Another Grammar Lesson for an Errantist

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MS FITT


> The dirty prints of man lays heavy on "all" material published in the last

20

>years. The editors were having themselves a field day. See a sample below.



TILL
No, no, Ms Fitt, "The dirty prints of man LIE heavy on 'all' material
published in the last 20 years."  "Lay" is a transitive verb, and "lie" is
an intransitive verb.  Man lays his dirty prints on all material published
in the last 20 years, but after he lays his prints on the material, the
prints lie on the material.  It is as simple as remembering that after I lay
a book onto my desk, the book lies on the desk.  Also, the subject of the
verb in your sentence is "prints" and not "man," so the verb should be
plural in order to agree in number with the plural subject.  You have made
your verb agree with the object of the preposition "of," but the subject of
a sentence will never be the object of a preposition.



Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net

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