Daily Grammar – Week 5

DAILY GRAMMAR (DG) 29-03-2018

1. This shirt does not size me, give me another one. (No)

This shirt does not fit me, give me another one. (Yes)

This shirt is not my size, give me another one. (Yes)

(You do not use “size” as a verb, it is a noun.)

2a. You need to lay on your back and get some rest. (No)

You need to lie on your back and get some rest. (Yes)

2b. Ade had made the bed and laid on it before I arrived. (No)

Ade had made the bed and lain on it before I arrived. (Yes)

2c. He just lied down there yesterday without doing anything. (No)

He just lay down there yesterday without doing anything. (Yes)

(When “lie” means “to repose”, the past and the participle forms are “lay” and “lain”. When “lie” means “to speak falsely” or “deceive”, the past and participle forms are “lied” and “lied”. For example, “having lied to me before, I find it difficult to believe her”. “Lay” means to “put” or to “hatch” and the past and participle forms are “laid” and “laid”. For example, “lay down your weapon and raise your hands”; “my hen lays big eggs usually but the ones it laid recently were small.” In summary, note “lie-lied-lied”; “lie-lay-lain” and “lay-laid-laid”.)

3. Thank you so very much. (No)

Thank you very much. (Yes, formal)

Thank you so much. (Yes, informal)

Thanks a lot! (Yes, informal)

(There are many ways of expressing thanks. It is an unacceptable banality, however, to thank (or miss) a person “so very much” by combining the intensifiers. “I miss you”; “I miss you so much” and “I miss you very much”, just like “thank you…” are all correct.)

Did You Know?

Though “e” is the most commonly used letter in the English language, with as many as one in eight of all the letters written in English being “e”, author Earnest Vincent Wright wrote an entire novel of over 50,000 words in 1939, “Gadsby”, without using letter “e”.

Can you write a paragraph without using letter “e” right now?