Join the best erotica focused adult social network now
Login

Getting laid...

last reply
19 replies
2.9k views
0 watchers
0 likes
Charming as fuck
0 likes
Okay, so this is the mistake I see most often when I'm modding stories, and it's a bit of a pet peeve.

The amount of people who "lay" down on a bed, or floor, or wherever the notion takes them is baffling! You do not "lay" down. You lie down.

I stumbled across this great link which I think is a really useful resource. It's been posted before, but I wanted to highlight this issue because it happens so often.

The link explains how it works with tenses etc, so I won't repeat it here, but please have a read.

Thanks, Jen xx

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/lay-versus-lie?page=1
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
What about "I lay my head on the pillow"?
Warning: The opinions above are those of an anonymous individual on the internet. They are opinions, unless they're facts. They may be ill-informed, out of touch with reality or just plain stupid. They may contain traces of irony. If reading these opinions causes you to be become outraged or you start displaying the symptoms of outrage, stop reading them immediately. If symptoms persist, consult a psychiatrist.

Why not read some stories instead

NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber
Charming as fuck
0 likes
Yeah, that one is less clear cut, but I believe it should still be "I lie my head on the pillow" if we're in present tense. Lay, in present tense, is for an object separate from the person. As the head is part of the person, it should be lie.

I lie down
Yesterday, I lay down

I lay my book down
Yesterday, I laid my book down

I lie my head down
Yesterday, I lay my head down
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
Hmm, not sure about that. It doesn't matter that your head is part of you, it becomes the object. In "I lie on the pillow" - "I" is the thing being lain. In "I lay my head on the pillow" the verb belongs to "my head" or my pants or my soul etc

"Now, I lay my hand on her thigh" works for me.

Of course, none of this would be necessary if people didn't insist on writing in the frankly awful first-person present tense
Warning: The opinions above are those of an anonymous individual on the internet. They are opinions, unless they're facts. They may be ill-informed, out of touch with reality or just plain stupid. They may contain traces of irony. If reading these opinions causes you to be become outraged or you start displaying the symptoms of outrage, stop reading them immediately. If symptoms persist, consult a psychiatrist.

Why not read some stories instead

NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber
Madam Carol
0 likes
Quote by Echelon
Okay, so this is the mistake I see most often when I'm modding stories, and it's a bit of a pet peeve.

The amount of people who "lay" down on a bed, or floor, or wherever the notion takes them is baffling! You do not "lay" down. You lie down.

I stumbled across this great link which I think is a really useful resource. It's been posted before, but I wanted to highlight this issue because it happens so often.

The link explains how it works with tenses etc, so I won't repeat it here, but please have a read.

Thanks, Jen xx

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/lay-versus-lie?page=1


Thanks for this. I taught creative writing for years and found this to be one of the most frequent errors. It is good of you to bring this up, because there are so many beginner authors here.
Lurker
0 likes
Quote by Echelon
Okay, so this is the mistake I see most often when I'm modding stories, and it's a bit of a pet peeve.

The amount of people who "lay" down on a bed, or floor, or wherever the notion takes them is baffling! You do not "lay" down. You lie down.

I stumbled across this great link which I think is a really useful resource. It's been posted before, but I wanted to highlight this issue because it happens so often.

The link explains how it works with tenses etc, so I won't repeat it here, but please have a read.

Thanks, Jen xx

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/lay-versus-lie?page=1


SOMEBODY has been QUEUE BUSTING!!!

(Poor MODS! I'm SERIOUS!!!)

xx SF
Charming as fuck
0 likes
Quote by overmykneenow


Of course, none of this would be necessary if people didn't insist on writing in the frankly awful first-person present tense


Haha, i hear you. It is very difficult to do well. I also see a lot of "we were laying on the bed" too. So annoying!
Lurker
0 likes
Quote by Echelon


Haha, i hear you. It is very difficult to do well. I also see a lot of "we were laying on the bed" too. So annoying!


You actually HIT a Nerve here, and it's kind of funny...

Lady Echelon is QUITE CORRECT as she suggests the correct use of THE MOTHERFUCKING PROPER VERBAL!!!

