Don’t confuse “your” with “you’re.” I think we all know the difference—”your” being possessive; “you’re” being the contraction of “you are”—but, wow, is this one confused a lot.
Example 1: “You’re being a Facebook grammar nazi.”
Example 2: “Your posts are driving me to it.”
Do you know the difference between “lay” and “lie”?
“Lay” always needs an object. In other words, what is being set down is not the subject of the sentence. I lie down (correct – the subject is reclining); I lay the book/the baby/the remote down (correct – the object is being set down).
Ergo:
Bob Dylan’s “Lay, Lady, Lay…” (no object) should be “Lie, Lady, Lie/ lie across my big brass bed…”
Snow Patrol’s chorus “If I just lay here/if I just lay here…” (no object) should be “If I just lie here.”
Sophie B. Hawkins’s “As I Lay Me Down to Sleep” (object: me) is correct.
Bon Jovi’s “Lay Your Hands On Me” (object: your hands) is correct.
Do you often confuse “than” with “then”? Remember, “than” is used in comparison; “then” is used to show passage of time.
Example: He knew his grammar was better than his friends’. He often saw flawed Facebook posts, then added names to his running list of offenders.
(Whether this is building up to a grammarian horror flick or a mental breakdown amid bleeding red pens, I don’t know.)
Do you know the difference between “further” and “farther”? Only use “farther” when talking about measurable distance.
Example 1: Why go farther, when you have a great writing conference right here in Richmond? (Ahem, James River Writers Conference plug.)
Example 2: Take your writing abilities further by attending.
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages will show.”
Coming up with that first line – the line that defines you and sets the tone for all musings and imaginings to come, the line that grabs the readers attention like a blast of cold, January air, the line that can be the source of sleepless nights and tossing and turning and annoyed husbands because of the aforementioned tossing and turning – can be difficult.
Therefore, I’m borrowing from Dickens in this first blog. I’m hoping he won’t mind. It just seems such a fitting beginning. Kudos to Charles for that! I just wonder how many insomniatic evenings were the source of it.
For those that don’t know me, welcome to my new blog. For others, feel free to follow my old blog, but nothing new will be added there; so I suppose it would be a rather dull pastime.
Happy reading and writing everyone!