Lie Down Sally

ne of the only times I am not in agreement that Eric Clapton is superior in his musical efforts than am I falls to my obligatory issue of grammar over artistic expression. When I compose a lyric, the language must be exact; more exacting, in fact, than the musical structure. That the reader has never heard any of my pieces while nearly everyone has familiarity with the work of Mr. Clapton obviously shows I am in the minority with this concern – but that is another issue.


oday, I am looking at another grammatical usage puzzle that has gotten the better of me too many times. The doubt and uncertainty associated with this has been humbling. The question is simply this:

When is it appropriate to use “lay” and when to use “lie”?

In addition to “getting happy” with comma usage, this one gets irritating for me in a hurry. Yes. I really do need a life as this matter inflames my passions . . . but, I digress. At least this one time I am able to smugly “instruct” one of the greatest guitar virtuosos of all time.


e are excluding the definition of telling an untruth from our concern. The use of “lie” will simply be in relation to placement of an object, such as a guitar, upon a table. The easy application will be addressed first. The fundamental consideration is that the word, “lay” requires a direct object – To lay the guitar on the table. The word, “lie” does not require a direct object – To lie on the bed. When framed in the present tense, what needs to be kept in mind is what action is occurring – what is being done, NOW. So, the doctor is standing before you this very moment and he instructs you to lie down on the examination table. Concurrently, you notice he is going to lay down your chart on the table. As it so happens, this plays nicely into my misanthropic view of humanity and allows us to remember proper application by a simple thought: People lie / objects lay.

Again, “I lay the guitar on the bed as I lie down to get comfortable.”

For those that have noticed the world is a messy place because of people (present company excluded, of course) all simplicity goes out the window when one considers “lay” as the past tense of “lie.” Not being one to let sleeping dogs lie I shall endeavor to lay hold of the difficulty.

       Present Tense: lie       Past Tense: lay       Past Participle: lain

Let’s “lay it down”, now . . .

Past Tense: “Eric lay down to nap on the recording studio sofa during the exhausting session.”

Past Participle: “I have lain around for days and this is the only effort I have to show.”


       Present Tense: lay       Past Tense: laid       Past Participle: laid

And a one, and a two, and a three . . .

Past Tense: “When Eric Clapton laid down the tracks for ‘Layla’ it was to cover the lie of the depth of his relationship with Patty Harrison.”

Past Participle: “He has laid that demo tape on the PR man’s desk.”


here. I have laid it on the line. You will not be able to lay any charges at my feet. Had I lain about, avoiding my responsibility only then would you have cause to lie awake.

Law of the Land and the Rules of English

To some it is a comfort that the rules of language and grammatical usage are flexible and not as rigid as mathematical or universal constants. I find it a shame for two reasons. Firstly, some of the gray areas in effort would go away and leave that much more space for thought instead of caution while in pursuit of the ideal. Secondly, I love to defy concrete rules. So language has me at a disadvantage and I love words. The parallels to my status with and devotion to women are numerous. Really that makes sense as words are the currency with which we must demonstrate endless supply while frivolously spending them to gain favor. In writing as in love there are no guarantees that by pouring out one’s soul and expressing the most heartfelt thoughts that the message will be received as intended.

With that in mind I am interested in providing a few tools I have been extremely pleased to locate on the web. For as much facility as I try to maintain with the language I have gaps and some out-and-out mental bridges simply washed away. There are a couple instances that always snag my sleeve as I run through the forests of my ideas. The first is the usage of “then “ and “than.” This should not be all that difficult and yet . . . I get caught every now and again. So here is the easy way to distinguish the application of these two words:

"Then" indicates a change in state or progression, such as the example, "Do this then do that." This is a progression of events or time. "I started out walking, and then I jogged until the end of the course."

"Than" indicates a choice, such as, "I would prefer this one rather than that one." In other words, “Than” is used usually as a comparison or preference. "I'd rather walk than jog." Personally, I find to test the usage as to whether “than” is appropriate makes the decision easier.