(But WRITERS are PUSSIES!!! You see, we SEE the word 'LIE' as being that OTHER UNTRUTH THING... Indeed SO MUCH SO that we can't see PAST that!!! So it becomes ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE for a writer to type, "Lie Down!' (Because that 'lie' word JARS!!!) So writers like ME say, "Lay Down..." (Which I think SOUNDS BETTER but as Lady Echelon QUITE RIGHTLY SAYS is not REMOTELY correct...)

I did it myself for years... I DON'T do it now... I THANK THE GOOD LORD that the EDITING of MY WORK is policed by people more DISTANCED FROM IT than me...

(But I'll tell you sumpthin'? I'll NEVER say, "Lie on the bed and hold your legs up, Miss Love!" It's GRAMMATICALLY correct but... It's THAT WORD 'LIE'...)

Luckily I'm a FUCKING BRILLIANT writer so I can generally work around it...

(I HAVE SAID in stories, "Lay down, Legs Up, Girl...")

Or if I haven't I SHOULD HAVE!!!

It's INCORRECT!

(I'm NOT going to STOP doing it!)

xx SF
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
It's an interesting point, especially in first person narrative, as to whether or not colloquialisms should be used as a tool for story-telling at the expense of what should be"correct".

Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series are told by the main character, Peter. He almost always uses personal pronouns incorrectly: "Me and Lesley jumped in the jag and sped to the Folly".

The verbal mistake rounds Peter as a character, even if it makes your inner pedant shudder. The way people say things can tell you as much about them as what they actually say. Peter's not well educated, he's not even a very good cop - so he would make grammatical errors like that when telling a story.

By the time the third book comes along Aaronovitch is using this to poke fun at people who think he does it because he can't write: "The school was where countless generations of the Peckwater Estate had been educated, including me and Abigail. Or, as Nightingale insists it should be, Abigail and I." Yes, that's a joke at grammarians and it's hilarious, trust me.
Warning: The opinions above are those of an anonymous individual on the internet. They are opinions, unless they're facts. They may be ill-informed, out of touch with reality or just plain stupid. They may contain traces of irony. If reading these opinions causes you to be become outraged or you start displaying the symptoms of outrage, stop reading them immediately. If symptoms persist, consult a psychiatrist.

Why not read some stories instead

NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber
Lurker
0 likes
Quote by Echelon
Yeah, that one is less clear cut, but I believe it should still be "I lie my head on the pillow" if we're in present tense. Lay, in present tense, is for an object separate from the person. As the head is part of the person, it should be lie.

I lie down
Yesterday, I lay down

I lay my book down
Yesterday, I laid my book down

I lie my head down
Yesterday, I lay my head down




Exactly - lay is used of a person or persons in the past tense and of objects in the present tense,

The future tense is more problematical
Psalm 48, verse 8 — I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety (King James Bible)
Psalm 48, verse 8 — In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (English Standard Version)

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/03/lie-or-lay/
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
Quote by ManOfSorrows


Exactly - lay is used of a person or persons in the past tense and of objects in the present tense,

The future tense is more problematical
Psalm 48, verse 8 — I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety (King James Bible)
Psalm 48, verse 8 — In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (English Standard Version)

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/03/lie-or-lay/



For me, both of those are correct, in the first example "me" becomes the object, although I and me are the same thing. In the second the superfluous object ("me") has been removed so the verb reverts to "lie". Would anyone correct "Now I lay me down to sleep"?
Warning: The opinions above are those of an anonymous individual on the internet. They are opinions, unless they're facts. They may be ill-informed, out of touch with reality or just plain stupid. They may contain traces of irony. If reading these opinions causes you to be become outraged or you start displaying the symptoms of outrage, stop reading them immediately. If symptoms persist, consult a psychiatrist.

Why not read some stories instead

NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber
Lurker
0 likes
Quote by overmykneenow


For me, both of those are correct, in the first example "me" becomes the object, although I and me are the same thing. In the second the superfluous object ("me") has been removed so the verb reverts to "lie". Would anyone correct "Now I lay me down to sleep"?


I have been thinking about this, and it is clear that in lines such as "I will lay me down to rest" and "I lay my weary head" both subjects of the verb are treated as objects, rather than persons.
Advanced Wordsmith
0 likes
Come on, guys. Is it not worth mentioning the participle form of the verb lay

The participle form of the verb is "lain"

Now a participle form of a verb will follow the verb of a sentence instead of acting as the verb itself.

I'll show you some examples and use bold to highlight the verb of the sentence.

