Poets? Poet’s? Poets’?
So I gather there are some questions about Taylor Swift, poets, and apostrophes.
Should it be The Tortured Poet’s Department? That would be correct if there is only one tortured poet in residence. Perhaps it’s a very small college.
Should it be The Tortured Poets’ Department? That would be correct if there is more than one tortured poet present. A seminar, maybe.
Should it be The Tortured Poets Department, as on the album cover? This is quite correct also, just as long as there is, again, more than one tortured poet. In this case, instead of a department belonging to tortured poets, it’s a department of or pertaining to tortured poets–kind of like the housewares department is not a department that belongs to housewares, but a department where housewares are relevant.
(There’s an argument for The Tortured-Poets Department, but honestly, it just looks clunky and awkward.)
Should it be The Department of Tortured Poets so that we don’t have to have this conversation anymore? I vote for this. When in a total grammatical quandary, rephrase!
Lie? Lay? Help! Part 2
Lie and lay would not be confusing at all if not for the past tense. That’s where it all goes bad.
Lie, remember, takes no object. Chickens do not lie an egg!
Past tense of lie: lay. Past perfect tense (the one that goes with have): lain.
Like this: I lie down today. I lay down yesterday. I have lain down many times.
Lay takes an object. You cannot simply lay; you must lay something. A chicken lays an egg.
Past tense of lay: laid. Past perfect tense: laid.
The chicken lays an egg today. The chicken laid an egg yesterday. The chicken has laid many eggs.
For extra credit: if you are lying, as in telling fibs, none of this applies. You lie today, you lied yesterday, you have lied often. Shape up and start being more honest.
For extreme extra credit: why does the children’s prayer say, “Now I lay me down to sleep?” I’m not a chicken; why am I laying?
Lay is correct in this case (a bit archaic) because it takes an object: me. The speaker is laying something (themselves) down to sleep. Please do not use this as a model in your head when you are trying pick between lie and lay. It’ll just confuse you. Stick to the chickens.
Read MoreLie? Lay? Help!
Have I explained lie and lay yet? Don’t stop reading! It’s easier than you think.
All you have to do is remember what my grandmother always said: “Chickens lay. People lie.”
To lie is to assume a horizontal position. And this is the key: It does not take an object. You don’t lie something. You just lie. You lie on the bed, you lie on the floor, you lie on a bench. But you don’t lie an egg.
To lay is to place something on a surface. It takes an object. You lay something somewhere–you lay a book on a desk, you lay a pencil on the book, you lay a paperclip on the pencil. And a chicken lays an egg.
So if you’re doing something to an object, just as the chicken does to an egg–it’s lay.
If there is no egg or equivalent, then it’s lie.
More next week on the complexities of lie and lay!
Read MoreDon’t Dangle
Will we ever know what became of all the mannequins?
An editor complimented me this week by saying I was the first author she had ever known to fix a dangling participle rather than introduce one. I’m proud.
A dangling participle sounds like some finicky grammar tidbit only a fusspot would worry about, but it’s actually quite simple. It’s all about getting a descriptive phrase (the participle) next to the noun it modifies. If it’s closer to a different noun, it “dangles”–i.e. it’s not securely attached to the right noun.
Like this:
The site of the infamous Mannequin Massacre, Algernon had always been fascinated by Lord Lingleberry’s Tower.
The participle (“the site of the infamous Mannequin Massacre”) appears to describe Algernon rather than Lord Lingleberry’s Tower. It dangles.
Algernon had always been fascinated by Lord Lingleberry’s Tower, the site of the infamous Mannequin Massacre.
Now the participle is securely next to the noun it describes. No more dangling.
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
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