Grammar Rules For the Grammar Dunce

This page was written to give a hand to those who may be like me. I was terrified to have my characters lie down. Would they lie down, or lay down, or is it that they laid down . . . Agony, no matter how you look at it. Far easier to have your character doze off in the easy chair than to try to traverse the lay/lie deserts of despair.

Lay and Lie
The verb lay means to place or set down. It requires a direct object: the thing that is being placed or set down. For example the little prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep . . . You can do this because me is the direct object. However, you cannot say, "I need to go lay down." I heard once from a fellow author that you can use that sentence accurately if you were really meaning you were going to lay down (as in feathers) but as a general rule you can't lay down. :

The verb lie means to recline. There is no direct object taken. "I need to go lie down." Or "I'll lie down at nine to see if I can shake this insomnia by three am." Or "Let's lie down over there to take our nap."

Who and Whom

Than and Then
Then indicates time. "We can get the chores done then go to the movies."
Than is used for comparison. "Orlando Bloom is far better looking than Johnny Depp."

Further and Farther
Farther refers to physical distance. "Joe scooted farther away from Sandy after she told him she wanted to just be friends."
Further refers to time or quantity. "He read all the latest books on tyranny to further his plan of ruling the world."

Effect and Affect
Effect is a noun meaning the result of something. "The effect of eating a box of Twinkies is likely a stomach ache and cellulite."
Affect is a verb meaning to alter, change, or influence. "Of course, eating Twinkies affects everyone differently."

Mnemonics and Words commonly misspelled:

To determine the me and I selection, all you need do is remove the
other person from the sentence. Such as: Do you want to go to the movies
with Ben and me?" Take out Ben, and it is clear that you should use me, not
I. By removing the other person in the sentence you should always be able to
tell which was correct.

Is it here or hear? Well . . . we hear with our ear. Be careful with this. Even when you really know the difference, it is so easy to mess it up when you are merrily typing along and too into your story to pay attention. Spell check doesn't catch it so watch out!

Cemetery-- remember the three e's in cemetery as three tombstones in a row
Separate-think of separate as having "a rat" in the middle of it
Stationery-- When you think of stationery, think of the e in envelope
Weird-I before E unless after C or unless it's weird
Neighbor-I before E unless after C or when sounded like AY as in neighbor and weigh

Possessives and Contractions:

Common mistakes with the king of common mistake made being it's and its. The key to remembering which to use is the apostrophe. If you are combining two words, you need an apostrophe. If you are possessing something, you don't. Simple. Some examples:

its is the possessive of it
it's is a contraction for it is

It's the opinion of the mechanic that the car will need its brakes fixed.

their is the possessive of they
they're is a contraction for they are

They're going to Sam's house to eat their pizza.

your is the possessive of you
you're is a contraction for you are

You're not really going to pawn off your wedding ring, are you?

whose is the possessive of who
who's is a contraction for either who is or who has

Who's seen Joe? He disappeared when I asked him whose turn it was to take out the garbage.