Past tense: "He had lain in wait all day, stalking his prey."


Present: "I have lain in bed all day with a headache."


Future: "By then we will have lain aside our differences."
Lurker
0 likes
Quote by Echelon
Yeah, that one is less clear cut, but I believe it should still be "I lie my head on the pillow" if we're in present tense. Lay, in present tense, is for an object separate from the person. As the head is part of the person, it should be lie.

I lie down
Yesterday, I lay down

I lay my book down
Yesterday, I laid my book down

I lie my head down
Yesterday, I lay my head down




Almost, but not quite. You can't lie your head down.

The basic difference, as grammar girl points out, is that they are two different verbs with an unfortunate overlap in form. To make things worse, we are likely to use the word "down" after the forms "lay" and "laid," which out loud makes it hard to know if we are saying "lay down" or "laid down," which serves to undermine our usual "does it sound right?" check that works so well most of the time for most other things.

The best way I know of explaining it is that the verb "lay/laid/laid" is a transitive verb. A synonym of it is "put." It has to have a direct object in the active voice.* (Hard, if not impossible to use the word "put" without a direct object.)

So if the doctor asks you to "lay on the table," a smart-ass answer might be "Lay what, an egg?"

The verb lie (lie/lay/lain) is intransitive. No direct object. You can't "lie" anything, not even your head.

I lie down. But I lay my head down.

I lay down yesterday. I also laid my head down.

Sometimes, when I have lain down to sleep, I dream. Similarly, when I have laid my head on the pillow, I also dream.

There's a certain amount of memorization of the two verbs' principal parts that will have to happen (lie/lay/lain vs. lay/laid/laid), just as students of English as a foreign language have to go through lists such as "eat/ate/eaten, throw/threw/thrown" and so forth.

(*The only exception I can think of of the verb lay/laid/laid taking a direct object in the active voice is in the idea of "chickens laying." E.g., "Did all the chickens lay last night?" Even there, however, I think there's an understood direct object, viz., "eggs.")
Advanced Wordsmith
0 likes
Quote by oceanrunner1974


Almost, but not quite. You can't lie your head down.

The basic difference, as grammar girl points out, is that they are two different verbs with an unfortunate overlap in form. To make things worse, we are likely to use the word "down" after the forms "lay" and "laid," which out loud makes it hard to know if we are saying "lay down" or "laid down," which serves to undermine our usual "does it sound right?" check that works so well most of the time for most other things.

The best way I know of explaining it is that the verb "lay/laid/laid" is a transitive verb. A synonym of it is "put." It has to have a direct object in the active voice.* (Hard, if not impossible to use the word "put" without a direct object.)

So if the doctor asks you to "lay on the table," a smart-ass answer might be "Lay what, an egg?"

The verb lie (lie/lay/lain) is intransitive. No direct object. You can't "lie" anything, not even your head.

I lie down. But I lay my head down.

I lay down yesterday. I also laid my head down.

Sometimes, when I have lain down to sleep, I dream. Similarly, when I have laid my head on the pillow, I also dream.

There's a certain amount of memorization of the two verbs' principal parts that will have to happen (lie/lay/lain vs. lay/laid/laid), just as students of English as a foreign language have to go through lists such as "eat/ate/eaten, throw/threw/thrown" and so forth.

(*The only exception I can think of of the verb lay/laid/laid taking a direct object in the active voice is in the idea of "chickens laying." E.g., "Did all the chickens lay last night?" Even there, however, I think there's an understood direct object, viz., "eggs.")





Well observed, my friend.

The verb lie is an intransitive verb and will never have a direct object attached.

The correct transitive verb is either lay or laid.
Lurker
0 likes
Quote by overmykneenow
It's an interesting point, especially in first person narrative, as to whether or not colloquialisms should be used as a tool for story-telling at the expense of what should be"correct".

Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series are told by the main character, Peter. He almost always uses personal pronouns incorrectly: "Me and Lesley jumped in the jag and sped to the Folly".

The verbal mistake rounds Peter as a character, even if it makes your inner pedant shudder. The way people say things can tell you as much about them as what they actually say. Peter's not well educated, he's not even a very good cop - so he would make grammatical errors like that when telling a story.

By the time the third book comes along Aaronovitch is using this to poke fun at people who think he does it because he can't write: "The school was where countless generations of the Peckwater Estate had been educated, including me and Abigail. Or, as Nightingale insists it should be, Abigail and I." Yes, that's a joke at grammarians and it's hilarious, trust me.




