The English language trips up everyone at some point. Our sentences dance along until suddenly a word sticks its left foot where another word—the right one—should be. The left-footed sentence pushes its reader off-balance, and down the whole dance partnership goes, splayed on the floor with everyone shaking their heads.
You can call me overdramatic—but do you want to be the writer who publishes an article or blog or book with two left feet? Do you want readers laughing at your “obvious” missteps? I don’t. I’ve face-planted a few times in front of large crowds, and I prefer not to repeat those experiences.
Some days, though, my brain feels made of Teflon: nothing sticks. I still have to sound out the words probably and February by syllables as I spell them because I learned to speak these words as “probly” and “Febuary.” That early learning tends to override spelling rules I discovered later. Thankfully, ubiquitous spell-check programs now mean that artificial intelligence corrects my mistyping/misspelling of those words if I forget to slow down and check myself. Siri protects my future, too, by changing my frequent, embarrassing tommorows to respectable tomorrows.
But artificial intelligence rarely catches the problem when we mean one word and write another. For those words that we commonly mix-up, catchy memory devices like the ones below can help us act as our own grammar checkers.
Affect versus Effect
To remember the difference between these commonly mixed-up words, link their meanings to their starting vowels:
Affect. Causes change. Affection affects others, acts on our emotions, and alters how we feel or behave.
The steel shortage affected productivity.
The boss’s words affected our morale and our paychecks.
Effect. Executes change. End result. Effects are effective, efficient, or inefficient.
The boss’s words effected a change in policy.
That change had an unforeseen ripple effect on our paychecks.
Abbreviations i.e. and e.g.
The abbreviation i.e. stands for the Latin words id est and means “that is.” To avoid confusing this abbreviation with e.g., use the following meaning to remember how to use it: “in other words.” The abbreviation e.g. stands for the Latin terms exempli gratia and means “for example.
Remember which term goes with which definition based on the initial vowels:
i.e. = in other words
e.g. = for example
When the apostle Paul writes of Jesus-followers as a holy temple (i.e., “a dwelling place for God by the Spirit,” Eph. 2:22), he predominantly writes with a plural form of “you”—the “whole structure, being joined together” is God’s dwelling place, not individual Christians apart from the church.
The apostle Paul predominantly writes with plural forms of “you” in reference to believers as God’s temple (e.g., Eph. 2:22; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19). His usage in these passages supports the idea of the invisible church as a corporate dwelling place for God rather than believers divvying up God among themselves and each claiming a personal, resident deity.
Capitol versus Capital
The word with an o has only one meaning: the building for a legislative body. So if you’re writing about a statehouse, give the word a round dome (“o”). Otherwise, spell the word with an a whether you mean “the head or uppermost,” “value of accumulated goods or money,” “uppercase letters,” OR “the city serving as the seat of a government or government branch.”
Congress enacts legislature about corporate capital inside the national Capitol, a statehouse building in our national capital, Washington, D.C.
Lie versus Lay
These verbs create much confusion due to their overlapping conjugations (forms). The overlap tends to hijack our intuition for which word sounds right based on learned usage, even for native speakers. So we must instead learn how to remember which form to use.
Lie (to tell a fib). An intransitive verb, meaning the subject of the verb fulfills the action and the verb has no object: I lie to my mother all the time. She lies about her work. They are lying to me. Her face lies about her age.
Forms:
Present tense: I lie, you lie, he/she/it lies, we lie, they lie. The author lies about his sources regularly.
Present participle: lying. The author was lying, too, about who committed the crime.
Past tense: I lied, you lied, he/she/it lied, we lied, they lied. He lied because he had stolen the diamond.
Past perfect: I have lied, you have lied, he/she/it has lied. The author has lied for many years.
Lie (to be at rest, prostrate, or recline). An intransitive verb, meaning the subject of the verb fulfills the action and the verb has no object: I lie down when I’m tired. She lies in bed all day. They are lying in the grass next to the pool. The book lies on the table.
Forms:
Present tense: I lie, you lie, he/she/it lies, we lie, they lie. The book lies on the table.
Present participle: lying. The book was lying on the table when I found it.
Past tense: I lay, you lay, he/she/it lay, we lay, they lay. I left the book the book where it lay.
Past perfect: I have lain, you have lain, he/she/it has lain. The book has lain on the table for a week now.
Lay. A transitive verb, meaning the action of the verb transfers from its subject onto its object: When I’m tired, I lay my book down. Mom asked her to lay the silverware on the table. They lay an egg every time the sun comes up.
Forms:
Present tense: I lay, you lay, he/she/it lays, we lay, they lay. George lays the book on the table at night.
Present participle: laying. George was laying the book on the table when I walked into the room.
Past tense: I laid, you laid, he/she/it laid, we laid, they laid. Now I know who laid the book on the table last week.
Past perfect: I have laid, you have laid, he/she/it has laid. George has laid the book on the table and left it there.
So—how to remember all that confusion?
1. Rehearse rhythmic sentences like these to remember which forms go together:
a. I lie in bed, Elaine. You lay there yesterday.
b. I lie to you, I lied to him, I have lied to everyone.
c. I lay an egg each day. I will trade you the dozen I laid.
2. Remember that no past tense of lie or lay is the same as its present tense, so lay cannot be the past tense of lay.
a. Lie—>lied
b. Lie—>lay
c. Lay—>laid
3. Remember the childhood prayer that begins, “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” Even though this verse refers to a bed, the child is putting herself to bed (transitive), not lying down on the bed (intransitive).
Write confidently by practicing these memory tricks or creating your own. Turn that left-footed word into the right one.