Lay, Lie, Laid, Lain

This is one that I know ever so slightly, but I'm not perfect, so I sent out a plea on Twitter just now asking for help, and the inimitable @d0tpark3r came through for me, as usual, recommending this site: Grammar Girl : Lay Versus Lie :: Quick and Dirty Tips. I'm so happy (in a way) to see the author say that it's a complicated subject, because that makes me feel not so stupid. ;)


Here's what she says about present tense:

It's pretty easy; you lay something down, and people lie down by themselves.

It gets tricky in past tense, though, and that's where I have the most trouble. I'm not going to repeat the details here. She has a chart on the website, as well as examples written out. Go take a look. I'll be referencing it often.

loath, loathe, lathe

From @FakeAPStylebook: loath, loathe, lathe - She is loath to stay with him. He loathes her. She used the lathe to cut up his corpse.

Sweet Dulcinea's Soccer Boys Pictures

I'm putting this link here so I don't have to keep bugging her to remind me of where to find this deliciousness. Now I can just come here when I need a little distraction.

Former/Latter and Latter/Later

Hi all,

I don't see this too often, but thought I'd bring it up.

First of all, former vs. latter. Simply put, "former" is the first of two things in a list, and "latter" is the second of two things in a list.

Edward asked me if I wanted pizza or pasta for supper. I chose the former, as we had pasta last night.

Now, later vs. latter. From  About.com: "Use later when referring to time. Use latter when referring to the second of two persons or things mentioned previously."

That's all for now. I'll try to find something amusing or sexy to put up here soon, so I won't look like such a stick in the mud. Or Persnickety Bitch as I just labeled myself on Twitter. ;)

Dear D0t

If you aren't reading this advice column, what is wrong with you?!? You absolutely MUST read. It is written once (sometimes twice) a week by d0tpark3r, and is filled with her wit, wisdom, and not a little bit of snark.

Dear D0t can be found over at TwificNews. Go read. Just do it. It's good for you.

Lover Mine

Ok, I'm going to go a little off track here and write about a book I just read. Yes, a real book. One that I bought at a store that was published by a real publisher and everything.

I read the latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Mine, last week, and it was wonderful. It was about John Matthew, with a healthy dose of Qhuinn and Blay (who collectively broke my heart). We also got the backstory on Xhex, who is much older than I'd thought. Terrific, though. The book had the same tough sexiness of the other books in the series. My quibbles were her overuse of some of the slang, such as "getting verticle" and derivations thereof. Once or twice was fine; after that she could have just said that people sat up.

If you haven't read the BDB series, I highly recommend that you do so. They are fantastic. You can find them all on Amazon or elsewhere, probably used. I don't know the order off the top of my head, but I know that Amazon does number them, so you can make note of it there if you're going elsewhere to obtain the books.


Update: I was chatting with someone on Twitter who said that she had picked up the first book in this series and was intimidated by the glossary at the beginning and put the book back down. Let me tell you right now: YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ THE GLOSSARY FIRST!!! ::ahem:: Sorry for yelling. Seriously, though, it's unfortunate that they put it at the front, because that makes it seem like essential reading material, where I think that it belongs at the back as reference material. They probably wanted the reader to know it's there. Anyhoo, you can grasp the meaning of most of the made-up words from the context, and the glossary is always there for those you want to double-check. So don't get scared. Skip the glossary and move into the glory of the story.


Heh. I rhymed.


;)

Are we singing, praying, or fighting?

Homophones, homophones, homophones. They are still a problem, aren't they? Here's another one that I just came across in a fic:

verses/versus

From Dictionary.com:

verse [plural: verses]

   /vɜrs/ Show Spelled [vurs] Show IPA ,noun, adjective, verb,versed, vers·ing.

–noun

1. (not in technical use) a stanza.

2. a succession of metrical feet written, printed, or orally composed as one line; one of the lines of a poem.

3. a particular type of metrical line: a hexameter verse.

4. a poem, or piece of poetry.

5. metrical composition; poetry, esp. as involving metrical form.

6. metrical writing distinguished from poetry because of its inferior quality: a writer of verse, not poetry.

7. a particular type of metrical composition: elegiac verse.

8. the collective poetry of an author, period, nation, etc.: Miltonian verse; American verse.

9. one of the short conventional divisions of a chapter of the Bible.

10. Music.

a. that part of a song following the introduction and preceding the chorus.

b. a part of a song designed to be sung by a solo voice. 

ver·sus

   /ˈvɜrsəs, -səz/ Show Spelled[vur-suhs, -suhz] Show IPA

–preposition

1. against (used esp. to indicate an action brought by one party against another in a court of law, or to denote competing teams or players in a sports contest): Smith versus Jones; Army versus Navy.

2. as compared to or as one of two choices; in contrast with: traveling by plane versus traveling by train. Abbreviation: v., vs. 

So, as you can see, sound much the same, mean completely different things. Let's try to remember, 'kay? Oh, I just checked, and they also cover this on Learn Your Damn Homophones, also mentioned in a previous post.