Another bothersome sound-alike pair is “affect” and “effect.” For this I humbly defer to Paul Brians, of Washington State University. According to him,

“There are five distinct words here. When “affect” is accented on the final syllable (a-FECT), it is usually a verb meaning “have an influence on”: “The million-dollar donation from the industrialist did not affect my vote against the Clean Air Act.”

Occasionally a pretentious person is said to affect an artificial air of sophistication. Speaking with a borrowed French accent or ostentatiously wearing a large diamond ear stud might be an affectation. In this sort of context, “affect” means “to make a display of or deliberately cultivate.”

Another unusual meaning is indicated when the word is accented on the first syllable (AFF-ect), meaning “emotion.” In this case the word is used mostly by psychiatrists and social scientists— people who normally know how to spell it.

The real problem arises when people confuse the first spelling with the second: “effect.” This too can be two different words. The more common one is a noun: “When I left the stove on, the effect was that the house filled with smoke.” When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it.

The less common is a verb meaning “to create”: “I’m trying to effect a change in the way we purchase widgets.” No wonder people are confused. Note especially that the proper expression is not “take affect” but “take effect”—become effective. Hey, nobody ever said English was logical: just memorize it and get on with your life.

The stuff in your purse? Your personal effects.”

Rather than (Heh? See- see? I used it properly) attempt to provide proper descriptions, here, I will instead offer the links I found on the web. The Grand Daddy for all of these references is the University of Chicago Writing Program, GRAMMAR RESOURCES ON THE WEB. It is presented concisely and in good humor. Writing should be fun and these references make it exciting.

Gleaned from within that page are all of the sources I am currently depending on for accurate guidance. Paul Brians’s link is there but also here, Common Errors in English and another particularly intriguing resource that culled my attention was the Guide to Punctuation, Usage, and Grammar , by Marcus D. Rosenbaum and John Dinges.

These sites are likely addictive for those who may be like me and read the thesaurus for entertainment. I intend to revisit this post whenever I, or someone thoughtfully commenting, locate(s) additional or specialized resources. Enjoy!

Simple is (What's the word . . ?) Too Easy

have a personal confession to make. I love to focus on seemingly trivial details. Fortunately for someone such as me, I am living in an English speaking country, and America, which is even better for really mucking up the language. This luxury affords me endless hours of pleasure wincing at grammatical errors and equal dread for my own blunders. In ordinary conversation I have managed to avoid a great many phonetic aberrations that would betray the geographical area of my upbringing. Still, there is nothing in my speech that is unusual in comparison to those around me other than choice of verbiage. I have had several people ask if I am from England.

stopped reacting or even acknowledging the question years ago. I suppose that although I am perfectly happy to join in the banter with everyone else and employ the same language, when given the choice I opt for more exacting words. I also have a love for the melody associated with certain phrases. There’s just such a wonderful cadence to certain sounds and syllables strung together. I have a mild concern that my preoccupation (some would argue insistence) to ameliorate dialog will actually be detrimental to my writing. The reason this blog site is subtitled “Verbal Pyrotechnics” is due to that being the attribution of a college composition professor. Prior to reading one of my submissions he addressed the class with the disclaimer, “Try to get beyond the verbal pyrotechnics and appreciate what he is saying.” He was constantly engaged in a battle for me to use ordinary language. So many papers came back with red circles and chastisements exclaiming “ARCHAIC.” I tried to argue that the word was still valid and his retort was, “Only to you and Twelfth Century, English poets!”

evertheless I will guard against a good deal of the language I am comfortable using for the sake of the characters and even the narrative of my novels and other stories. I am exercising none of that in this missive because I still need a channel to let this stuff flow. The advantages of a blog is the freedom to just put oneself out there and kick off the shoes of rigor and civility and wiggle the toes a little. Besides, this forum presents me the opportunity to try a whole lot of things – that even if every one of them fails – I will benefit from the experience. This is a place to try experiments and test concepts and ideas. I hope it will knock both the rust as well as the unnecessary from my writing.