Another Grammar Lesson for an Errantist

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At 09:14 AM 18/1/98 -0800, Farrell wrote:

>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.


RICHARD:

I hope Farrell realises that many of are waiting for him to carelessly split
an infinitive. To publicly highlight such a grammatical atrocity to the list
will be a joy indeed. But to earnestly wait for such a faux pas from Farrell
will probably resemble those who earnestly await the second coming of their
boy-god.

Richard
The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
Oscar Wilde

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