I've struggled with this. I had a first-person story recently in which the mod and I went rounds about this [note: am not complaining about the mod. I'm just interested in what to do about this sort of issue, because so many of us use first-person narrators.]

I had the first-person narrator be someone whose language I wanted to be somewhat colloquial. In my note to the mod in the submission page, I specifically said something like "all the narrator's uses of 'might of / could of / should of / would of' are intentional, and I'd really like them to stay. In addition there are a couple of intentionally wrong uses of 'who,' where 'whom' is correct. I'd prefer that they be retained."

The "might of / could of" wasn't a problem, but the mod was hesitant to give me my "who"s instead of whom. I was told, "Since it's narration, it should really be correct."

It wasn't really a hill I wanted to die on, so it was easy enough to omit those relative pronouns completely, which you can do when it's a direct object. ("That's the girl I like," instead of my preferred (for my narrator), "That's the girl who I like," or the mod's grammatically correct but incongruous (for my narrator) "That's the girl whom I like.")

Personally, I think that on a site like lush, it does make sense to make as much narration as possible be grammatically correct, because it's often hard to tell whether errors are intentional or accidental, and the accidental ones can often be very grating, so I completely see the mod's point.

In my particular story, I thought the first person narration was particularly stressed, as there was supposed to be a person there interviewing and listening to the narrator, so I personally thought I was justified in having him speak the way he did.

A question I had was what would lush do with a narrator along the lines of Huck Finn. "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter."

Thoughts?
Advanced Wordsmith
0 likes
You could also use the simple participle form of the verb by adding "ing" at the end. Again, the participle will follow the verb and act as an adjective and I will show the verb with bold text.

Present:

Transitive: "I am laying the book down."

Intransitive: "I am lying down in bed."

Past:

Transitive: "I was laying the book down"

Intransitive: "I was lying down in bed"
Site administrator
0 likes
Crap ... Its been a while .. I thought there maybe some offers in here or good advice.
Head Penguin
0 likes
Quote by oceanrunner1974


A question I had was what would lush do with a narrator along the lines of Huck Finn. "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter."

Thoughts?



This is clearly a locally specific dialogue and so incorporates a non-standard construction. So that's fine. In the case of who and whom in first person narration, it's a clear cut grammatical issue, which I would expect to be correct, unless there was some obvious reason why the dialogue should be ungrammatical, as might be implicit in the narration by an American voice in the 19th century deep south or whatever. I think it might have been I, who was the mod in this case and in an otherwise excellent story, that stood out, without (in my mind) real justification.

D x

A First Class Service Ch.5

A steamy lesbian three way

Lurker
0 likes
A few things:

I think there is a difference, as Danielle says, between plain old first-person narration and more dialogue-based first-person narration. Take the following examples:

A) When I walked into the store I saw her. It was the woman whom I had seen in the park the day before. She was as lovely as ever.

B) All right, bub. Since you asked, I'm gonna tell you the story of how I met Becky. She was the first girl who I ever asked to dance. Pull up a chair and get comfortable.

So I would say that in version B, it makes sense for the narrator to say "gonna" and to use "who" where "whom" is correct. There's a certain level of grammatical correctness that he isn't going to use in speech (or a written representation of his speech).

Where that line is varies from person to person, obviously, and also depends on that person's audience. I'll use whom correctly when talking to my students, but not if I'm telling an old college buddy a story (even if he's a professor of literature and we both know that we both know how to use relative pronouns). And no matter who is answering the door when I ring the doorbell, I will never ever never say "It is I," or worse, "It is we."

In the case of my story, I felt that my first-person narration fell more under example B above than A, because my narrator was constantly talking to a particular addressee. I felt that he wouldn't use whom in this particular story with the particular addressee he had.

I guess this is a place where we disagree. As I recall we were able to skirt the issue by simply dropping the who/whom in question, as can be done when the rel. pron. is a direct object. (And I'm glad you let me get away with the other grammatical errors I asked for leeway on in the submission note: all the could of, should of, etc).
Lurker
0 likes
LEO Privacy is a great applock to protect app, your personal files, hide pictures and video. Its break in alert feature is very useful through it you identify the person who have entered wrong password. Now my mobile is safe.