I wuv you.

I still don't know what transitive and intransitive mean, but I wuv you.

8^-

[thalia]

please stop using "lay" as the past tense of "lay" as soon as you conveniently can. thank you.

Hey, that's a new one; usually people just use "lay" in place of "lie". At least the errors are getting more inventive....

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

both "you should lay down" and "she lay her head on his shoulder" are wrong, wrong, wrong. they make my ears hurt. augh! :-)

and, 'mu, you do so know what "transitive" and "intransitive" mean. what's a direct object? transitive verbs have them. intransitive verbs don't. silly girl. :-)