One of the last things I did while finalizing the new manuscripts for First Lies, Winter Kills, and The Desert King was to check my usage of the various forms of “to lie” and “to lay”. A smart person had recently pointed out that mis-use of these words bothered her, and that got me wondering about my own work. Like many people, I was never clear on the finer points of their usage, but I had always had confidence (for no good reason) that I was using them correctly when it counted.
To my horror, I discovered that I was not, not always, anyway. Then, it took me an embarrassingly long time to establish that to lie is to recine and to lay is to place, and that “lay” is the past tense of “lie” but everything else is (pretty much) as it seems it should be. How could I go all these years without knowing that? or worse, “knowing” it wrong? What a buffoon! Is my red neck showing or what?!
This makes me wonder: What would people think if they saw incorrect usage like this in a book? How many people would even notice? Is it really as bad as I think it is?
4 Comments
Not as bad (in my book anyway) as the misuse of ‘bring’ and ‘take’!!
Perhaps not, but it’s a pretty big mistake for someone trying to be a “real” writer.
TF–it’s been a while since I’ve been around! But I’ve been working hard!
I was told that the different between lie and lay was human vs. an inanimate object. You “lay” a book on a table, you “lie” down on a bed. Like a person from China is never “Oriental”–that term is reserved for rugs and vases.
And that should be “difference”. I wish I could edit comments.