Glossary
L
G.1: Write the phrase you misused and the rule.
Do not write just “G” or “Glossary.”
lastly, firstly
Nonstandard versions of “last” and “first,” which can be adverbs as well as adjectives. The Keables Guide recommends finding stronger transitions.
WRONG: Lastly, religious conflict drove the sides to war.
RIGHT BUT WEAK TRANSITION: Last, religious conflict drove the sides to war.
BETTER: The last of the major causes of war was religious conflict.
lay, lie
“Lay” means “put” or “place”; “lie” means “recline.” “Lay” is a transitive verb (one that requires a direct object); hens “lay” eggs, and masons “lay” foundations. “Lie” is intransitive; sleepers “lie” in bed.
INFINITIVE: to lie
PAST TENSE: lay
PAST PARTICIPLE: lain
PRESENT PARTICIPLE: lying
INFINITIVE: to lay
PAST TENSE: laid
PAST PARTICIPLE: laid
PRESENT PARTICIPLE: laying
Errors occur when “lay” is used in place of “lie”:
WRONG: Leave it where it lays. He left it where it laid. It has laid in silence.
RIGHT: Leave it where it lies. He left it where it lay. It has lain in silence.
WRONG: He lays in bed. Yesterday he laid in bed. He has laid in bed.
RIGHT: He lies in bed. Yesterday he lay in bed. He has lain in bed.
“Laid” is the correct spelling; “layed” is always wrong.
USAGE TIP: Find the Error
Lord Byron, the great Romantic poet, committed the most infamous grammatical error in English poetry. In Canto IV of his poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he contrasts the vast might of the sea to the weakness of human beings, even in their mightiest ships. The stanza below contains the error. Can you find it? (“His” refers to mankind, and “thou” and “thy” refer to the ocean.)
His steps are not upon thy paths—thy fields
Are not a spoil for him—thou dost arise
And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields
For earth’s destruction thou dost all despise,
Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
And send’st him, shivering in thy playful spray
And howling, to his gods, where haply lies
His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth—there let him lay.
Ship in Storm (1828) by Robert Salmon
less, fewer, little
“Few” refers to count nouns, “less” and “little” to mass nouns.
WRONG: I have less friends than you.
RIGHT: I have fewer friends than you.
WRONG: He has the least friends of all.
RIGHT: He has the fewest friends of all.
WRONG: I have few or little friends.
RIGHT: I have few or no friends.
lifestyle
Jargon. The Keables Guide recommends substituting “life” or “way of life.” Originally a German term (Lebensstil) used by sociologists, “lifestyle” has been transformed by popular usage. Like “ambience,” it has become a word that people use when they want to sell you something expensive.
Experience elegant lifestyle and cosmopolitan ambience in our luxury condominiums.
Lifestyle and Ambience
Home belonging to pop musician Britney Spears.
like
Two errors are common. If your teacher marks “like” in your paper, identify which one you committed:
1. Do not confuse “as” with “like.” “Like” is a preposition; it introduces a noun, pronoun or noun phrase (“like the wind”). “As” can be a conjunction, introducing a clause (“as I was saying”) or making a comparison (“as cold as ice”); or a preposition (“As a dancer, I was a failure”). The most common error is the use of “like” as a conjunction when “as,” “as if” or “as though” is needed.
WRONG: It’s true, just like I said. RIGHT: It’s true, just as I said.
WRONG: I felt like I could fly. RIGHT: I felt as if I could fly.
2. Do not confuse “that” with “like.” “That” can act as a conjunction to introduce a statement; “like,” a preposition, can introduce only noun phrases:
WRONG: We feel like we will win. RIGHT: We feel that we will win.
WRONG: I feel like the Mayor is right. RIGHT: I feel that the Mayor is right.
USAGE TIP: Poisonous Grammar
Before cigarette advertisements were outlawed, Winston had a successful campaign with the slogan “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.” When critics pointed out that the slogan was ungrammatical, Winston responded with ads that asked, “What do you want, good grammar or good taste?” An earlier draft of the slogan was “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette ought to,” which had a second flaw: a preposition at the end of the sentence. Some of the ads targeted children by using cartoon characters. Nowadays we would find the grammar in the ad above less offensive than the stereotyping and the idea of advertising a toxic and addictive vice.
like how, like in, like when
“Like” is a preposition and must be followed by a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun:
VAGUE: We dressed like how they did in the 1960s.
BETTER: We dressed as people did in the 1960s.
VAGUE: We dressed like in the 1960s.
BETTER: We dressed like hippies from the 1960s.
VAGUE: Boo Radley helps the children, like when he mends Jem’s trousers.
BETTER: Roo Radley performs acts of kindness for the children, like mending Jem’s trousers.
loan
Use “loan” only as a noun. For a verb, use “lend” (past tense “lent,” past participle “lent”).
WRONG: I asked my cousin to loan me her dress for the dance.
RIGHT: I asked my cousin to lend me her dress for the dance.
RIGHT: She lent it to me only after I insisted on calling it a loan, not a gift.
a lot
A dead metaphor, dull when spelled correctly, worse when misspelled “alot.” It is acceptable in conversation as a substitute for “much” or “many,” but the Keables Guide recommends that you avoid it in formal writing.
USAGE TIP: Vacant Vocabulary
A lot of the time a lot of people use “a lot” a lot.
“A lot” is an example of a dead metaphor: one that has been used so often that it is no longer recognized as a figure of speech. People began using “a lot” to mean “many” around the early nineteenth century. Nowadays no one who uses it or hears it thinks of the much older original meaning of “lots”: chips of wood with persons’ names on them which people drew or cast to determine each person’s share (in a custom similar to pulling straws). The words “lottery” and “allot” and the expression “one’s lot in life” derive from it. The real estate meaning is older, dating from the early seventeenth century.
lose, loose, loss
“Lose” is a verb meaning “misplace”; “loose” is an adjective meaning “slack” (“my shoes are too loose”); “loss” is the noun form of “lose.”
WRONG: I often loose my keys.
RIGHT: I often lose my keys.
RIGHT: It is a hard loss to bear.